AIP Birthday Cake with Strawberry Topping

My daughter's second birthday is coming up. I wasn't sure what I was going to do for a birthday cake, since we're still in the elimination phase of Autoimmune Paleo. I pulled up my friend Google and did some searching. I had this vision of a rich-flavored cake with some creamy layer of goodness and strawberries on top. By combining a few different recipes, it came out beautifully! I'm excited to share it with you.

The original cake recipe comes from Amanda at The Curious Coconut.

AIP Birthday Cake

1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup palm shortening
1 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp raw apple cider vinegar
1 cup coconut flour, sifted
2 tbsp tapioca starch
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 tbsp gelatin (I use this one)
2/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and flour (with tapioca or arrowroot) a 7.5"x11" glass pan, or something similar.

In a large mixing bowl, add coconut oil, palm shortening, and sugar. Use an electric mixer to cream the oils and sugar for about one minute. Next, add applesauce, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar and mix for another minute.

In another smaller bowl, add all the dry ingredients and combine well. Pour about one fourth of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add (about) a fourth of the water, and mix well. Alternate between the dry ingredients and water until it's mixed thoroughly. The batter will be thicker than normal cake batter. Spread it into prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

While your cake is cooling, you can mix up your toppings!

For the creamy layer...Maple Icing!

1/2 cup palm shortening
1/3 cup maple syrup (you could use honey too)
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp arrowroot powder
2 tsp coconut flour
1 tbsp coconut cream (the thick part from canned coconut milk)

Combine all these ingredients and mix with an electric mixer until smooth. It may or may not separate. Mine didn't at first, so I think I may have over-mixed it. I didn't mind too much, since it was covered with strawberries and it still tasted so good! Spread this over your cooled cake.

And now...the Strawberry Sauce

10oz frozen strawberries
1 tsp tapioca starch
1-2 tbsp honey, to taste

Let your strawberries thaw in a saucepan over low heat, and then scoop out a little of the juice and mix it with the tapioca starch. Pour this mixture back into your strawberries and add the honey. Once the strawberries are soft, use a potato masher to mash them. Cook until your sauce becomes bubbly and thick, stirring constantly. Allow to cool for a few minutes, and then spread over the top of your iced cake.

Keep this cake in the refrigerator until time to serve. The icing will harden, but it's not hard to cut or eat. I hope you enjoy it!

The Perfect DF Hot Cocoa (AIP)

Since starting the Autoimmune Paleo journey, I've struggled with giving up coffee. I'd go a couple days without and then cave another day, grabbing that brightly colored Dunkin Donuts bag out of the cupboard. I think I've finally found the perfect hot drink substitute, minus your herbal tea options. This one gives you a hot drink AND chocolate fix at the same time!

Sorry, no pictures.

Perfect Hot Cocoa (AIP option)

10 oz coconut milk (or almond)
1 1/2 tbsp carob powder (or cocoa)
1 tbsp maple syrup or honey
1 tsp Great Lakes gelatin (optional)
2 pinches of pink salt

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan and whisk to incorporate. Heat to desired temperature. Whisk again, vigorously, so you get some bubbles on top. :) Enjoy!

Creamy Broccoli Soup (Dairy-Free, AIP)

You may have noticed I took an unexpected break from the blog. Silly me thought I could keep up with blogging while raising two toddlers and moving to a new house! Obviously, that was not the case.

Last night, I whipped up some creamy broccoli soup for my husband's lunch for work. Just smelling it made my mouth water. Onions, garlic, broccoli, butter. Mmm! I decided it was time to make some I could eat too. Lucky me, it turned out pretty tasty! Lucky you, I'm going to share my recipe. :)

**I currently have my daughter on the Autoimmune Paleo diet to heal her gut and food allergies. This recipe is compliant with this diet.

Creamy Broccoli Soup

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup yellow onion, diced 

2 carrots, diced or sliced

1 stalk celery, diced 

4-6 cloves garlic (According to taste. I used 6.)

4 cups broccoli, chopped

2 tbsp arrowroot (or corn starch, if not AIP)

3 cups chicken broth or stock 

1 can full fat coconut milk

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp thyme

Handful of greens, optional

2 tbsp grass-fed gelatin, optional for protein and health benefits

Heat olive oil in a medium-size pot on low/medium heat. Add onion, celery, and carrots, cook until tender. Add garlic and sauté for about one minute more. Add the arrowroot or cornstarch and continue stirring until bubbly. Pour in broccoli, stock, and coconut milk. Add the rest of the ingredients and let the soup simmer for 20-30 minutes. 

*For the record, I haven't tried this yet...BUT I think 2-4 tbsp of nutritional yeast would be absolutely delicious in this soup. Nutritional yeast has a cheesy flavor, so you'd have cheesy-tasting, creamy broccoli soup!*

Homemade Sunbutter

My daughter is allergic to peanuts. Before we discovered this, though, she loved peanut butter and jelly. Every kid loves PB&J, don't they? I'm pretty sure my son would eat it every day, if I'd let him!

There are a few options to replace peanut butter and most all of them can be made at home. Sunbutter (or sunflower seed butter) is a healthy and delicious option! It's also super easy to make, as long as you have a food processor to grind the seeds.

Homemade Sunbutter 

14oz roasted unsalted sunflower seeds
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp honey

Place sunflower seeds in food processor and grind until seeds turn to a smooth consistency. (Think peanut butter.) Add salt, oil, and honey. Grind again for about 30 seconds. Taste and feel to decide if you need more of anything. We like ours plenty sweet, so I use the full 2 tbsp of honey.

Store in a Mason jar with a lid at room temperature.

Sunbutter works great for "PB&J", replaces peanut butter in recipes, OR you can dip apple slices in it like my kids do. My daughter loves it so much that she picks it up with her fingers and skips the apples. Ha!

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've got a few different gluten-free flours in my stash that I like to mix and play around with. One of them is millet flour. I haven't used it a lot, and have been trying to find more uses for it. It has a slight nutty flavor, and has a protein content similar to whole wheat. You can't use it alone, but mixed with other flours, it makes a great texture!

Anywho...I made my husband some chocolate chip cookies today and needed some for my daughter and I. (Yes, I think 'needed' is the right word.) I searched Google, and here's the recipe, including changes I made, that I found. They're delicious! The texture is perfect. They're so much like "real" cookies, you won't even miss the gluten, I promise. 😊

Gluten/Dairy-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
6 tbsp coconut flour
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum*
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
4 tbsp palm shortening (or melted butter, or coconut oil)
2 flax eggs** (or eggs)
4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips

*If you use flax seed eggs, you won't need the xanthan gum.

**To make a single flax egg, combine 1 tbsp ground flax seeds with 2 1/2 tbsp hot water and let sit for five minutes to thicken. You can double this for two eggs.

In a small bowl, whisk flours, xanthan gum (if using), baking powder, and salt. In a separate medium bowl, combine shortening (or butter) and coconut sugar well. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix, then add chocolate chips.

Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes at 350°F. Makes about two dozen.

*original recipe from Amy's Healthy Baking.

My Favorite Bulletproof Coffee (Dairy-Free)

Coffee. I love it. Some days I love it more than others. This morning, I needed a boost of energy. Bulletproof coffee always seems to give me energy that lasts longer than just plain ol' coffee and cream. Seriously. Try it. This morning's coffee was so creamy and flavorful that I decided to share with you!

Bulletproof Coffee

12 oz freshly brewed coffee
1/2-1 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp Great Lakes gelatin (great protein source)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of cinnamon
Sweetener (I used 1/4 tsp Pyure)

Blend together in a blender, or with an immersion blender, for 10 seconds. Take time to sip it and enjoy it!

When I get some, I'm going to try adding 1/8 tsp sunflower lecithin. My Trim Healthy Mama book says that will make it even more frothy. Mmm!

Gluten/Dairy-Free Banana Oat Pancakes

Before I went gluten-free, my husband and I enjoyed a lot of different flavors in our pancakes. We'd have copy-cat Cracker Barrel pancakes one morning, then whole wheat pancakes another, buttermilk pancakes, blueberry sourdough pancakes...on the list went. In order to get a little variety in our GF pancakes, I combined a couple of recipes and came up with this. The quick oats give a nice texture to them, they stay together without crumbling, and they have an egg free option.

Banana Oat Pancakes

1 cup oat flour (or ground up oats)
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp coconut sugar, or brown sugar
1 ripe banana
1 egg, or flax egg*
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup almond or coconut milk
2 tbsp hemp protein powder, optional

*For a flax egg, combine 1 tbsp ground flax seeds with 2 1/2 tbsp hot water. Let it sit 5-10 minutes to gel.

Preheat skillet. If using flax instead of an egg, mix it now so it can be ready to use.

Whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and protein powder (if using) in a medium bowl. In a smaller bowl, mash your banana with a fork. Add your sugar, vanilla, and almond milk and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Add your flax egg (or chicken egg), and whisk again.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until combined. Scoop 1/4 cup fulls onto your skillet. I have found that oat flour pancakes cook better at a slightly lower temperature than regular pancakes.

Enjoy!