COCONUT FLOUR BIRTHDAY CAKE (GLUTEN FREE, DAIRY FREE, SUGAR FREE)
Looking for an amazing birthday cake recipe that is free from gluten, dairy, AND sugar? You've found it. This COCONUT FLOUR BIRTHDAY CAKE is so delicious I feel it's better than most shop bought gluten free cakes. Plus it's paleo and low carb making it a bit healthier than shop bought cakes too! Gluten free birthdays don't have to be boring. Read on for the best coconut flour birthday cake recipe.
When I was growing up I couldn’t wait for birthdays to come around in our household because my dad used to make the best birthday cakes ever! They were really light fluffy sponges sandwiched with fruit and a sweet cream filling, piped beautifully with frosting and topped with my dad’s signature fruit decorations of strawberries and tinned peach slices. His cakes were akin to the kind of cream cakes you see in the bakeries in Chinatown. Absolutely divine. Of course my dad made humungous cakes – he would use the cardboard box you get with a tray of tinned food as his cake tin! And we’d get so stuffed on eating all the cake off cuts (some burnt) and dipping in left over frosting that by the time it came to actually eating the cake we were sick of it already.
So for my birthday I really wanted to pay tribute to the memory of dad and try to replicate his amazing cakes only of course it being completely free from gluten, dairy, and sugar. I was still on my anti-candida diet in November and I was also in the midst of my Paleo Low Carb Great British Bake Off Challenge, so it was the perfect time to try and bake myself the most epic birthday cake ever. Well....my efforts paid off in terms of taste, but my sponges were a little on the flat side and the frosting was far too runny. It wasn’t Instagrammable in my eyes but it still tasted good. So not perfect and definitely not ready to share the recipe.
Since then I haven’t had a cause to try the bake again but on a whim I decided to make a cake for a quiet girls night in and thought my friend wouldn’t mind if the cake arrived already cut up from my taking photos of it! Thank you Laura hehe. And well she couldn’t have any reason for complaint because the cake was AMAZING! It really did taste just like my dad’s, even though I used coconut cream and stevia instead of the pints of double cream and mountain of sugar my dad used. And though the sponge was no where near as light (I remember my dad beating the cake batter for ages to get enough volume and air in it, which coconut flour being too absorbent won’t allow me to do), the sponge was still light enough to balance the delicate cream filling. Oh my. Look how pretty it is. How proud of me am I?
I always wanted to be able to bake like my dad did, but sadly when I was young I didn’t have much interest in baking, though I used to watch him and help out occasionally. It’s been 13 years this February since my dad has no longer been with us and I think he’d be super proud of me now and all my baking efforts. I can imagine his reaction on tasting one of my creations knowing it was free from all the bad unhealthy stuff. He’d jut his jaw nodding his head in that way that he did, and smile saying “not bad….not bad. But not as good as mine”. Hehe.
This recipe is actually really easy. Given all the tricky bakes I've had to do over the last few months this was a breeze in comparison! Mmm I can taste the coconut cream frosting now.... I cant wait for more birthdays to come :)
COCONUT FLOUR BIRTHDAY CAKE
Makes: 1 small cake Prep Time: 60 mins Cook Time: 20 mins Total Time: 1hr 20 mins
INGREDIENTS:
THE SPONGE
¾ cup Coconut Flour
2 tsp. Baking Powder
½ tsp. Salt
1½ tbsp. Stevia
6 Eggs
½ cup Almond Milk
¼ cup Coconut Oil, melted
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
THE CREAM FROSTING
1 carton/cup Coconut Cream chilled in the fridge
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 tbsp. Stevia
FRUIT OF CHOICE FOR THE FILLING AND DECORATION
NOTE: if you can’t find coconut cream, place a can of full fat coconut milk in the fridge overnight. When chilled the coconut milk separates the cream from the water. When you open the can the cream will sit at the top. Scoop this out carefully and pour the water away (or save to make smoothies). With some brands of coconut milk this doesn’t work. Make sure there is a high content of coconut extract in the ingredient list.
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 175°C
THE SPONGE
Line 2 x 6” sandwich tins with greased baking parchment
In a small mixing bowl combine the coconut flour and baking powder
In a large mixing bowl use an electric hand mixer to beat the eggs, oil, vanilla, almond milk and stevia until smooth and light
Mix in the coconut flour until fully combined. The flour will absorb a lot of liquid and the batter will thicken after a few minutes. If your eggs were on the smaller side you may need to add some extra almond milk to loosen the batter a little
Pour the batter evenly into each sandwich tin and bake for 20 mins
While the sponge is cooling prepare the COCONUT CREAM FILLING
Whip the coconut cream, vanilla and stevia together until soft and fluffy
Store in the fridge until ready to use. If your cream is still a little runny return to the fridge or freezer until it stiffens more and whip again. You may need to repeat this a few times depending on how cold your fridge is
Remove the sponges from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. You can trim the tops to flatten them if you want a nice neat cake
When the cakes are cooled spread a thin layer of cream onto one sponge, add a sprinkling of fruit onto the cream, then spread another layer of cream over the fruit
Place the second sponge on top and frost the entire cake with the remaining cream frosting
Decorate with fruit
And there you have it. The most tastiest vanilla cream coconut flour birthday cake sans gluten, dairy, and sugar and so so good. Of course you don't need to wait until its a birthday to make this. Cake every day please! :p