Paleo Chocolate Coconut Cake

Spencer has been trying to be completely gluten free for the past few months. So, naturally I have been eating mostly gluten free too! I think it is better for my overall digestion. But, I'm not ready to be completely gluten free - it's a little too complicated. You would be surprised what foods are hiding gluten in them. That gluten is a sneaky little thing!

I came across this wonderful Paleo Blog - River North Paleo Girl from a link found on Pinterest. (Seriously, what did people do before Pinterest!?) After reading through some of the recipes I found this cake recipe here. It looked so yummy I was thinking about it all week! So, I decided to make it for a family gathering we were having last Sunday. Unfortunately Spencer wasn't there because he was traveling to Memphis for work. He did get to try the cake when he came home and he totally approved!

Here is the recipe found off of that wonderful Paleo blog:


Chocolate Coconut Birthday Cake 

Makes one 9-inch double-layer cake. 
Ingredients:

Cake
Wet
10 eggs
1 cup raw organic honey
1 cup coconut oil
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
Dry
3/4 cup coconut flour, sifted
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda

Creamy Coconut Frosting (makes 3 cups)
1 cup unsweetened full-fat coconut milk
1/2 cup raw organic honey
pinch sea salt
2 Tbsp arrowroot powder
2 Tbsp water
1 1/4 cups coconut oil, melted over low heat

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Prepare two 9-inch round cake pans by lightly coating with coconut oil. I also added a bit of cocoa powder so that they had a light, even coating of cocoa.
• Add dry ingredients to a small bowl, stirring to combine.
• Add wet ingredients to a large bowl, using a hand mixer to blend thoroughly.
• Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and continue mixing for 2 minutes. Don't skimp on the 2 minutes or your cake won't be airy.
• Evenly divide batter between the two prepared pans. Don't worry that your batter is too thin, it isn't.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Let cakes cool slightly in the pans, then remove and cool on a wire rack.
• To make the frosting, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring coconut milk, honey, and salt to a boil, stirring with a whisk to combine.
• Decrease the heat to low or medium low and simmer for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently.
• In a small bowl, combine arrowroot powder in water, stirring to make a paste.
• Increase the heat to medium high and add the arrowroot paste to the coconut mixture, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens, about 30-60 seconds.
• Transfer the mixture to a large heat-resistant mixing bowl and very slowly blend in the coconut oil using a hand-held mixture until smooth.
• Place in freezer for 30-35 minutes until the frosting solidifies and turns opaque white.
• Remove from freezer and whip with a handheld mixture until it becomes thick and somewhat fluffy. 

Build It

1. Place first layer upside-down on a cake plate so the flat side is up. Frost.
2. Place the second layer on top with the rounded side up. Frost the top and sides.
3. Sprinkle with toasted coconut flakes (optional). Chopped nuts would also be great. 

This recipe calls for quite a bit of honey.I did end up using filtered honey because I couldn't quite justify the raw organic price! We want to get bees next year so maybe this will not be an issue for long :)

I didn't have any 9" round cake pans so I put it in a 9" square. There was only enough batter for one layer. Which was fine because I didn't have too much time to build it!

The frosting was a bit tricky. I couldn't find arrowroot powder, but I found arrowroot flour and used that as a substitute. This may be one reason the frosting didn't turn out.

The other reason it may not have worked is that I didn't have time to let it completely cool. So, it didn't mix well and was a bit lumpy. It was really difficult to get it smooth. I think next time I'm going to try and find another frosting recipe. I didn't like how hard it was to work with. Here's a picture of the frosted cake. (It totally looks funny, but it was delicious!)

The cake recipe was fantastic. You could really use it as a standard chocolate cake with your choice of frosting. Next time I think I'll add some chocolate chips into the batter :)

Enjoy!