Happy Anniversary and Fudge Cake

So after a very long weekend of mostly work, I wanted to have a fun post about cake. Pi Day is our anniversary, so being contrarian, I decided to make cake.

Now, the funny part about making a cake this year is that we are on some special diets, for health reasons. Specifically, I had some fun blood tests and am therefore eliminating lots of the best foods items in the world for about 4 months. Tod also eats Auto Immune Protocol (AIP) Paleo to control arthritis. However, it is our 8th Anniversary and I wanted to have cake. But trying to make a cake without gluten, rice flours, nut flours/milk, or coconut flour/milk, no soy, no eggs, no milk and no processed sugar… Yes, just blink at the list for a little bit and let the true horror of the list hit you.

It might seem rather imponderable, but luckily have been cooking grain-free off and on for a few years, because we have a friend who is allergic to all grains. I am a home-baker and a scientist, so it was a challenge to bake for him. A challenge I had to accept. So here I am, three years later needing the knowledge to make my own anniversary cake. At least life prepared me. In the end eggs and lack of nuts was actually harder for me – but your mileage might very.

A big part of cooking with alternative flours and egg-free realizing your cake will look different. The batter is not going to be completely liquid, It will look more like a mud-pie or you will never get rid of the liquid without burning it. Another thing is you need to make sure you have the right mix of textures in your flours. You will want to use two or more alternative flours and mix them. I think there are some places that sell mixed flours. I haven’t used them much because they usually have odd things in them.

I will have to blog sometime about how to choose flours, but the very, very basics are: you want a fine grained flour and a thick grained flour. Fine grained flours usually include rice and squash. Thick grain flours usually include nut or coconut flours. You also want a binder flour like tapioca flour or cassava flour.

So I present to you: Gluten-Free, Paleo, Nut-free, Vegan*, Fudge Cake. Yes it actually tastes good. 😛

Gluten-Free, Nut-Free, Vegan*, Paleo, Fudge Cake

From A. Kristina Casasent https://casasent.blog

* vegan has a star since the frosting is not vegan – but I will tell you how to make it vegan.

Dry Ingredients

2 cups – Tiger Nut Flour (nope they aren’t nuts)

1 cup – Baobab Flour

2/3 cup – Banana Flour

1 cup – Tapioca Flour

1 1/2 cups – Cocoa Flour

2 teaspoons – Baking Soda

1 teaspoon – Salt

Wet Ingredients

replacement for 4 eggs:

* 4 tablespoons – Red Mills Egg Replacement Mix

* 8 tablespoons – water

* whisked together and set aside for about 90 seconds while mixing other ingredients

2/3 cup – avocado oil

2 teaspoons – vanilla extract

1 can – pumpkin puree (15oz)

1 1/2 cup – date sugar (I know date sugar is dry, but it goes here)

1 tablespoon – apple cider vinegar

Filling Ingredients

2 cups – frozen berries (I used raspberries and blackberries)

1/4 cup – date sugar

1 tablespoon – lemon juice

1/8 cup – tapioca flour

Dry Frosting Ingredients

1/2 cup – cocoa powder or flour

1 cup – date sugar

1/2 cup palm shorting

1/2 cup ghee* (if vegan, replace with palm shorting and add a pinch of salt, less than 1/8 teaspoon)

Wet Frosting Ingredients

2 teaspoons – vanilla

2 tablespoons – avocado oil

1/6 cup – water

Step 1 Dry Mixture

Sifted and mix all the dry ingredients into a bowl.

Step 2 Most of the Wet Ingredients

In a new bowl mix together the avocado oil, vanilla extract, and pumpkin puree.

Stir in the egg replacement.

Stir the sugar slowly into the wet mixture

Step 3 Add Dry to Wet

Note: we have NOT done anything with the vinegar yet, and won’t be using it here either.

Slowing mix the dry ingredients from Step 1 into the wet ingredients from Step 2, until you have a paste-like mixture. (Reminder, it will not be liquid like normal batter.)

Step 4 Add Vinegar

Add vinegar and mix (this seems to make it more fluffy)

Step 5 Prep and Bake

Oil two round 8 inch cake pans.

Put batter into them. You can also split this into 3 pans if you want, but reduce your cook time a little if you do and make more berry filling.

Bake in oven at 350 F for ~35-45 minutes.

If you aren’t sure, stab it with a butter knife. If it comes back clean you are good.

Take it out and let it cool. (Possibly cool in refrigerator overnight, like a cheese cake, because it has a heavier fudge-like texture.)

Step 6 Prepare Berry Filling

Do not make until you are ready to put it on your cake.

Combine frozen berries, date sugar, and lemon juice in small sauce pan.

Cook on low on stove.

Slowly add 1/8 cup of tapioca flour while stirring to thicken. 

Don’t let this cool for very long.

Spread it between the two layers of cake.

Step 7 Frosting

In a mixer, combine the vanilla, avocado oil, and water.

Add the palm shortening and ghee to the mixer.

Add the date sugar to the mixer.

Add the cocoa powder or flour to the mixer.

Continue mixing until smooth.

Coat the outside of the cake with it once the cake is cooled and stacked.

Recipe Comments:

The Banana Flour is both sugar and a thin flour. So replacing this would require both 1/3 a cup of thick grain flour and 1/3 a cup of date sugar.

Baobab flour alternatives are other thin flours like rice, squash, or yam.

Tiger Nut Flour is not made from nuts. However, if you can have nuts and want to consider other thick flours, try almond, coconut, or hazel nut. Tiger Nut Flour retains more moisture making the cake more fudge-like. Replacing Tiger Nut Flour will make the cake fluffier.

Tapioca Flour is a binder and a thin flour. Sadly, the only real replacement here is cassava, which is from the same plant.

The Cocoa Flour can be replaced with cocoa powder or carob if you are on AIP and sensitive to cocoa.

Baking Soda can be replaced with Baking Powder if you aren’t on AIP. I suggest one teaspoon baking soda and one teaspoon baking powder.

Salt has no real replacement. You can remove it but it removes a little of the vibrancy from the flavors.

If you want to use eggs keep in mind your batter will be more liquid and you don’t want to eat it raw.

Avocado Oil, Vanilla Extract, and Pumpkin Puree are actually my made up replacement for a milk-like ingredient. If you want to do milk or even just the almond, coconut, or other alternative milk, try 2/3 cup and note that you will be making a slightly smaller cake but it might be fluffier. The pumpkin puree (and the tiger nut flour) makes this more cheesecake or fudge-like.

Date Sugar can be replaced with coconut sugar or regular sugar. This does not need to be powdered sugar. Regular grained sugar is fine, but make sure it melts/dissolves all the way in the wet before you add the dry.

Apple Cider Vinegar is only needed for egg-less recipes.

When checking if the cakes are done baking, shake the pan. The cake shouldn’t ripple. If you aren’t sure, stab it with a butter knife, if it comes back clean you are good.

In the filling, the lemon juice adds some citrus. It makes it brighter and slightly tart. You can cut it or replace with orange.

Cook the filling on low on the stove until it is almost like a puree. If you do something that needs to be pureed, consider doing that first and cook until it almost bubbles.

The date sugar or alternative for the frosting is a thin powder-like sugar. Normal powdered sugar is fine, but I suggest you reduce how much, since it is sweeter than date sugar. For AIP or paleo there are some other sugars like coconut and maple that are available powdered.

In the frosting, to make it vegan, replace the ghee with palm shortening and add a pinch salt, less than 1/8 teaspoon. If you wish to use butter, sure it that the butter is room temp (~68-73 F or 20-23 C) and therefore mixable.

The avocado oil and water in the frosting is a replacement for milk or cream. I suggest replacing with about 1/4 cup of almond, cashew, soy, or normal milk. If you do normal milk remember to refrigerate your cake.

~Anna and a lot of help from Tod