NUTILIGHT & BANANA POUND CAKES

INGREDIENTS:

3 extra large eggs

½ cup coconut sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup mashed ripe banana

2 cups almond flour

⅓ cup coconut flour, sifted

¼ cup tapioca flour

1 tsp baking soda and ½ tsp cream of tartar

½ tsp sea salt

¼ tsp cinnamon

½ cup coconut oil, liquefied

⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease loaf pan(s). Cut a rectangular piece of parchment paper that will fit and stick to the bottom of the loaf pan.

2. Add eggs to a large bowl. Mix in coconut sugar, vanilla extract, and mashed bananas. Add in almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, baking soda and cream of tartar (or baking powder), sea salt, and cinnamon, mixing well. Stir in coconut oil; mix well.

3. Last, put half of the batter on a separate bowl and add the cocoa, for the bottom layer.

4. You can let batter sit just a few minutes so that the coconut flour will work its magic and the batter will thicken a bit.

5. Pour the cocoa batter into the prepared loaf pans using a spatula to get every last bit of batter into your pan(s) and then add the rest of the plain batter. Bake about 50 minutes for the regular sized loaf and 40 to 45 minutes for the two mini loaves, rotating the pans halfway through baking time. Less baking time will be needed if you're making four super mini loaves; check at 25 to 30 minutes for those but still rotate pans halfway through baking.

6. Check for doneness with a toothpick. The cake should be golden brown when finished. The center will fall so that the top is level versus rounded like loafs made from gluten-free grains.

7. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes ideally. Note that I used a knife to loosen the loaf and removed it after about 10 minutes out of necessity, but you have to be very careful doing that. Use the parchment paper to lift the cake out onto a rack to cool completely. Using a serrated knife makes for easier slicing.

8. Makes one regular-sized loaf, two mini loaves, or four super mini loaves.

NOTES:

The easy, economical, and naturally grain-free substitution for 1 teaspoon of baking powder is ½ teaspoon of baking soda and ¼ teaspoon of cream of tartar. That’s right; it’s not an “even” substitution. You only use ¾ teaspoon total of the substitution ingredients. It’s important to add coconut oil later in the process so that the cold eggs will not make the coconut oil harden or the coconut oil, if too hot (if you melt the coconut oil), will not cook the eggs if they’re at room temperature when you start making this recipe.