The Monthly Recipe: Almond Flour Gingerbread Sponge Cake

February 18, 2022 at 6:05 am (Recipes)
Tags: , , ,

I’ve been playing with an almond flour sponge cake recipe I love, mostly because our hens have been inundating us with fresh eggs and this uses quite a few eggs, but also because it’s simple, has less sugar, and is gluten free.

I tried to turn it into a chocolate cake by replacing some of the almond flour with Dutch process cocoa powder. It was an utter failure, almost no chocolate flavor at all.

Then I had the idea to make it a gingerbread cake with the simple exchange of some molasses for part of the maple syrup and the addition of ginger and cinnamon.

OMG! This was so good that I couldn’t wait to share it! It is moist, tender, springy without being chewy, rich, and full of flavor. I like it with applesauce but my daughter likes it with whipped cream, so we had both. I actually like the texture better than traditional gingerbread cake.

I highly recommend you try it at the next opportunity. You can use nearly any type of pan, from a pie plate to a cake tin or a springform pan. I would line the bottom of the tin with parchment paper to make it easier to get out though.

Almond Flour Gingerbread Sponge Cake

Ingredients

  • 5 large eggs, separated
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • ¾ teaspoon ginger
  • ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup molasses
  • 5 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 6 ounces almond flour (About a cup and a half.)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Prepare a 9-inch cake pan, a 10-inch springform, or a similar size tin by buttering or greasing and lining with parchment paper.
  3. Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks, making sure no egg yolks break. I do this over a small bowl one at a time then put the egg yolks into a large bowl and the egg whites into my mixer bowl.
  4. Sprinkle the salt over the egg whites and whip them on medium high speed into stiff peaks. I use a stand mixer for this. I have heard you can do this by hand but I would never try it, my arm would be useless for too long afterward, if I ever even got there. A hand held mixer should also work fine.
  5. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in the bowl with the egg yolks.
  6. Now, gently fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture, always lifting from the bottom and in one direction. I’m right handed so I lift toward myself with a rubber spatula as I turn the bowl with my left hand.
  7. Pour the light and fluffy batter into the prepared pan.
  8. Bake for 40 minutes or until it pulls away from the sides and the top is springy to the touch.
  9. Allow to cool.
  10. Serve with applesauce and/or whipped cream.

Leave a Comment

The Sunday Recipe: Gingerbread with Applesauce

September 5, 2021 at 6:00 am (Recipes)
Tags: , ,

Gingerbread Cake with Applesauce

Comfort food at its finest, but without the wheat.  Plus, there’s a bumper crop of apples coming on so I wanted to make something that would go well with that. My daughter helped me and we could not resist trying this cake nearly as soon as it came out of the oven. It is rich and heavenly.

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • ¼ cup maple syrup
  • ½ cup molasses
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • ½ cup coconut flour
  • ½ cup almond flour
  • ¼ cup tapioca flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
  • Pinch of cloves
  • ½ cup hot water

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease and line an 8 x 8 baking tin with parchment paper.
  3. Cream softened butter and maple syrup together.
  4. Add in the molasses.
  5. Beat in the egg.
  6. Add the vanilla.
  7. Combine the dry ingredients and sift into the wet.
  8. Stir in the hot water.
  9. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
  10. Serve warm or cold.
  11. Applesauce is an excellent accompaniment, you can find my recipe at https://melorajohnson.wordpress.com/2020/07/26/the-sunday-recipe-vanilla-applesauce/  

Leave a Comment

The Sunday Recipe: Chocolate Coconut Cake

May 16, 2021 at 6:00 am (Recipes)
Tags: , , , ,

Chocolate Coconut Cake

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup maple syrup
  • ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons coconut flour (105 grams)
  • 6 tablespoons or 30 grams cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s)
  • ¾ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 large eggs (I used 1 jumbo and 1 small from our hens)
  • ½ cup coconut milk (I used full fat but the fat had congealed and I didn’t blend it so it would be the equivalent of light, I imagine)
  • ¼ cup coconut oil, in it’s liquid state
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup boiling coffee (Hot water works fine too.)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep a 9 by 9 baking pan. (I prefer a glass dish.)
  2. When working with coconut, it seems to be particularly important to make sure everything is warmed up to room temp. This is easy enough to do with the aid of a little tap water and the microwave. Put the eggs in hot tap water for just 10 minutes. Warm the coconut oil on 30% power for 2 minutes. If you keep your maple syrup in the fridge, as we do, you can also warm that on 30% power for 2 minutes.
  3. Sift together the coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  4. Whisk the eggs in a bowl.
  5. Beat in the coconut milk.
  6. Mix in the maple syrup.
  7. Mix in the coconut oil.
  8. Add the vanilla extract.
  9. Mix in the dry ingredients. (This will get very thick, very quickly.)
  10. Stir in the hot coffee or water.
  11. Pour into the prepared baking pan.
  12. Bake for 30 minutes or until a sharp knife or tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  13. Cool and enjoy. (Some whipped coconut cream is perfect with this.)

Leave a Comment

The Sunday Recipe: Sour Cream Pound Cake

February 7, 2021 at 5:00 am (Recipes)
Tags: ,

This is the best pound cake recipe I have ever found. (I copied it down 30 plus years ago so if anyone knows who deserves credit, let me know.) It makes a nice crust that is just delicious. I tried to make it gluten free and refined sugar free, with varying results, none of them fantastic. The first time it was just a bit stodgy, using rice flour, tapioca flour, cornstarch, and maple syrup. The second time I added an extra egg and ¼ teaspoon of baking powder but only had salted butter. The butter separated out and smoked the kitchen to high heaven. If you can stand a little flour occasionally, I highly recommend making this the old-fashioned way. If I ever do come up with a good gluten free recipe, I’ll be sure to share it.

Pound Loaf Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 ½ cups flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon almond extract
  • ½ teaspoon lemon extract (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon butter flavoring (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease, then flour, or create a parchment paper sling, for a medium sized loaf pan. (About 8 by 5 inches.)
  3. Cream butter and sugar.
  4. Add eggs one at a time and blend well after each addition.
  5. Add sour cream and flavorings.
  6. Sift flour and baking soda in, then mix together.
  7. Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours.
  8. Cake is done when a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
  9. I like to serve this with some blueberry or cherry pie filling, but it is fantastic on its own.

Leave a Comment

The Sunday Recipe: Lekvar Cake

September 19, 2020 at 5:27 pm (Recipes)
Tags: , , , ,

This was an attempt to recreate the Lekvar cake my mother makes for Christmas using only paleo ingredients. It did and it didn’t work. It creates a dense, dark cake, but it doesn’t quite recreate the flavors of my childhood. I think next time I will try swapping out some of the pecan flour for tapioca flour. I also may try it as an upside down cake in a pie plate rather than sandwiching it. Make sure you cook the lekvar down until it is a true jam consistency.

Lekvar Sandwich Cake

Ingredients

  • 3 ounces pitted dried prunes 
  • Water to cover the fruit
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon and nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon lemon juice

Directions

  1. Place prunes in a small saucepan and cover with water.
  2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until fruit is soft, adding more boiling water as necessary.
  3. Remove from heat and purée fruit in a food processor or blender.
  4. Return to saucepan, maple syrup; and cook until thick 30 – 45 minutes.
  5. Remove from heat and stir in cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice.

Ingredients

  • 6 ounces pecan flour
  • 2/3 cup maple syrup
  • 5 large eggs (separated)
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
  3. Separate the 5 eggs into 2 mixing bowls. (I highly recommend you do the actual separating over a small bowl and then dump the egg yolk into the one bowl and transfer the egg white into the mixing bowl.) If you don’t know how to separate eggs, here’s a simple 1-minute video on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAGX-54iR30
  4. Mix the maple syrup into the egg yolks then stir in the vanilla and pecan flour.
  5. Using a mixer, beat your egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form. (Tip: for best results make sure your bowl and beaters are clean and dry, free of any oil.)
  6. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture, about one third at a time. (Basically, folding means to use a large rubber spatula to stir up gently from the bottom.)
  7. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes, until a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  8. Cool completely, at least 4 hours or overnight.
  9. Slice across under the top third of the cake.
  10. Slice the remaining two thirds of the cake across to create a third layer.
  11. Spread half the lekvar on the bottom slice of cake.
  12. Place the middle layer on top and spread with the other half of the lekvar.
  13. Place the top layer on and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
  14. Slice to serve.

Leave a Comment

The Sunday Recipe: Apple Cider Doughnut Cake

September 6, 2020 at 5:54 am (Recipes)
Tags: , , , ,

If you’ve read any of my recipes you might have noticed, I tend to work with what I’ve got and switch things out to avoid wheat flour and refined sugar. If you want the original recipe with sugar and wheat flour, I adapted this recipe from https://theviewfromgreatisland.com/apple-cider-doughnut-cake/#wprm-recipe-container-84520

Now, I didn’t have any oat flour on hand, nor any applesauce but I did have apples and quick oats. So, I peeled, cored and diced up a couple granny smith apples. I happened to have some plums and thought, why not? So, I cut up a plum and put that in too, with just enough water to keep things from sticking to the bottom of the little pot. I brought it to a boil then turned it down to simmer for half an hour. I processed some oats up. (1 ½ cups of oats yields approximately 1 1/2 cups of oat flour.) Then I processed the applesauce when it was done cooking and cooled in the fridge for 20 minutes.

My daughter asked if we could make another before we finished the first cake. This time we are going to glaze it instead of using the butter and sugar on top. We’ve also agreed to add ½ teaspoon of nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon of ginger, and a dash of cloves.

By the end, I was wishing I had mixed in the Kitchen Aid mixer because it’s a LOT of batter. If a Bundt pan cake seems like too much, I’ve also had good luck cutting a Bundt pan recipe in half and baking it in a glass loaf pan.

This cake is definitely best after totally cooled, and even chilled.

Apple Cider Doughnut Cake

Ingredients

Dry ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups white rice flour + ¼ cup tapioca flour
  • 1 1/2 cups oat flour (1 ½ cups of oats processes into the same for oat flour.)
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Wet ingredients

  • 1 cup apple cider
  • 3/4 cup applesauce
  • 6 tablespoons each melted butter and light olive oil
  • 1 cup + 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 3 large eggs 
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Grease and flour, or spray a Bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray. (Mine came out with the spray, but greasing and flouring is more reliable.)
  3. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
  4. Whisk the wet ingredients together in another bowl. (There are a lot of wet ingredients, go with a big bowl.)
  5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk until just combined.
  6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a knife inserted near the center of one side of the round comes out clean. (Mine took 60 minutes.)
  7. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes.
  8. Loosen the edges of the cake, I used an offset spatula. Place a plate over the cake pan then, using hot pads, turn them both over together.
  9. Brush with a couple tablespoons of melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar if desired, or glaze with a couple tablespoons of cider mixed with a cup of sifted powdered sugar.
  10. Cool thoroughly, and/or chill, and enjoy!

Leave a Comment

The Sunday Recipe: Decadent Chocolate Snack Cake

August 23, 2020 at 5:00 am (Recipes)
Tags: , , , , ,

117889302_323153369040030_7510237630881215400_n

Decadent Chocolate Snack Cake

Okay, honestly, if you do gluten free, you need to try this. I’ve made it several times since I figured it out and it is just incredible. Even if you don’t do gluten free, you’re going to love this. It is a one bowl wonder.

The zucchini is just enough to add an added element of flavor but you don’t necessarily taste it at zucchini. Some people call for shredding your zucchini and squeezing it to remove liquid but I wanted the moisture from the zucchini in this, so I recommend shredding it JUST before you add it in. Use a large whole grater and shred big.

This recipe is also reduced sugar and gluten free, but it may actually be my favorite chocolate cake of all time. It’s good warm or cold from the fridge.

I adapted this from a chocolate zucchini bread recipe I found several years ago that I wasn’t really happy with. The original recipe was dry, not very chocolaty, and just not very enjoyable. I added a third egg, increased the maple syrup and cocoa powder, eliminated squeezing the zucchini moisture out, and increased the chocolate chips, then reduced the oven temperature, and changed the type of pan it is baked in.

If you’d like the link to the original bread recipe, let me know and I’ll be happy to share it.

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • ¼ cup maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder (Dutch processed, if you have it.)
  • 1/8 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 cup of almond butter (no salt or sugar added, preferably)
  • 1 cup of shredded zucchini (150 grams)
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon vinegar
  • ¼ cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray or grease a pan. (8 X 8 or 9 X 9, even a toaster oven cake tin works.)
  2. Beat the eggs with a whisk or blender.
  3. Mix in the maple syrup until well combined.
  4. Add the vanilla. (You might get away with less than a tablespoon but indulge, vanilla makes chocolate SO much better.)
  5. Blend in the cocoa powder and salt until well combined. (Go slow at first until the powder is wet down.)
  6. Drop the almond butter by spoonfuls into the batter, spaced out, then blend in. (This can clog your whisk if it is too cold, until it gets mixed in well so make sure it is room temp.)
  7. Now, shred your zucchini then stir it in immediately.
  8. Last step – Measure the baking soda and put in then pour the vinegar over it and stir in.
  9. Pour into your prepared pan.
  10. If using, sprinkle the mini chocolate chips evenly over the cake.
  11. Bake for 40 minutes or until a knife comes out of the center clean.
  12. Enjoy!

Leave a Comment