The Crunchy Moose: The Moose's 1st Birthday Cake (Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Grain Free, Paleo, Sugar Free)

I got this recipe from The Unrefined Kitchen. I made them into cupcakes. Other than that, I followed that recipe almost exactly (a couple changes). It's dairy free, gluten free, grain free, paleo, and sugar free. I am not paleo or gluten free. But I do try to limit refined sugar and wheat. This cake is so good! Really better than any full sugar and flour cake I've ever had. Really.

See more from his party here.

The original recipe was for one 8" round cake. I tripled it. That amount made 15 regular cupcakes, 24 mini cupcakes, and 1 smash cake for the birthday boy.

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut flour
3/4 cup arrowroot
3/4 cup almond flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2.25 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp salt
1 cup honey
9 eggs
1 cup melted coconut oil (add this last)
2 cup almond milk (see my note about carrageenan here)
3 tbsp lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
1.5 tsp vanilla
cupcake liners (preferably foil liners; see note below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients (coconut flour, arrowroot, almond flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and baking powder).

My local health food store has a great bulk food section and had almond flour. So I was able to buy just the cup or so that I needed.

Beat with an electric mixer in the wet ingredients (honey, eggs, coconut oil, almond milk, lemon juice, and vanilla). Add the coconut oil last. Because once it hits the cold almond milk, it will harden and is harder to mix.

I baked the smash cake for the birthday boy in this cute little pottery dish I borrowed from my mother-in-law. Perfect!

I lined it with parchment paper, filled with batter, trimmed the paper.

I have 1 regular muffin tin and 2 mini ones. So that's what I used. I got almost all of the batter in one round. I had to do a 2nd batch of 3 regular size muffins. I would recommend foil liners. I had paper and didn't know until after I baked them. But the coconut oil in the batter is, well, oily. The paper held up just fine, but the oil leaked through a bit. Next time (and there will be a next time because this recipe is awesome) I will use foil.

The original recipe said to bake 17-22 minutes. I thought my cupcakes would take less time. But they took exactly 20 minutes. You can use the toothpick test on these to see if they are done. NOTE: They didn't rise as much as "regular" batter. So fill up your cupcakes. I did not fill them up as much as they should have been because I thought they would rise more.

That's The Moose's awesome smash cake!

I doubled the frosting recipe from the original poster. I used brown rice syrup (original recipe used maple syrup). I was a little worried that it wouldn't hold up and would melt all over the place once it came to room temperature. But it didn't. It was perfect!

Ingredients:

2 cans of coconut milk (do not shake; put in the fridge for a few hours to chill before you use it)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp brown rice syrup
2 tsp vanilla

I made this in 2 batches because I didn't have enough sense to buy 2 cans of coconut milk when I went to the store.

Open your chilled can of coconut milk. Do not shake. Scoop out the cream at the top.

Take all the cream. You'll be able to tell when you get to the coconut water at the bottom. Save it for something else (coffee cream, in a curry or stir fry, ice cream topping, whatever).

Add everything else. Whip with an electric mixer. (The original recipe said to whip the coconut cream, then add everything, then whip again. I failed to read that part, so I whipped it all together and it came out fine.)