Sometimes I hack recipes. This cake is one of our absolute favorites.
I find an "award-winning" recipe for cake or cookies, and then I start figuring out how to sub out the regular flour with gluten-free/low-carb substitutes, and how to keep the sweetness and texture using alternatives to sugar.
This recipe is a hack from an award-winning chocolate cake recipe by Ina Garten. At the end of the day, not much is the same about my hacked recipe and hers (the original is loaded with 2 cups of sugar and almost 2 cups of flour, and is a double layer frosted cake) except for the brilliant addition of one cup of hot coffee to the batter. I tested this multiple times to figure out the perfect ratio of almond and coconut flours to get a moist cake that still holds together. You could make this a chocolate bundt cake by adding ½ cup good quality cocoa powder in lieu of the extra 2 T. of coconut flour.
I use a bundt can to make this because it looks pretty and bakes evenly, but you could experiment with using a muffin tin or small cake pans. Be sure to spray well using a no-stick spray made for baking (in this case, especially for bundt or muffin pans, I like Pam baking spray which has a bit of flour in the spray.) If you are gluten-free, dust your pan with a little extra cornstarch or arrowroot powder after you grease with cooking spray or coconut oil.
You need:
1 ⅓ cups fine almond flour (blanched type, no skins, I like Blue Diamond Brand) ½ cup plus 2 T coconut flour (I find the Nutiva brand bakes beautifully)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
½ cup swerve brown sugar or truvia brown baking blend (both of these are twice as sweet as regular brown sugar so we use 1/2 the amount)
1 heaping T cinnamon
1 level tsp ground ginger
1 level tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup plain greek yogurt
½ cup vegetable or canola oil
3 large eggs (at room temperature!!)
1 T vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
¼ tsp xanthan gum powder
Make it:
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk well until completely combined and no dry lumps. The dry ingredients soak up the liquid quick so this is an important step so your flours, spices and baking powders are well combined!
Create a little well in the middle of your dry ingredients and add the eggs, yogurt, vanilla and oil. Use a hand mixer and beat for 30-45 seconds on medium. It will get stiff quick.
Add the cup of hot coffee and mix another minute until the batter is smooth.
Sprinkle the xanthan gum on top (don’t dump it in or it will clump, sprinkle all over) and mix one more time, another 30 seconds. Spoon the batter into your pan. Tap the pan firmly on the countertop several times to let the air bubbles settle and to help the batter smooth out evenly.
For a bundt pan, bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until the knife comes out clean. Muffins would likely take 15-20 minutes.
Let cool in the pan 15 minutes (!!) before flipping out. Let cool completely then dust with any one or combo of powdered swerve, cinnamon and cocoa powder. Delicious as a brunch coffee cake!