Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Gingerbread Custard Cake (grain-free : gluten-free : nutrient-dense)


Creamy and spicy: Gingerbread Custard Cake is a great complement to the holiday season. I developed this recipe with my husband in mind;  he loves gingerbread and likes to eat Custard Cake for breakfast most mornings.  For an extra special treat, this custard cake can be topped with sweetened whipped cream.

This will be my last post until 2015. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to you all!

Gingerbread Custard Cake
Serves 8
  1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat.  Turn off heat and allow to cool a bit.
  2. In a large bowl, combine eggs, sucanat, sour cream, molasses, vanilla, almond extract, spices, orange zest, and salt.  I like to use my immersion blender to mix it all up together, but you could certainly use a whisk or mixer instead.
  3. Add melted butter to wet ingredients and whisk or blend.
  4. Add coconut flour* and blend until well-combined (or use a mixer or whisk until smooth).
  5. Add the applesauce, and whisk well to combine.  I prefer to use a whisk for this step so the applesauce still remains a tiny bit chunky.
  6. Use a bit of cold butter to generously grease an 8X8 glass dish.
  7. Pour the batter into the glass dish and bake at 325° for 70-80 minutes. The custard cake is done when the edges are lightly browned and the center is no longer wet with just a bit of jiggle.
  8. Remove from oven and cool.  Don't cut into this while it is piping hot. This can be served at room temperature or cold. For a special treat, top with a bit of sweetened whipped cream (recipe follows). 
*The coconut flour will need to be sifted if you are not using an immersion blender.   

Sweetened Whipped Cream

  • 2 cups cream, preferably raw
  • pinch of fine ground celtic sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp organic vanilla extract
  • 2-4 Tb raw mild-flavored honey, to taste**
  1. Beat the cream and salt together until the mixture starts to get thick and fluffy.  I like to use my Kitchen-Aid stand mixer with the wire whip attachment, but you could also use a hand mixer.
  2. Add the vanilla extract, and drizzle in the honey while the mixer is running.  Alternatively, you could drizzle in the honey a little at a time and mix between each honey addition. 
  3. If you're using a stand mixer, use a silicone spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times to make sure you don't have any clumps of honey at the bottom.  I like to beat it until it gets a bit stiff since it will tend to soften up a bit in the fridge over the next few days.
  4. Store the whipped cream in the fridge in an airtight bowl.
**If your raw honey is very crystallized, place it over a bowl of warm water to make it a bit runny.

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7 comments:

Joz said...

This looks amazing. Could you use heavy cream instead of sour cream in the cake recipe? I have raw heavy cream. Or is it easy to turn some of this into sour cream for the recipe? Thank you :)

Sarah Smith said...

I bet you could use cream instead of sour cream. Maybe just use a tad less since the consistency would be thinner. Do you have any plain whole milk yogurt? That would be a one-for-one replacement. With yogurt, obviously it would not be quite as rich and the flavor of the spices would probably be a bit stronger.

If it were me, I'd save that raw cream to make into whipped cream instead, but I have to pay a LOT for raw cream and couldn't bear to cook with it...

Anonymous said...

hi sarah ~ in the recipe instructions you mention orange zest but it's not in the actual recipe list. also is 'fresh pressed ginger" grated ginger or juiced ginger? thanks!

Anonymous said...

okay, i see the zest clementine now...sorry. :)

Angela said...

Yum, this looks like pumpkin pie consistency... delicious!

Unknown said...

I love this recipe and have made it for the last several Christmas Eve dinners! We recently discovered my son has a dairy allergy, any suggestions for making this dairy free? I am thinking of the sour cream - the butter is easy to swap for coconut oil. Thanks!

Sarah Smith said...

Sorry for the delayed response, Nicole; I was offline over the holidays. Glad you like the recipe! I've never tried making this dairy free... I would probably try subbing coconut milk for the sour cream (and reduce the amount a bit since it is runnier than the sour cream). I hope this helps!