The Perfect Afternoon Tea Cake

This honey & cinnamon spiced almond butter cake is the perfect cake for an afternoon tea. It’s impressive yet simple, sweet but not sickly, and I guarantee guests will be coming back for seconds!

As far as cakes go, it’s definitely on the moist and dense side of the scale as opposed to light and fluffy. But it’s not so heavy that it leaves you feeling overly full.

It’s bursting with beautiful flavours of honey, cinnamon and almond butter, and best of all it’s completely gluten, dairy and egg free.

I created this recipe for my friends at Chantal Organics to showcase their new cinnamon spiced almond butter. OMG what a delicious combination! They’ve also added chia and hemp seeds to this new almond butter, so it’s absolutely packed with plant based goodness.

Of course, if you can’t get your hands on their new almond butter then regular almond butter will also work. Just add some extra cinnamon to the mix.

How To Make A Cake Gluten, Dairy & Egg Free

Creating a cake, or any kind of baking for that matter, that’s gluten, dairy & egg free isn’t always easy. Especially when you’re trying to replicate a classic flavour or texture.

One of the key things to consider is what you’ll be replacing the eggs with. Options range from flax eggs, chia eggs, aquafaba (chickpea brine), applesauce, puréed vegetables and nut butters. These ingredients all work in different ways, producing different results, so it will depend on exactly what texture and flavour you’re trying to achieve. For example using whipped aquafaba is the best way to achieve a light fluffy sponge, whereas applesauce and puréed vegetables are better used for muffins and pancakes.

For this cake I wanted a really moist, almost sticky date pudding-like crumb, so I used almond butter which goes beautifully with the honey and cinnamon. Peanut butter is another great option, especially if you’re making a chocolate cake. It imparts an amazing rich, velvety quality which goes so well with chocolate. Check out this recipe here for my Ultimate Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake which uses peanut butter instead of eggs, and is also gluten free.

For the gluten free flours in this cake, I used a combination of almond meal, rice flour and buckwheat combined with raising agents. To ensure the sweeteners remained unrefined I used coconut sugar and raw honey.

The Easiest Sugar Free Vegan Frosting

Deciding on the frosting for this dairy free cake was more of a challenge! Almost all the frosting recipes out there contain some kind of refined sugar and/or dairy. Most dairy free/vegan frosting recipes either use soaked cashews, which is quite a process, or the solidified fat from a can of coconut milk. I can tell you, neither of those set very well, nor do they stay on a cake for very long! At least not the recipes I tried.

In the end I decided to use a thick plain coconut yoghurt which goes perfectly with this dessert style cake. Most coconut yoghurts are naturally thick so will stay on a cake nicely and look smooth and lush. Just be sure to choose a coconut yoghurt that doesn’t have too much starch added as this can cause the yoghurt to look lumpy. Also, if you want your frosting to be sugar free choose an unsweetened coconut yogurt. This cake is definitely sweet enough to handle it!

Of course, once you add the yoghurt frosting you then need to store this cake in the fridge. So my advice is to ice it just before serving, as the cake itself tastes much better at room temperature.

I chose to decorate this cake with fresh pears because they’re in season at the moment. But you could use any fresh seasonal fruit such as berries, cherries or other stone fruit.

To finish this honey & cinnamon cake, drizzle with honey and sprinkle with chopped pistachios and you’ll have a cake ready to impress!

I’d love to hear from you if you make this cake! Leave a comment below, and be sure to tag your pictures #swoonfood on Instagram or facebook.

Enjoy!

Honey & Cinnamon Spiced Almond Cake

Makes: 1 x 8″ cake

Prep time: 30 minutes  Cook time: 50 minutes

Dry Ingredients
1 cup /120g ground almonds (almond meal)
1/2 cup / 80g rice flour
1/2 cup / 70g buckwheat flour
3/4 cup / 150g coconut sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pink Himalayan salt

Wet Ingredients
1/2 cup / 125g coconut oil
3 Tbsp /60g Chantal Organics cinnamon spiced almond butter
1/2 cup / 125g plant based milk
1/2 cup / 125g coconut yoghurt
1/4 cup / 90g raw honey or pure maple or rice syrup if vegan

Decoration
1 cup unsweetened coconut yoghurt
Honey or pure maple syrup
Fresh seasonal fruit
Chopped pistachios

Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC fan bake and line an 8″ springform tin with baking paper.

Place the ground almonds, rice flour, buckwheat flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a mixing bowl and stir until evenly combined.

Combine all the wet ingredients, except the coconut oil, in a small bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined. You can also use a food processor and pulse until well mixed and smooth.

Lastly add the melted coconut oil and fold in until combined.

Pour the cake mix into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Place the cake into the centre of the oven to bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in it’s tin on a wire rack to ensure the cake keeps it’s form.

When the cake is cool, remove from tin and place on a serving plate. Spread a thick layer of coconut yoghurt over the top and decorate with fresh fruit, chopped pistachios and a drizzle of honey.

Store the un-iced cake in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 5 days, once you’ve added the yoghurt frosting keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

POPULAR POSTS