She likes it! Hey Mikey!
I wanted to re-post this banana cake to inform everyone that miracles do happen. My daughter has decided that she likes banana bread/cake now. HOORAY! I’ve been making this into loaves (instead of cakes) because they stack better in my freezer, but the original recipe (below) is formulated for a cake pan. Here’s a tip: a DOUBLE recipe will make three 8″x4″ loaves of banana bread. I hope that helps. Just an aside – I love this banana bread toasted and slathered with butta…mmmmmm
I wanted to re-post this banana cake to inform everyone that miracles do happen. My daughter has decided that she likes banana bread/cake now. HOORAY! I’ve been making this into loaves (instead of cakes) because they stack better in my freezer, but the original recipe (below) is formulated for a cake pan. Here’s a tip: a DOUBLE recipe will make three 8″x4″ loaves of banana bread. I hope that helps. Just an aside – I love this banana bread toasted and slathered with butta…mmmmmm
My kiddos LOVE bananas. In fact, we have to buy them every few days because they eat so many. In an effort to get my girly with the food intolerance to eat more, I thought banana bread was a good choice. After all, she adores bananas. It would be a healthy, yummy thing for her (and the rest of us) to snack on. Well, after many attempts, she just…..doesn’t….like it, never has (even back in the days of full-on gluten) – never will. Go figure.Then, I get this great idea! “I’ll make banana bread into a cake! Surely if it’s called ‘banana cake’ she’ll eat it.” (I’m a genius.)
Wrong! After tasting it she said – with a look of disdain on her face- “It’s tastes like banana bread.”
Two words come to mind…TOO and BAD! The rest of us loved it – including outside taste testers. I hope you enjoy this Banana Cake as much as we… well…MOST of us did.
This cake tastes even better the next day. Store it in the fridge and enjoy!
I prefer Honeyville blanched almond flour as it has a nice fine texture. Also, my favorite baking pans are USA Pans because they are nice and heavy, bake evenly, have a silicone coating for easy release that is PTFE, PFOA, and BPA-free.
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Banana Cake (GAPS, SCD, grain free, dairy free, refined sugar free)
Author: Jen - my BIG FAT grain free life
Ingredients
- 1½ cups cooked navy beans, drained and cooled (see note)
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (gluten free)
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
- 2-3 ripe bananas, mashed
- 1½ cups blanched almond flour (I use Honeyville)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9" round baking pan. Line bottom with parchment paper.
- In a food processor high speed blender, combine beans, eggs, apple cider vinegar, vanilla, honey and coconut oil.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together almond flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.
- Add dry ingredients to the blender or food processor and mix until well combined.
- Scrape down sides, add bananas, and pulse until well mixed.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
- Cake tends to be very moist - do not under bake. I lean toward 40 minutes.
- Allow to cool in pan 10 minutes. Then turn the cake out and allow to cool on baking rack.
Hi There Jen,
Absolutely beautiful recipe! And I love your honesty with your daughter's opinion of banana bread. Really Jen, that's so refreshing. So glad she came around! This recipe is amazing and so great for the SCD community. I'm going to try this for sure…and your ingredients give me a few other ideas (like grain-free lemon cake)!?
Thanks for sharing.
Hugs,
–Amber
Thank you Amber. I ADORE lemon cake. Go at it and share soon. Now you have me craving it….At my daughter's (the baby) 1:30 a.m. feeding this morning, I gasped as I realized I hadn't linked up to the blog hop on this post. So I did it just now. Thanks for being patient with me!
Yum! Perfect for a lunchbox 🙂 Come on over and share at the Allergy Friendly Lunchbox Love party: http://allergyfreecookery.blogspot.com/2012/02/allergy-friendly-lunchbox-love-20.html
See you there!
Lisa @ Allergy Free Vintage Cookery
I've seen black beans in brownies and white beans in a blond brownie, but never navy beans in banana cake. Perfect! It looks delicious and I can't wait to try it on my allergy family. Thank you for linking up this week at Allergy-Free Wednesdays! We hope to see you again next week.
~AFW Hostesses
Thanks so much Michelle! It's been fun and I've loved perusing and trying the other recipe offerings…
Hi There Jen,
I've featured your awesome recipe this week on Allergy-Free Wednesdays!
Here’s the link to the other great recipe highlights:
http://www.thetastyalternative.com/2012/02/allergy-free-wednesdays-blog-hop-week-4.html
Hugs,
–Amber
AFter the beans it says “See Note” – but I don't see the note? What do I need to know about the beans??
It looks amazing, I can't wait to try it.
Oh No! So sorry about the “see note” problem. I think I was going to give a rundown on making the beans. For SCD peeps, beans need to soak 24 hours. Then, they're drained and cooked in fresh water until soft – usually about 2-3 hours. So sorry for that! Hope you enjoy the recipe- Jen
Hi Jen,
I made this. Incredible!!!
See here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Tasty-Alternative/288512964505836
This looks awesome! I'm going to try this recipe, I love banana cake and I LOVE the addition of beans. I'v been experimenting with beans because I think it makes the texture more like a regular cake!
When my son started the SCD I made at least two loaves a week, he loved it! It's nice that your daughter is enjoying it now too! In fact I might just make this over the weekend!
What does SCD stand for? ….and if you're not an “SCD peep”, what about the beans? Thanks.
SCD stands for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet which is the subject of a book called “Breaking the Vicious Cycle”. It's a diet for healing the intestinal lining for those with bowel diseases such as Chrohns, colitis, IBD, etc. they are even finding tremendous results with kids who have autism. As far as the beans goes, SCDers can only have navy beans due to the type of carb breakdown that they have. (that's the short version). Beans and legumes must be soaked 24 hours to make digestion easier. For non-SCDers, I guess soaking would be optional. I hope that helps.
Jen
i bought the canned organic navy beans…already cooked. is that okay to use?
I've never used canned beans in the recipe, so I'm not sure. I'd rinse them well under warm water. The beans need to be cooked really soft to break up properly in the food processor. If they don't seem soft, maybe you could simmer them for a little bit in water to soften further. Let me know how it goes!
Jen
This was a delicious recipe!! (I did use canned beans, BTW for other readers who want to try that. Just rinsed them and followed the recipe.) I decided to make these as cupcakes and mini cupcakes (or muffins, if you prefer). I baked for about half the time, until they were lightly browned and a toothpick came out clean. I used cupcake papers to line the pan and that worked out great. I also added chocolate chips (about a cup) and I LOVED these muffin/cupcakes!!
I love your recipes!.
Thank you!
I love banana bread as it’s great for using up the brown ones no one like to eat. I recently wrote a post for sugar free recipes, very apt for UK at the moment as sugar is in the headlines. http://www.stylemyparty.co.uk/blog/sugar-free-cakes/ and I’ve featured your recipe, hope you like it? 🙂
Thank you, Stacy! I love the cakes you featured and thank you for featuring mine as well.
XO
Jen
Can I make it without the beans