Bread and cake are two things I don't eat very often and yet here is a recipe that has both words used to describe a Paleo inspired or grain free dessert. The cake is grain free but our whipped topping in the photo is not dairy free. The Watson kids don't have dairy issues and so I saved myself a bit of work and used a quick homemade whipped topping I use for my chocolate roll. The chocolate roll has a gluten free version too. You can use a coconut based whipped topping to make it completely Paleo. I also made the coconut caramel sauce from scratch but you can easily use a regular recipe or even a store bought caramel sauce. It's a busy time of year--make the parts of the cake that you have time for. I actually left out the Brandy sauce because after 4 pages of instructions, one full page of ingredients, I figured the kids could do without the Brandy. (wink wink)
My kids start to dread the month of December because this usually means that I am thinking about making a gingerbread house. I thought about it for about 2 seconds this year and decided I would pass for these two reasons:
A. We don't need the sugar in the house from the store bought candy.
B. My nerves might shatter with one more failed attempt at making a gingerbread house from scratch added to my already long resume dating back to 1986 without a single successfully constructed and decorated gingerbread house. I am pretty sure Martha Stewart had something to do with my drive to make one every year...LOL
If you are new to my blog then this recipe is not typical of what you will usually find here. I try to keep the recipes simple BUT every once in a while I need to make something fabulous and this cake was a great place to start our holiday baking. I guess this cake is the gourmet part of the blog. Don't let the long list of ingredients deter you from making this absolutely delicious cake. I didn't have to buy one thing at the store because I already had every thing in my kitchen. When I visited NYC in October I bought myself the Wilton 5 piece layered cake set. The cake pans are about 8 inches round and 1 inch thick. This cake is small but very very tall.
I never make cakes anymore and my kids miss it. I want to start making a few more cakes in 2015 using this cake pan set. I like how small the cake rounds are. The tall cake just looks awesome for the kids. We can eat this cake, a family of 6, a bit easier than if I use regular round cake pans. It seems I was always throwing cake away--can you believe that--but I really did.
I found the original recipe over at Wicked Good Kitchen. She has all of the instructions for the Brandy Sauce and the Coconut Cream Whipped Topping. Below you will find my interpretation and the three components I used to make this awesome cake.
It requires time, I won't lie. I made this cake while I taught Isabella school. It worked out perfectly because I was already in the kitchen area and had time to bake and teach while Isabella did her work. I might even suggest that making the caramel sauce the day before will save you some time. It took almost an hour and a half for me to make it and to allow it to cool. The total time for the cake, sauce, whipped topping and assembly was about 2.5 hours. And you know what? I plan on spending that amount of time this week making it again--it was delicious!
This cake is a show stopper and one that will knock your socks off when you take your first bite. To cut the cake you might have to have Ninja Knife Skills but having a sharp knife and a spatula helps a lot. I used the spatula or another knife to hold up the cake and the second knife to cut the slice. The cake fell onto the spatula and I was able to transfer it to a large plate. If you have extra whipped topping or caramel sauce, you can drizzle more on the slices. To be honest--I used it all on my cake below--so next time I may save a bit for presenting the slices to my family.
The gingerbread cake is rich in flavor with the molasses and maple syrup. I wouldn't say the cake is super sweet (and I like that) but the caramel sauce and whipped topping balance nicely because they are sweet. Make adjustments according to your family's likes and sweet tooth.
AGAIN--don't panic by the size of the ingredient list or steps. It is not a hard recipe and is much easier than it looks. I promise! Also, read through the instructions SEVERAL times before you make the cake. I am always here to answer any questions. Send me an email or comment and I will get right back to you. It is worth the work!
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Gingerbread Cake #grainfree
Makes enough batter for 5 small round cake pans
Ingredients for the cake:
I used the weight (grams) measurements to make my cake in the pictures.
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (144 grams) arrowroot starch
To prepare the whipped topping:
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (144 grams) arrowroot starch
1 cup (112 grams) blanched almond flour (I made my own in the Vitamix)
½ cup (56 grams) organic coconut flour
¾ teaspoon (3.6 grams) baking powder
¾ teaspoon (3.6 grams) baking soda
1 teaspoon (4.8 grams) kosher salt
2½ teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
6 large eggs, separate the whites and the yolks into two bowls
½ cup (168 grams) organic maple syrup (use the real stuff)
½ cup (144 grams) unsulphured molasses
¼ cup (56 grams) organic virgin coconut oil, melted, plus extra for pans
¼ cup (60 grams) organic ghee or grass fed butter
2 teaspoons (10 ml) pure vanilla extract
¼ cup (60 ml) full fat coconut milk (use the milk only--the rest will be used later)
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (use more if you love nuts, the crunch is great)
Ingredients for the Coconut Caramel Sauce:
Use the remaining can of coconut milk from the cake recipe above-roughly 3/4 of the can should be left. (15 oz can was used)
6 oz of real maple syrup
2 tablespoons grass fed butter or ghee
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon flake salt (reduce if butter is salted)
Ingredients for whipped topping:
For coconut whipped cream see the original recipe HERE.
For dairy version use:
1 small carton of heavy whipped cream
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons maple syrup (this can be replaced with plain sugar but you may not get the deep caramel color as seen in the pictures).
I recommend making the caramel sauce first. This allows the sauce to cook, cool and be ready to work with when the cake is done.
To prepare the coconut caramel sauce:
1. Use a heavy bottom pan. I used my 10 inch cast iron frying pan. It worked great! Set heat to medium high. In the frying pan, add all of the coconut caramel sauce ingredients and whisk together. Heat caramel sauce until small bubbles appear--gentle boil.
2. Use only a wooden spoon to stir for the first minute. Reduce heat to medium low and try not to stir too often until the end. I set my stovetop to 3 and it was hot enough. The caramel kept a slow boil going for 35 minutes. Watch sauce so it does not burn. The caramel sauce will start to turn from a creamy pale color to a caramel color. The sauce will reduce and become very thick, coating the back of the wooden spoon nicely.
3. When caramel is thick and not too dark, remove from heat and transfer to a glass bowl. Stir and let set to cool. The color with cloud slightly once it is completely cool but when warmed again, it will return to a nice caramel color.
To prepare the cake:
1. Preheat oven to 325. I sprayed each of my five pans with cooking spray or you can use coconut oil. The pans are so shallow that the layers pop out quite nicely. If you are using larger cake pans, then see Stacy's site for instructions.
2. In a medium bowl combine all of the dry ingredients. Stir to combine.
3. In a large table top mixer (I used my Kitchenaid) add egg whites and cream of tartar. Whip until egg whites are stiff.
4. In a separate bowl add wet ingredients: egg yolks, coconut milk, maple sugar, molasses, and vanilla. Whisk to combine.
5. I added the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mixed together until combined. I then added the egg whites and gently folded them into the cake mix. This reminds me of when I make our chocolate roll cake--kind of the same texture and process. Let the cake batter sit for 5 minutes.
6. Sprinkle the chopped pecans in the bottom of each cake pan. Add batter to each of the five pans. The batter came almost to top of each cake pan. Hit cake pans on table to release any air bubbles. Bake until firm to the touch--about 12 minutes. These are small cake pans so the cook time is very short.
7. When baked, let cool for a few minutes and then flip them out onto a cookie wire rack to cool completely.
To prepare the whipped topping:
1. Pour ingredients into a bowl. Whip until thick.
I used my Kitchenaid for this process but you can easily use a hand mixer too. The whipped topping comes out slightly brown because of the maple syrup. I like the color of it on the cake.
To assemble the cake (finally, right?)
To assemble the cake (finally, right?)
1. Have the cooled cakes, the coconut caramel sauce and the whipped topping ready. Drizzle the coconut caramel sauce over the 5 cake layers while on the cookie rack.
2. I layered the cake like this: cake layer, whipped topping, repeat until all 5 layers are used. I topped the cake with the remaining whipped topping and drizzled more caramel over the top of the cake so that the sides were dripping with sauce.
Store cake in the refrigerator. I cover the cake with two huge pieces of saran wrap. My cake was gone in about one day but I would say the cake is good for 3 days before the quality starts to fade--dry cake, etc...
I have attached links to my amazon account so that you can see the products that I used in making this cake. No purchase is necessary. I do make a small commission from all sales but that money is put back into the blog for recipe developing. Thanks!
I use this brand of almonds to make my almond nut flour. I know they have the skins on and honestly this has not made any difference in my baking when I process the flour in my Vitamix. They are cheaper to buy in bulk too.
Written by Sherron Watson
I use this brand of almonds to make my almond nut flour. I know they have the skins on and honestly this has not made any difference in my baking when I process the flour in my Vitamix. They are cheaper to buy in bulk too.