This recipe is: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Low Fodmap, Suitable for Interstitial Cystitis, Paleo and Refined Sugar Free
My friends were coming over for a very belated birthday lunch and I really wanted to have a yummy birthday cake to share with them. However, I had to conserve my energy in order to have a good time with them so the cake mum and I made had to be simple. I had wanted to do a type of victoria sponge but I ended up making a slightly denser cake mixture as I put some almonds in. Almonds are great for free-from baking always but the texture is never as smooth as when making a cake without ground almonds. I am also not sure if I can eat strawberries at the moment so chose a fruit with less irritating properties- black cherry! And I knew that my favourite jam 'St Dalfour' does a lovely refined sugar, gluten free cherry jam. So my victoria sponge turned into an all in one sponge cake filled with cherry and coconut cream. It was light but indulgent and perfect for the warmer weather to share with friends to celebrate a birthday and long overdue catch up. Hope you enjoy the recipe.
Makes 1 cake with 8 - 12 slices (depending on how decadent you are feeling)
Ingredients
- 175 g melted coconut oil (and a little extra for greasing)
- 4 eggs
- 125 g coconut sugar (or normal sugar if you eat refined sugars)
- 125 g ground almonds
- 100 g sorghum flour (or other gluten free flour of choice)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tin of coconut cream (keep in fridge for over 12 hours before use)
- Sugar free Cherry Jam ( I used St Dalfour)
- 8 - 10 Fresh cherries
- Dark chocolate or cacao powder (optional but I used Ombar 90%)
Method
- Preheat oven to 180 C (160 C in a Fan oven) or Gas mark4 or 350 F
- Grease 2 x 20 cm round cake tin with coconut oil
- In a mixing bowl put in eggs, coconut sugar, ground almonds, sorghum flour, baking powder and melted coconut oil and beat with an electric mixer until creamy. After about five minutes the mix will become paler and smoother. Keep beating until it is all the same creamy constituency and a light-yellow colour.
- Divide mixture between the cake tines and bake for 25 - 30 minutes, until risen and springy to touch. Test with a cake skewer or knife- it should come out clean when cooked.
- Turn cakes out on to a cooling rack and leave to cool completely
- While the cake is cooling, separate the harden coconut cream from the thinner milk, and beat the solid part with an electric beater for 5 minutes until it has increased in size and is light. This tends to look a bit more like meringue rather than whipped dairy cream.
- Either leave cakes whole or cut each one through the middle of each cake to create 4 thinner cakes*
- Spread each layer with cherry jam and whipped coconut cream (leave a little cream for top)
- Spread a final layer of cream over the top of the cake and add cherries, in your own choice of design. I cut 4 cherries in half and got rid of their stems and stones and placed round the outside and then just for decretive value put three whole cherries in the center.
- If you want you could always grate some refined-sugar free dark chocolate over the top or some cacao power to decorate it further as cherry and chocolate are a good combination.
- Either serve immediately or if not keep in the fridge and take out a a few minutes before needed as coconut cream has nothing to stop it melting if left out all the time.
* I made my cakes in advance to save energy and froze them wrapped in several layers of baking parchment and clingfilm for a week. I then thawed them for 10-20 mins and carefully cut each one through the middle to make 4 thin layers. Having them cool made this job slightly easier but if you are not confident at doing this and don't want to accidentally mess up the cake, the two layers are just as impressive to look at once put together.
(N.B. I love to bake but due to being bed bound most of the time it's not that easy so all the recipes are on here are a collaboration between my mum and I. Most of the time that means me wrapped up in a blanket and instructing her as she goes along, but it seems to work and is a lot of fun doing it together)
Afternoon Tea Tray
