I have to begin with a confession. I've been hiding something important from you and it's time to come clean . . . I'm sort of a health food fanatic. All the crazy ingredients for this cake were ones I had in my pantry. When you see what those are, you'll know what I mean.
I think I've alluded to the fact that rainbow cakes aren't the only thing you can find on Pinterest. There are some good-for-you things to note, like kale salad. But it goes deeper than kale salad. If you're into it, you can find some really good, "radical" recipes and ideas. This recipe is one of them.
One of the reasons I'm into healthy eating is because I can't tolerate gluten. That's right! I didn't have a single crumb of that rainbow cake. I just love to bake. Being gluten-free forces me to seek out alternatives. Aside from the nice-looking photo, and having all the ingredients, I chose this recipe because it was gluten-free.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of stereotyping that surrounds healthy food, especially gluten-free stuff. And unfortunately, a lot of it is rooted in fact. Gluten-free baking is tricky and some recipes can get extremely complicated. While I've done my fair share of gluten-free baking, I'm still learning. Each alternative flour has it's own nuances that make tremendous differences in the final product. This recipe called for coconut flour, and while I've worked with coconut flour before, it was always in combination with something else.
Baking with coconut flour requires a significant increase in eggs -- the general rule being 6 eggs per cup of flour. That's a lot of eggs! (Though you usually only use about 3/4 cup flour per recipe.) While this cake has great flavor, I just can't get over the texture. It's much too eggy and dense. It's kind of like a quiche, or a tres leches cake without the leches. I guess it's to be expected when the recipe calls for 5 eggs...
But I wish I could get over the texture because I love the ingredients. They're clean and healthy and again, yummy.
This recipe came from a blog called Things My Belly Likes. Ingredients:
3/4 cup coconut flour 5 large eggs 3 lemons, zest and juice 3 tbsps plain yogurt 1/4 cup honey 1/4 cup chia seeds 1/2 cup coconut oil 1 tsp coconut palm sugar
Whisk together the eggs, coconut oil, yoghurt and honey until smooth. Add the lemon zest and most of the juice, reserving a tbsp. Mix that tbsp with the tsp of sugar and set aside. Sieve the coconut flour into a large mixing bowl. Gradually pour the egg mixture into the coconut flour, stirring to form a semi-runny batter. Fold in the chia seeds and pour the batter into a greased loaf tin. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and make 4 to 6 vertical slits along the loaf. Across these gently pour the lemon juice and sugar mix.
Put it back in the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before taking it out of the tin.
If you're on a gluten-free diet and/or wacky enough to have (or want to purchase) the required ingredients give this recipe a chance and let me know what you think.