For those reading that are unaware of what "primal" means, part of the diet change is eliminating processed sugars and grain carbs. (There is a lot more to it and I will save that for another post.) Since learning the basics it has been fairy easy for us to follow - no grain carbs and no processed sugar. Kind of a no-brainer until you need to bake something! How do you bake without flour? (Generally flour = wheat = grain = NO.) I have been pretty successful making non-flour pancakes but a whole cake is a different story. After some Googling and forum searches (like Marks Daily Apple) I found a couple options I was willing to try. The first was Carrot Cake with Coconut & Pecans and the other was Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cake. I added/swapped/changed a few things with both based on what I wanted or had in the house.
Both have limited ingredients:
As you can see, almond butter, pecans, bananas, eggs, chocolate, honey and some lemon juice. (There is also baking soda but I did not have it in a picture friendly container.)
This one is just as easy with almond meal (just ground up almonds), bananas, grated carrots, eggs, pecans, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. (Cream cheese & agave nectar for the frosting.)
For the chocolate cake it is the almond butter and eggs that hold it together, and the baking soda helps get it to rise. With the carrot cake it is pretty much the almond meal and eggs. So, this means all the other ingredients are more for taste and texture. So feel free to mix it up to your liking!
So really quickly (because it is that easy) for each dessert just mix up all the dry ingredients together then add the eggs/liquids. Bake both at 350 degrees until they are done in the middle. Use the toothpick test. The chocolate cake takes only about 15 minutes and the carrot cake closer to 25 minutes. I used heavy cream to whip up a topping for the chocolate cake and cream cheese whipped up for the carrot cake. Both are sweetened with agave nectar.
Here are what they look like:
Here is the rundown:
Carrot Cake
2 cups almond meal (ground up almonds)
1 Tbs cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped pecans (I used the Magic Bullet so they were more than chopped!)
1 cup shredded coconut
2-3 cups of grated carrots
3 bananas
½ cup almond milk
3 eggs
2 Tbs agave nectar
Frosting
8oz cream cheese
2 Tbs agave nectar
Mix all the dry ingredients together then carrots/bananas. If the bananas are less ripe you might want to mash them a little before mixing in. Then add milk, eggs and nectar and thats it.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I used a glass 8x8ish Pyrex dish and sprayed with baking spray. This one needs more time to cook than the chocolate cake so make first if you want to bake both at the same time. I have seen various times for different recipes but this one was done in less than 30 minutes. Just make sure to use a tooth pick to ensure center is baked. You do not want to over bake this!!
When done let cool and frost with cream cheese. I bought the prewhipped plain and sweetened with agave nectar. I still whipped it with a hand mixer but for only about 20 seconds.
Chocolate Cake
2 cups almond butter
3 eggs
2 Tbs agave nectar
1 banana (the more ripe the easier to mix and more sweet)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 bar of chopped dark chocolate (I used 90%. Remember the high the % the less sugar and less sweet)
1 Tbs lemon juice
It really doesn't matter what ingredients you mix first with this one. The size of the chocolate pieces will determine how "gooey" it will be. Once all mixed I used a pie dish (buttered/lard) and put in a 350 degree preheated oven for about 18-20 minutes. Make sure you do the toothpick test! This "cake" rose very nicely but you do not want to overbake!
When done let cool and frost with a whipped up heavy cream sweetened with agave nectar.
** NOTE **
Robin really liked both of these but I thought they could have been just a little sweeter. You can add more honey/agave to the mix or to the frosting but I wouldn't want to do both.
Nutritional Values per serving
Carrot Cake:
Calories - 516
Fat - 40 grams
Protein - 13 grams
Carbs - 35 grams
Chocolate Cake:
Calories - 570
Fat - 44 grams
Protein - 18 grams
Carbs - 29 grams
** If you know Primal then you will also know that most of the fats in these recipes are "good" fats and the ratio(s) will be more fat than carbs.
So thats it. I hope you found this of interest and maybe even a little tempting to make . . . Ounce for ounce they are more nutritious than conventional desserts. If you are looking for a better and healthy alternative I hope you give them a try.
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