Paleo Spice Cake with Maple-Cashew Frosting
July 25, 2012 in Cakes and Cupcakes, Nut-Free Baking
My 2.5-year old announced “let’s make cake!” and started pulling random seasonings out of the spice drawer. She pulled out cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, vanilla, paprika, and cumin. Okay, maybe those last two weren’t so inspiring, but the first five looked pretty good to me! I had been meaning to try my hand at a paleo layer cake with birthday parties in mind and this was the perfect excuse! The end result was a perfectly moist, spongy cake with a fabulous flavor. This cake is nut-free, although the frosting is not (because I just couldn’t resist this amazing flavor combination!). For a wonderful nut-free whipped frosting alternative, try this recipe by Paleo Spirit.
Ingredients (Maple Cashew Frosting):
- 1 cup Unsalted Cashew Butter
(or make your own with 2 cups Unsalted Cashews
)
- 1 cup Palm Shortening
- 1/3 cup Grade B Maple Syrup
1. I made my own cashew butter (the easiest nut butter to make at home). I placed two cups of raw unsalted cashews into my Food Processor
2. Whip cashew butter, palm shortening and maple syrup in the bowl of a Standing Mixer
Ingredients (Nut-Free Spice Cake):
- 12 Eggs (better if they are at room temperature)
- ½ cup Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, melted
- ½ cup Palm Shortening (or substitute softened Unsalted Butter
)
- 1 cup Honey
- ½ cup Arrowroot Flour
- ¾ cup Coconut Flour
, sifted
- 1 tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 2 tsp Ground Ginger
- ½ tsp Ground Nutmeg
- ½ tsp Ground Allspice
- ½ tsp Ground Cloves
- ½ tsp Ground Cardamom
- extra Palm Shortening and Arrowroot Flour for dusting the cake pans
1. Prepare three 8” or 9” round cake pans by greasing with palm shortening. Cut out a circle of wax paper and line the bottom of each pan. Then grease the top of the wax paper. Finally, dust the pan with arrowroot powder. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350F.
3. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer and whip 3-4 minutes until thoroughly mixed and smooth.
4. Divide batter among the three pans. Spread the batter out to the edges of each pan.
5. Place in the oven on two racks, spacing out so that they bake evenly (you might want to rotate pans halfway through baking). Bake for 27-28 minutes, until fully cooked and a toothpick stuck into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
6. Cool on wire racks until cakes are room temperature. Invert each cake over a plate or cutting board.
7. Place the first cake layer on your serving dish, cover the top in frosting, add the second layer, cover it with frosting, add the third layer, cover the whole cake with frosting (you should have enough). Dust with cinnamon or nutmeg if desired.
8. Enjoy!
Do you need help finding any ingredients? Check out Important Pantry Items for the Paleo Baker.
I’d love to make a smaller, single layer cake. If I cut the recipe in half do you think it would make a 9″ x 13″ cake, or 8″ square, or ??
Thanks!
Cutting the recipe in half is probably perfect for an 8″x8″ pan. Probably will have to increase the cooking time slightly.
Looks delicious, but 12 eggs? Really?
John
Yep. Not a typo. And it doesn’t make for an eggy cake either. Coconut flour is magical.
Any suggestions as to how to make cupcakes? Half batch=dozen cupcakes? Baked how long, do you think?
Yes, half a batch should be a dozen cupcakes. I would guess about 20 minutes?
Sounds so good! I think this would be a perfect Fall cake!
Have you considered joining pinterest? I would love to be able to pin your recipes!
http://pinterest.com/thepaleomom/
Made this today – delicious! I cut it in half to do the 8×8 size. I only made 2 subs. I used expeller pressed coconut oil. I also used sunbutter because I didn’t have cashews. Whole family gives thumbs up!
I need a “like” button for comments!
Made this yesterday for my birthday cake and man was it good!!!! Best birthday cake I’ve had in years!
My niece made this for me for a birthday cake. Since I am trying to stay on AIP, she didn’t put the frosting on it. Instead, she drizzled honey on it. It was YUMMY, & my non-paleo family was surprised, because they liked it too.
Thanks for this recipe!
I just tried to make this cake and followed directions for pan prep and measurements. The cake crawled up the sides of the pan and doesn’t resemble a cake layer at all. It’s like a pancake with floppy elephant ears. My eggs were even room temp. I used organic butter instead of palm oil. What did I do wrong?
I have no idea. It definitely sounds like your wet to dry ratio is off… Were your eggs particularly large?
No. I might try it again.
hiya paleomom… i made this cake the other day, and while it tasted great, the cake was a little dense. my eggs were not fully warmed to room temperature, but other than that i followed the recipe to a t. since you’ve made the recipe several times, i was wondering if you had a similar result… do you think it was the eggs’ temperature? might i get a fluffier result with more baking soda? or perhaps it is just that coconut flour-made baked goods are generally more dense than their nut flour counterparts? (i haven’t had as much experience with coconut flour compared to almond flour, so i haven’t learned its “normal” baking behaviors yet.). please let me know what you think might yield a fluffier cake, and thank you for posting this recipe!
Try sifting your coconut flour before measuring. Coconut flour can be a tricky ingredient and sometimes if it clumps, it measures very differently.
I made this excellent cake tonight. It’s delicious! I made half a recipe in one square pan, and tweaked with the spices a little. I had a couple of issues: I think the eggs were too big because the batter was very wet. So I added quite a bit of dried coconut flakes (I love the texture! but it obviously takes away from the sponge factor) and a sprinkling more of coconut flour, and a dash of cream of tartar. The other issue I’m pretty sure was the oven’s fault: it baked extremely fast, maybe 17 minutes tops, and the cake grew all sorts of lop-sided.
Next time I make it, I’ll decrease the honey/maple syrup because I’m just not used to eating sugar much anymore, but that’s my issue not the recipe’s. I had originally planned on making another frosting (no cashews for me), but I’ve nixed that. Overall, I think it’s an absolutely excellent recipe. Thank you!
This looks excellent! I am definitely going to try this!! I kind have been doing paleo, but sweets are my downfall. This is awesome!
Can I make this cake with ground coconut flakes instead of coconut flour? I would like to make one for my son’s birthday. Thank you.
Generally when I use homemade coconut flour, I have to use quite a bit more than store-bought, but I usually eyeball it, so I don’t know exactly how you would have to adjust the recipe for ground coconut flakes.