I’ve been on a mission to clean out my cupboards. I could probably eat for months on all the dried gluten free pasta, flour, canned beans, spices, honeys and pastes in there. It’s ridiculous. And don’t get me started on my freezer. Making ice cubes and placing them in my freezer had become akin to a complicated game of Tetris mixed with Jenga, with maybe a little Twister added in for good measure.
So when I saw the giant bag of organic candied ginger, and realized I no longer had to avoid sugar because of the cleanse I was previously on (Metagenics plus FODMAPs, which I don’t recommend, and which had me avoiding chickpea flour in large doses), I knew it was time to make cake – a lovely realization.
I also had this giant bag of organic almonds in the fridge, and a vegan who’d want to try the cake, I was sure.
But what kind of cake to make? I really love cakes that you flip upside-down because you get this no-work and addictive topping (the former bottom) without having to glaze the cake or add icing. I do love efficient desserts.
This is what I did:
Candied Ginger Coffee Cake (Gluten Free, Vegan)
2 cups plain, organic almonds or pecans (or 2 cup unsweetened, plain almond milk)
1/2 cup chopped candied ginger
2 cups chickpea flour
1 cup tapioca flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp ground chia seeds
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar (or maple syrup)
Juice of half a lemon
1. Soak the nuts in a large bowl of water for eight hours, or overnight. Drain the water, rinse the nuts and drain again. Blend them with 4 cups of fresh water, then strain through a cheesecloth.* Reserve 2 cups of the nutmilk and refrigerate the rest for another use.**
2. Place the chopped ginger at the bottom of a greased bundt pan or 9×9″ baking dish.
3. Whisk the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Add the remaining ingredients plus 2 cups of homemade almond milk and blend with a hand mixer until smooth.
5. Pour the batter on top of the candied ginger and let it sit while you preheat the oven to 350˚F.
6. Bake for 40-55 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let the cake cool, then loosen it with a rubber spatula or knife before inverting it onto a plate. Eat from the top down…
*You can use up to 1 cup of the leftover nutmeats to replace a cup of chickpea flour if you want. Otherwise, freeze them for future desserts, nutbreads or crackers. If you use the nutmeats as flour, add them along with the wet ingredients, not the dry ones.
**I like to have a small glass in the morning with papaya or other fruit, but often let it sit in the fridge for a day to separate into cream and water, then freeze the cream for making curries as a coconut milk replacement. Maybe kind of weird – the breakfast choice and the curry – but super delicious.
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