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Dr. Gundry’s Olive Oil Walnut Spice Cake (Keto)

May 18, 2021 (Last Updated: November 29, 2023)
gundry olive oil walnut spice cake

A sophisticated treat, this olive oil walnut spice cake features warming spices and lovely herbal notes from olive oil.

Pair a slice of this bread-like spice cake with a good strong cup of coffee or tea. For an extra special treat, spread a little coconut whipped cream on your cake, or add some seasonal fruits to it as I did. Either way, it is positively decadent!

Like anything on this website, this olive oil walnut spice cake is gluten-free, lectin-free, and sugar-free (keto). It is also dairy-free.

The best quality extra virgin olive oil, warming spices, and walnuts, what’s not to love about this combination, especially when it comes in the shape of a decadent, but a healthy slice of cake.

And if you were not convinced yet, imagine this cake can also be classified as keto, while it is lectin-free and sugar-free.

Olive Oil Walnut Spice Cake: a guest recipe by Dr. Steven Gundry

This is another guest recipe, and the guest is quite a special one: Dr. Steven Gundry, the author of The Plant Paradox, The Longevity Paradox, and The Energy Paradox, and the reason behind my health journey and the existence of this website.

In collaboration with Gundry MD, I will not only share this recipe with you, but I will give you my own version of it.

Dr. Gundry also gave me some helpful tips on how to choose the best olive oil, please find the guide here:

How to Pick the Best Olive Oil (Helpful Tips from Dr. Steven Gundry)

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My version of Dr. Gundry’s Olive Oil Walnut Spice Cake

I like to put my own spin on everything; some of you know that. Firstly, I changed the cooking method because I’m camping at my parents’ place in Romania as I write this, and I don’t have my Instant Pot with me. We do have a manual pressure cooker, but I have no idea what a “cake” setting would be on that one. 

Secondly, I had some strawberries I wanted to pair with this cake, so I tried them. It works beautifully, and I recommend it if strawberries are in season when you read this.

Cooking the cake in the oven

As you can see in the recipe card below, this is a cake cooked in the Instant Pot. I never thought that could be possible, but now I wonder what the Instant Pot can’t do.

So one of my missions while testing this cake was to find out how it would work if I cooked it in the oven, the traditional way. 

I used a glass pie dish for the cake and one of the oven trays to add some water under the cake, to somehow recreate the steam and humidity I imagine happens in an Instant Pot while on the cake setting. This is a bigger size than the 7in pan in the recipe, so my cake was thinner.

Happy to report that it worked. The cake went on the middle rack, and on the lower rack I added the deep oven tray with water in it. 

I set the temperature of the oven to 350F (180C) and cooked the cake for about 26 minutes. It’s very easy to see if it’s cooked, especially if in a glass dish. It will get golden brown on top, it will no longer be soft to the touch, and the smell with certainly announce to you the cake is ready.

However, if you are not sure, do the toothpick test. The toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake should come out clean. 

The sweetness

In my version of this recipe, I skipped the sweetener – Swerve – and I only used a couple of tablespoons of inulin powder. It works either way, so do whatever you feel more comfortable with.

You can even use another sweetener, like monkfruit. My cake only had a hint of sweetness from the strawberries, but I am weird and don’t like my cakes sweet. 😊

Adding strawberries

As for the strawberries, I only used about five big strawberries, chopped in big chunks, and added them to the bottom of the oiled dish before pouring in the batter. You can use more or other seasonal fruits. A few more strawberries were used for decorating the cake.

Olive oil cake ready to be served

Serving the olive oil walnut spice cake

My version can be served straight from the dish, if you want, or can be turned upside down as I did here (see pictures). Sprinkle some more toasted walnuts on top, and if you didn’t use much sweetener, you could even drizzle a little bit of local honey or yacon syrup on top.

Olive oil cake with strawberries

Ingredients for the Dr. Gundry’s Olive Oil Walnut Spice Cake

These are the ingredients for the original version of this cake:

  • 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing
  • 2 cups almond flour (preferably organic)
  • 1/2 cup Swerve (you can use another sweetener)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • Spices: 1/2 teaspoon of each: ground cinnamon; ground nutmeg, ground ginger, ground allspice, ground cloves; 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 large omega-3 eggs
  • 1/3 cup coconut milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 cup chopped toasted walnuts
  • Coconut whipped cream for serving

How to make this cake in an Instant Pot

For this cake, you will need an Instant Pot with a ‘cake setting‘ and a 7.7-inch round cake pan.

  • Grease a 7-inch oven-safe dish, such as a cake tin or souffle pan, with olive oil. Line the bottom with parchment, and set it aside.
  • In the bottom of your Instant Pot, place the trivet and add 1 cup of water to the pot.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, Swerve, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves, pepper, and salt.
  • Add the wet ingredients: eggs, oil, coconut milk, vanilla, and almond extracts, and whisk until well combined. Fold in the walnuts.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared pan and cover it tightly with aluminum foil. Set the baking dish in the Instant Pot on top of the trivet.
  • Cook on the “cake” setting, then allow the pressure to release naturally for 15 to 20 minutes.
  • Carefully remove the pan from the pot, and let it cool completely at room temperature.
  • Serve with coconut whipped cream.

More olive oil cakes

I love using olive oil to make cakes. One of my favorite cakes made with olive oil is the Parsnip Apple Cake with Rosemary and Olive Oil.

*This post contains affiliated links, which means I get a small commission if you choose to purchase something via one of my links, at no extra cost to you.

Featured Photo and Recipe: From the book THE PLANT PARADOX FAMILY COOKBOOK by Steven Gundry. Copyright © 2019 by Steven Gundry. Published on November 19, 2019 by Harper Wave, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.

Olive Oil Walnut Spice Cake

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By Steven Gundry, MD Serves: One 7-inch cake
Prep Time: 30 minutes Cooking Time: 26 minutes

A sophisticated treat, this bread-like cake features warming spices and lovely herbal notes from olive oil. I like to pair a slice of this spice cake with a good strong cup of coffee or tea. For an extra special treat, spread a little coconut whipped cream on your cake, it is positively decadent!

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing
  • 2 cups almond flour (preferably organic)
  • 1/2 cup Swerve (another sweetener can be used)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 large omega-3 eggs
  • 1/3 cup coconut milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 cup chopped toasted walnuts
  • Coconut whipped cream, for serving

Instructions

1

Grease a 7-inch oven-safe dish such as a cake tin or souffle pan with olive oil. Line the bottom with parchment, and set it aside.

2

In the bottom of your Instant Pot, place the trivet and add 1 cup of water to the pot.

3

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, Swerve, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves, pepper, and salt.

4

Add the eggs, oil, coconut milk, and vanilla and almond extracts, and whisk until well combined. Fold in the walnuts.

5

Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and cover it tightly with aluminum foil. Set the baking dish in the Instant Pot on top of the trivet.

6

Cook on the “cake” setting, then allow the pressure to release naturally for 15 to 20 minutes.

7

Carefully remove the pan from the pot, and let cool to room temperature.

8

Serve with coconut whipped cream.

Notes

For an oven-cooked version of this cake, please check the post above for details.

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