This grain-free banana cake recipe made with coconut flour comes from Caroline at Gutsy. Thanks, Caroline, for the fabulous recipe, as well as sharing a bit of your story with us!
What is moist, banana-filled, and fluffy? Grain-free Banana Cake!
The first bite goes something like this “mmmm…” I bet you will be smiling once that fork reaches your lip too. Fun, comforting, simple flavors swirl in your mouth. A hint of cinnamon tingles your tongue, while the smell of fresh banana cake dances around your nose.
The old-school banana bread gets pushed aside for the moment while this superstar takes center stage. What gives the cake such a glamorous charm? The recipe uses simple ingredients that shine through till the last bite.
To serve, I like to stack the grain free/GAPS banana cake between a dollop of homemade whipped cream or coconut whipped cream and fresh sliced bananas. Now, that’s something to smile about!
Grain-Free Banana Cake (GAPS-friendly)
The Players
Wet:
- 2 cups almond butter (where to find almond butter made from soaked, raw almonds)
- 4 medium bananas, mashed
- 4 pastured eggs
- 4 Tbsp vanilla honey or 4 Tbsp honey + 1 tsp vanilla extract (where to find real honey)
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 T butter or ghee or coconut oil, melted (where to find grass-fed butter, ghee, and coconut oil)
Dry:
- 1 tsp cinnamon (where to buy authentic, fresh, out-of-this world cinnamon)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp sea salt (where to find real sea salt)
- 4 Tbsp coconut flour (where to find coconut flour)
The How-To
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Generously oil a 13 x 9 in cake pan. Line bottom with unbleached parchment paper.
3. Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl.
4. In a separate bowl mix all wet ingredients.
5. Combine dry and wet ingredients together and mix together until combined.
6. Pour batter into the prepared cake pan and cook for 40 minutes.
7. When done, the cake should rise slightly and look golden brown.
8. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes before cutting into the cake.
9. Serve layered with raw milk whipped cream or coconut whipped cream and sliced bananas! Enjoy
* This recipe makes great muffins & breads as well. I would suggest 50-70 minutes for a loaf of bread (recipe makes 2 loaves). Muffins can take from 10-30 minutes depending on the size (makes lots of muffins).
For delicious dessert recipes created by an award-winning pastry chef similar to this one (dairy-free and grain-free), I highly recommend the Paleo Sweets Cookbook.
It’s got 73 mouthwatering recipes for healthy desserts, including:
- Grain-Free Oreos,
- Key Lime Pie,
- Grain-Free Snickerdoodles,
- Double Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, and more!
At the moment, the printed version of this cookbook is 100% free to Food Renegade readers. You just cover shipping & handling.
Meet The Gutsy Girl
Hello! My name is Caroline. I am the 18-year-old blogger at Gutsy.
Here are a few things you should know about me right of the bat. I crave organ meats day and night; bison adrenals are my current favorite. You will always find me earthing, either on my earthing mat (where to find earthing mats) or out barefoot in the sand. My eyes light up when I talk about chicken feet and my local farmers markets.
I love to pound fermented veggies and watch them bubble when I lift the lids. I have been on the GAPS diet for 10 months. I prefer to eat cold bone “jello” rather then warming it up. If you dropped me in the middle of the lake, I would be the happiest person alive. (I love to swim!)
Ever since birth I have dealt with sensory and temper issues. I would refuse to wear clothes when I was little, though when I did, style was not an issue. You can read about my story here. I was an evil little child when I ate my food allergies, but I had a sweet, funny side too. (Good thing I eventually figured out my trigger points.) I’ve been gusty ever since I was born!
Other then my weird quirks, I have several sensitivies. If I ingest a crumb of wheat, I loose my coordination and balance (I hope this is temporary). I am super scared of mattresses and new clothes (due to flame retardants) for a good reason; read about it here. I have an autoimmune disorder, but I believe I can heal it with real food and GAPS! Don’t underestimate the power of real food, my mom healed her bipolar by doing GAPS/ real food diet!
I have a passion and I am not afraid to share what I know with the world. If everyone was scared of hurting others’ feelings, then no one is there to speak out when necessary! A little hint here or a quick story there is all that gets people started on the train of questions.
I tell friends and family exactly how it is. Don’t eat bread at the store or use “normal” shampoo, because you are making yourself more toxic! When people hear that I eat organ meats, they are usually left speechless, but I don’t let that scare me.
I changed my way of eating around age 13. The healthier I ate, the sicker I got. The food was not making me sick, it was simply the combination of my weak immune system, sensitivities to braces, vaccinations, and doses of antibiotics. My mom thought she did everything right from having a home birth to nursing until I was 3.
Sometimes, though, things just don’t turn out the way you expect them to in life. Because of my bad health, I learned that every second is worth cherishing. Lying in bed, to fatigued to go to a high school dance or football game, really made me start to appreciate the good health I still had left. On good days I would light up the world, but on bad ones, I wanted to crawl in a tunnel and let the world go on without me.
I realize now, that the world needs me! It needs every one of us real foodies (we are rare gems, you know). I was determined to get better. I researched day and night, found the GAPS diet, boiled my beef bones, ate my organ meats, sipped my FCLO and cultured veggie juice and finally started to heal.
Honestly, it was not easy, but it was worth every minute of my time and energy! I can finally say after 10 months, my energy and spunk are “re awakening”. My bad days no longer outnumber the good ones. Instead, it is just the opposite.
The best part is, my family is starting to see improvements in their health and is becoming more aware of “toxins” in our world. Friends are taking notice and asking questions. See, all it takes is for you to make one little change and it starts an amazing domino effect that just keeps spreading!
I love blogging and creating recipes for my family and readers. Each day I need a dose of my “kitchen time” as well as a nice big handful of “liver”.
Sometimes I wonder if my passion for real food nutrition will ever start to dwindle. I don’t think that is humanly possible. Each new thing I learn makes me so excited; I literally bounce out of bed in the morning. My poor family has to listen to me ramble all day long about what I learned that day. At least I cook yummy nourishing things for them.
Please stop by my blog and say hi! The best part is my GAPS recipes! I can’t keep up with all the ideas in my head, so you will have to stick around to find out what’s next! Don’t forget to always be “gutsy” in life!
(photos by mygutsy)
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I have been making this (well, almost the same thing) for close to a year and it is wonderful! I make it every time my bananas get a little over done. The recipe I use calls for almond flour which gives the “bread” (we actually call it cake) a very nice texture. I’m sure the almond butter does the same thing.
I use almond flour for many of my GAPS recipes too, but I find that the almond butter gives the “cake” a nice shiny smooth top and inside! Thats neat that you have been making a version of it too 🙂
Is there a substitute for the almond butter?
Hi Carrie, I bet coconut butter would be great too. here is the recipe I use to make it http://www.mygutsy.com/how-to-make-coconut-butter/
Carrie Michelle — Seems to me like you could use any nut butter. If you have a nut allergy, I’ve heard of people substituting Sunbutter for nut butters in recipes.
I clicked on your link to find out about the soaked nuts in nut butter, but it’s not a live link. How do I find out which nut butters you recommend? Thank you.
I’m not sure what you mean by it’s not a live link. It works for me! Do you mean that the page isn’t loading, or that when the page loads you don’t see the listings?
If you don’t see the listings, then that means you have javascript disabled or an ad blocker enabled, as all the listings on that page use an ad software to load. So, to view the listings, you need to disable the ad blocker for that page or re-enable javascript.
Can you use something else instead of coconut flour? Maybe quinoa (isn’t that gluten-free?)? Sorry, I’m new to real food so I’m still learning the ins and outs of substitutions and soaking etc. : /
Serenity Ariz — No. You can’t substitute ANYTHING for coconut flour without totally altering every other ingredient. It’s far too fibrous and absorbent. It’s why you can make a half dozen pancakes with just 3 tablespoons of coconut flour!
Serenity, and others, I ran across a research study the other day. Apparently some strains of quinoa are gluten free, but not all. The amount is generally considered acceptable, but still a concern for those with celiac disease.
Wow, this looks amazing! I’ll have to file this for later…when I’m no longer allergic to eggs and vanilla.
*sobs quietly in the corner*
Pat, the day will come hopefully after some gut healing. Have you thought about GAPS? http://www.mygutsy.com/what-can-you-eat-on-gaps-intro/
I’ve been waiting for this recipe, Caroline! It looks wonderful, and so fancy 🙂 Congrats on the guest post, too!
Thanks Lauren! I know you have been. 🙂 I thought of you when this went up!
The recipe looks delicious – and what an inspiring young lady! I can just feel her energy, and it’s wonderful that she will reach so many people her age with her Real Food message. Thanks for posting this. 🙂
Hi Jackie! I am so glad that my energy comes across as so positive and inspiring..just what I hope for in life! Love comments and readers like you!
I want to go grain free!!! It is NOT easy!!! I am so accustomed to cooking with grains that I have absolutely NO IDEA what to make for lunch without it! I NEED HELP!!!!
Hi Heather, grain free did amazing things to my body. You can read about my story here: http://www.mygutsy.com/gutsy-goes-grain-free/ grain free is becoming so popular it is easy to research recipes. Use keywords like “paleo” “GAPS” “almond flour” “coconut flour” “grain free” when searching on the web for recipes. Start small and see how you feel, increased energy and wellness was my driving force!
What is GAPS?
Thank you
GAPS stands for Gut and psychology syndrome http://www.gutandpsychologysyndrome.com/ It is used to heal the body of many illnesses and diseases. I love this diet!
WOW! This is either a coincidence, fate, a small miracle, divine providence, kismet, or whatever version of that appeals to you.
I am living abroad, and thought I would be home for my birthday, but now will not. I was reflecting over past birthdays, and recalled my mother-in-law fulfilling my birthday request for her yummy banana cake one year. I was thinking it would be a lovely comfort-food to have this year. However, I eat mostly paleo now – and definitely grain-free. Rather than being sad that I’d never have this cake again – which I’m sure I wouldn’t even find as appealing now – I thought that there must surely be a great recipe for a version I could have. I was thinking all this as I lay in bed last night. Then I awoke to find this recipe in my inbox. Thank you for the wonderful, early birthday gift!
Diana, wow this is awesome! Happy birthday 🙂 I am so happy that you can enjoy this treat and stay on the paleo diet..you don’t want the grain and sugar laden cake anyways and then feel sick. This cake is light, simple, and oh so good!
Do you have to use parchment paper in the bottom of the pan? I don’t have any. 🙁
How long were you guys on the introduction diet before you were able to do the Full GAPS diet? I know everyone is different. Just curious!
Is there way to cook this egg free?
I have to ask….the picture that accompanies this recipe looks to be a breakfast muffin (bacon and eggs)….were these banana cake muffins used for this? My house is gluten free and dairy free and I have tried making english muffins but have not had any edible success….I have my fingers crossed that you are going to save me from caving to an occasional food “relapse” (which haunts me for far longer than the craving actually lasts) and tell me that these muffins fit the bill 🙂
This made a very delicious and satisfying cake for my husband’s birthday. He didn’t want chocolate or vanilla cake so when he said he wanted banana cake, I knew this recipe would be perfect. Thank you for sharing!
This cake was excellent!! Very moist and tasty, I put it in the deep freeze as soon as I took it out of the cake pan. I opted for no icing, and it really didn’t need it. I used milk and lemon juice instead of buttermilk and golden crisco as a replacenment for butter. It took nearly 2 hours in my convection oven till the center was firmed up. Think I’ll try it in muffin tins next.