Coconut, Honey & Vanilla Bean Cake

#glutenfree #dairyfree

This little honey is as dreamy as she sounds. Delicately sweetened, moist & decadently rich… Yet without refined sugar, gluten or dairy! To me, a delicious cake is always defined by it’s frosting. They’re usually pretty butter & sugar laden though, which, while delicious, isn’t so healthy. I’ve been playing with ideas on how to concoct a refined sugar-free frosting for a while & after much trial and error, I’ve perfected it (I mean really, how wrong is a baking ‘fail’ when it involves coconut, vanilla & honey…Plenty of bowl-lickers around here!) Perfect for kid’s parties, grown-up gatherings or celebrating the sweet things in life…

Cake Ingredients:
3 cups almond meal
2 cups of rice flour
½ cup tapioca flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
½ teaspoon of salt
1 cup coconut oil, room temperature
1 ½ cups liquid honey
6 free-range eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla essence
2 cups of coconut milk

Frosting Ingredients:
3 cans coconut milk
½ cup agar flakes
Large pinch sea salt
½ cup of liquid honey
1 vanilla bean
1 ½ tablespoons arrowroot
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. For the cake: Preheat oven to 180℃. Lightly grease an 8-inch round cake tin.
2. In a bowl, combine almond meal, rice flour, tapioca, baking powder & salt.
3. In a mixer, beat coconut oil, honey & vanilla until light & fluffy
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Pour in coconut milk & stir.
5. Add combined flour mixture into the wet mixture until blended.
6. Pour into cake tin & bake for 35 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean & cake is lightly golden on top.
7. Remove from the tin after about 10 minutes & let cool. Once cooled, take a long knife and slice the cake in the middle, to make two.

Frosting Directions:

1. For the frosting: Place coconut milk, agar flakes, salt & honey in a medium sized saucepan.
2. Cut vanilla bean in half lengthways and remove the seeds using the tip of a small knife. Place seeds & pod into saucepan. Whisk everything together, place over high heat & bring to a boil, whisking every minute or so.
3. Lower heat, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until agar flakes have completely dissolved.
4. Mix arrowroot with water & slowly pour into the coconut mixture, whisking constantly. Raise heat & continue whisking until mixture begins to boil again. Remove from heat, remove vanilla bean & stir in vanilla extract. Pour into a bowl & once it’s stopped steaming place in the fridge & chill until completely set (about 2 hours).
5. The mixture will be hard, use a metal spoon to scoop into a food processor & blend until completely smooth. Scrape down the sides & blend again.
6. Thickly frost the top of the bottom half of the cake. Use the remaining mixture to spread the frosting on the top of the cake.

Nutrition Bite: Agar Agar is a vegetarian gelatin substitute produced from a variety of seaweed vegetation. It ‘s sold in health food stores in both flake & powder varieties, & can be used in a variety of dairy-free and vegan recipes as a stabilizing and thickening agent for custards, puddings, sauces & in this case, even frostings!