Cranberry Walnut Cake, GF or Not
November 19, 2013
I often post on FB what I am cooking or doing. It is a quick, easy way to connect with everyone and I am hoping what I am doing will inspire someone. Well the other night I mention what I had made for dinner, a roasted pumpkin, garlic, kale quiche w/ smoked mozzarella. It was amazing, also I baked a GF cranberry walnut cake. I got several request for the cake recipe. Honestly this is an overnight breakfast cake I have been making for years because it is healthy and not to sweet. As you can see, it makes a fine cake for dinner too. You can make it with regular flour or GF flours, really anything, except one flour and that is coconut flour. Since coconut flour absorbs ½ it weight, you would have to change the recipe completely (which could be done but not today). I am constantly changing the flavors by using different fruits (dried, fresh or frozen), spices, chocolate, nuts, etc. This version is a cranberry walnut and I was not thinking of this when I made it, but it would be a good breakfast cake on thanksgiving morning!
Cranberry Walnut Cake
Makes one 8" round cake (but a shallow cake)
Dry ingredients
1 ½ cup gluten free flour blend or regular flour or whole wheat pastry
1 cup almond flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
Wet ingredients
½ cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
2 egg
1 cup milk (or more. Some GF flour can soak up liquid a bit. You want a thick batter you can almost pour, so add some more milk or water if needed)
⅟ᴣ cup melted coconut oil or melted butter or mild favor olive oil
⅟₈ tsp vanilla paste or 1 tsp vanilla extract
Topping
1-2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup toasted walnuts, I actually soak and then dry my walnuts in a dehydrator. Then I use them as is and do not toast.
½ cup or so coconut sugar
Pre-heat oven 350 ◦F
Sift all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Whisk wet ingredients together in a small bowl. Add wet to dry and mix batter together. Grease a round 8” pan (you can do a square brownie pan too). Pour in batter. You may need to spread it out a bit. Sprinkle cranberries over the cake, then the walnuts. Lastly generously sprinkle sugar over the cranberries/walnuts. Remember the cake is not very sweet and the cranberries are pretty sour, so this topping of sugar is how you sweeten those cranberries. I just grabbed a couple of fistful of coconut sugar out of the bag, dusted it over the whole cake until it got a good sprinkling.
Bake 25-35 minutes until the cake is cook in the center. It is a little hard to tell with all the toppings. Look for the center to have risen like the sides. Let cool 10 minutes or moreand then enjoy.
Note
You can put this together the night before and bake it off for a breakfast cake. Just mix the cake together, cover the pan and put it in the fridge. In the morning when the oven has pre-heated, bake uncovered. You can use frozen fruit the night before. If you see water from the fruit the next morning, do not worry, you cake will bake fine.