Coconut flour yellow cake - great for birthday cakes! Gluten and grain free.

My husband's birthday was several weeks ago and one dessert item he's had a hankering for is good old fashion yellow birthday cake. The only problem is our son can't have wheat, so that nixes the majority of recipes out there. I know that I could have used a gluten-free flour to make a close substitute, but to be honest I'm not a huge fan of the GF flours on the market. They are often filled with ingredients that I'd prefer to avoid in our diet. So, instead I made a very delicious version using coconut flour.

I've messed with this recipe over the last year on and off again, playing around with different ingredients. This time because I wanted to provide something more similar to a traditional birthday cake I went with more traditional ingredients, like organic white sugar instead of honey and butter instead of coconut oil. I have shared a coconut flour chocolate cake recipe we use all the time. You can get away with a different variety of ingredients with chocolate cake, because the chocolate masks some of the flavors, but with a white cake a flavor like honey or coconut oil will be much more pronounced.

Now, with that said, you can really experiment with this recipe. This cake is on the sweet side, sweeter than I typically make my desserts, but the extra sweetness makes it more similar to a traditional birthday cake. If you prefer less sugar I think you could easily reduce the sugar by half and not suffer any issues with the overall texture of the cake. You can also try honey, but use less, starting with a half cup, instead of a full cup. I personally feel like honey tends to sweeten things more than sugar does. You can also use coconut oil instead of butter, but use it in it's solid form and still whipping it with the sugar. The nice thing about butter is it does create some extra lightness to the cake when whipped, which is especially needed with coconut flour.  I also use baking powder instead of baking soda in this recipe (I use baking soda in the chocolate cake). You can actually use either, but the leavening will be just a bit less with only the baking soda, but the end texture of the cake is still moist and not overly dense.

In the end, do play around with the recipe and use what I've included below as a launching board. This cake is going to be more resilient than a traditional white flour cake. The ingredients below are enough for one 2" thick 9" square or round cake. For my family, I've found making more than that tends to go to waste.

In the pictures, the cake you see is actually made in a small 4" ramekin. I divided the batter between the ramekins I have, filling them three quarters of the way full. A great way to make cute, mini cakes!

Coconut Flour Yellow Cake

What You'll Need

1 - 9" square or round cake

½ cup room temperature, organic butter

1 cup organic sugar

4 organic eggs yolks 

1 cup coconut flour

2 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder

1/4 tsp. unrefined sea salt

1 cup room temperature organic, whole milk

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

4 egg whites

Getting Started

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter and line with parchment paper baking dish of choice. Set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugar together for 3-5 minutes, until mixture is light and fluffy.

3.While continuing to beat the butter and sugar, add one egg yolk at a time until thoroughly combined.

4. In a separate bowl mix together the rest of your dry ingredient; coconut flour, baking powder, salt. Add ⅓ of dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix thoroughly. Add 1/2 the milk and the vanilla extract, again mixing well. Continue back and forth with dry then wet mixture, ending with the dry.

5. In another bowl beat egg whites until fluffy and can hold a stiff peak. Gently fold egg whites into cake batter until well mixed.

6. Spread into desired baking dish and bake for 25-35 minutes. Take care to not over bake. Coconut flour cakes turn brown fairly easily, although this doesn't always affect end taste it isn't quite as appealing in the looks category. Insert a toothpick into center of cake to check for doneness. If toothpick comes out clean, cake is done, if not bake for an additional 3-5 minutes and check again. I have found the smaller ramekins I like to bake with take 25 minutes and my 9" square pan tends to take 35 minutes, sometimes even a touch longer.

7. Once cake is done baking, run knife around edge of cake and then turn it out onto cooling rack and allow to cool completely.  Cover with your favorite butter cream frosting.

Enjoy!