Paleolithic Birthday Cake!

Paleo Birthday Cake. Seriously. Ok, it's more of a Paleo bread cake, but with icing ,it's not a bad treat. Here's how you do it....

2-2.5 cups of almond flour. I grind my own from raw almonds using my Magic Bullet. It turns out very nice. 

1/2 cup of pecan or walnut mean, again i make my own from fresh raw nuts.

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/4-1/2 tsp aluminum free baking soda

1/4-1/3 cup pure honey. I use the stuff with the comb in it, because its so sweet. Also, you will need to heat this, either over a low heat or for about 5-15 minutes in the microwave to help liquify it. 

1/4 cup of oil. Grapeseed or walnut oil is probably best; essentially what i do is fill a liquid measuring cup with my honey (you could also use agave nectar, i put in about 1 tbs), then just add the oil to that cup until you've reached 1/2 cup of oil and honey mixture. 

2 whole (preferably free range chicken) eggs

1 whisked/whipped egg white

1 mashed banana

A handful or two of crushed very dark chocolate. I use dark chocolate that is greater than 70-75% cacoa when cooking for other people, but even darker for my wife and I, because we like it, while most other pele whoar eased to milk chocolate or Hershey's idea of dark chocolate (<=60% & loads of sugar)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl

3. Combine all of the wet ingredients (except the egg white) in another bowl.

4. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture.

5. Once combined into a nice "batter" stir in the egg white. I find this strategy actually help the cake/bread rise. 

6. Pour the batter into greased cake tin or like i used, my bread pan. 

7. Bake at 350 F for about 25-30 minutes, then reduced the temperature to 300, but 325 might also work, to keep the top from burning. Bake at lower temperature for another 10-15 minutes. So about 40 minutes total bake time, total. Test by sticking a knife deep into the middle of. The cake. If it comes out wet, it needs to keep cooking, if it comes out dry, it's done and you should allow it to cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes. 

While the cake is baking you can whip up the icing, which is extremely easy. Melt some dark chocolate in a small pan with some oil. I used grape seed and walnut mix. Do this at very very low temp so as to not make the oil rancid. Add just a touch (1-2 tbs) of honey or agave and about 1/8-1/4 cup of coconut milk. I use the canned coconut I'll that tends to have a lot of fat, if you use the SO delicious stuff sold as drinking coconut milk then you will only need to add a very small splash. Warm these ingredients until they are a smooth, but thick liquid. Once the cake is cool and you've allowed the icing to cool a bit, spread the top of the cake with the icing. If it's still warm it will run down the sides. 

I tested this cake on my wife, about 8-10 athletes at my gym, and my in-laws (the latter of whom are NOT Paleo), and myself. Rave reviews all around. 

Stick a few birthday candles in there and voilà! 

Now there could be a million modifications to this depending on your tastes. For example, you could add cinnamon raisins instead of choco chips/chunks. You could top with a honey, coconut milk, shave coconut topping. You could top with my vanilla protein pudding to increase the protein content. You could add fresh fruit. The possibilities, I think are limited only by your creativity.

Enjoy!