Hello? Is anyone here? I’m here! My last post was exactly one year ago. What in the world have I been doing? Just being a busy mom of three teenagers and a ten year old. That and I just felt like I needed a break. Not sure why. I have missed blogging terribly. I started feeling like a part of who I am was missing. I love baking and I love sharing it with others. My health is great! I cannot complain at all. With my diet changes of going gluten free and refined sugar free (and my 15 year old deciding to be vegan!), I think I had just been in a rut on what to do, what to make, what to share and post here. But I decided I really want to try again with this little part of me that was missing. I’m not in it for hundreds of thousands of visitors. I’m not going to be making videos. My blog is WAY outdated. But I don’t care. I need to do it for me. A lot of it is that I’ve just decided I need to keep documenting things I love somewhere else besides just scribbled in a notebook.
My idea the last couple months has been to take some of my favorite tried-and-true recipes, whether they be from here on my blog, or favorite blogs or cookbooks and make them gluten free, refined sugar free, and sometimes vegan and share them with you. I’ve made a number of things already and am so happy with how they are turning out with simple changes like gluten free flours, unrefined sugars (coconut sugar, raw honey, agave, etc.). I plan to share links to my favorite cookbooks, blogs and recipes as they were originally made, then post my changed results here. Does that sound good? I think so. I’ve asked a few people and they think it’s a great idea. So I’m here to try it!
Now, this cake—I first shared this cake not long after starting my blog in February 2008! I saw it on a blog, who adapted it from Bon Appetit in a 2003 magazine article. I adapted it enough that I’m leaving you the link to my post for this Absolutely Delicious Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake. I made this more times than I can count over the years. Well, I’ve come up with a new, delicious favorite that everyone here loves, except it’s gluten free, vegan and refined sugar free. The boys don’t care! This is a good sign. A lot of times, they won’t even try something when I tell them it’s gluten free. This is gone so quickly every time I’ve made it recently, which is like three or four times.
I made this again yesterday for dinner as we were having the LDS sister missionaries over and one of them has celiacs. They both went crazy over how good it was and we let them take the leftover cake home. There wasn’t a lot left, maybe two pieces, but it’s because they had seconds while we were eating it! Win. I love when someone is happy with something I’ve made, especially when there are changes that most would think would make something taste strange. This one is good! Try it! It is our go-to when we have overripe bananas.
Gluten Free Banana Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake (vegan), by Katrina, Baking and Boys!
*Streusel topping:
1/4 cup coconut sugar**
1/2 tablespoons agave nectar
1/4 cup pecans, chopped
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips
Cake:
1 1/2 cups gluten free flour blend (xanthan gum included)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup (4 ounces) coconut oil
1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flaxseed, 2 1/2 tablespoons water, let sit for 5 minutes)
1 1/3 cup mashed banana (about 4 small/medium or 3 large bananas)
3 tablespoons almond milk (or non-dairy milk of your choice)
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (I use Bragg’s)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Make the streusel topping. Combine the coconut sugar with the agave, mix together with a fork until it is all moist like brown sugar. Add the pecans, cinnamon and chocolate chips. Stir together, set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8x8 inch square pan (9x9 also works fine!) with nonstick foil and spray lightly with a non-propellant cooking spray (I like coconut oil). In a small bowl, make the flax egg, let it sit while you prepare the rest. In another small bowl, combine the almond milk and vinegar, let sit. In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, whisk together and set aside. In a large bowl, add the coconut sugar, agave and coconut oil. Whisk until well combined. Whisk in the flax egg and almond milk mixture and the vanilla. Stir in mashed banana (sometimes I pulse it in a food processor, sometimes I just mash them with a fork). Fold in the dry ingredients. Pour into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Evenly sprinkle the topping over the cake batter. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with just a few crumbs. Let cool on a wire rack completely. Remove pan using foil edges. Carefully remove cake from the foil and put it on a serving plate.
*Note—The original Absolutely Delicious Banana Cake I linked above also has streusel in the middle. I did make it that way once (photo above), but decided it’s not necessary. Good, but not necessary. So if you’d like you can double the topping able and put half of it on half the batter in the pan. It’s all natural sugars, so no harm done!
**Make your own, all-natural brown sugar. Combine coconut sugar with agave (use amounts posted above in the streusel for the correct consistency) until moist. It’s perfect, in my opinion!
Make your own healthy, all-natural “brown sugar”. Combine coconut sugar with a touch of agave, raw honey or molasses, mix with a fork until all moist. Use about 1/2 cup coconut sugar and 1 tablespoon agave/honey/molasses. I love it!
If I had some more overripe bananas right now, I’d make this again today. Guess I’ll have to wait another couple days.
You may be wondering what is going on with my family. Quick update, Scott graduated school last year and is 19, has a girlfriend that he spends all his time with when he’s not working at Taco Bell.
Parker is almost 16, almost done with driver’s ed, aching for a job and will start his sophomore year of high school soon! He’s currently having “fun” with hair colors. He did purple and a pink for a while, but his hair is currently an orange color (MS awareness???).
Taylor is 13 and starts 8th grade soon. He’s busy being a crazy 13 year old and doing his best trying not to drive me crazy. He’s pretty funny and still likes lots of creative crafty things.
Sam is 10 and about to start 5th grade. This is crazy! When I started my blog, Scott was 10 and my baby was a baby! Waaahhhh! They aren’t supposed to grow up so fast! Sam loves baseball and discovered this year that he loves being the catcher.
Kevin and I celebrated our 20th Anniversary in June! Twenty years—what???? Crazy. He’s amazing and treats me like a queen. I don’t deserve him. He receives awards at UVU for being an outstanding educator. He got to be in a spread in UVU’s magazine as Captain America. He’s my hero. He’s a great professor, just took over as department chair in the business school at UVU, he’s a wonderful dad and the best husband! So there.
For our 20th, since we didn’t get to take a big trip or anything (he taught for the summer session of school), he surprised me with a bunch of my favorite concerts over the last month, including New Kids On The Block/Paula Abdul, David Archuleta, the Utah Symphony and GENTRI and we got to spend some time together in Salt Lake City. I’m spoiled. Love my life. My health is good. MS is 100% stable, nothing new. Besides being tired more than I’d like, I’ve got this. Glad to be back here and hopefully I’ll post again soon!
11 comments:
I can't believe how long we have been blogging - and now I can happily say I have actually met you in person too! So glad your feeling great and WOW can you believe how old our kids are getting...well, mine anyway. ha ha. Yeah, Justin is turning 32 this weekend and Chis will be 31 in December! So not right. I'm supposed to be their age! Love you so much Katrina and so happy to read this post and if you say this is good, then maybe I just need to give this healthier version a try! I'm still waiting for my A1C numbers to come back...hoping they are not high!
Welcome back! I've missed your posts and look forward to more of them. Love your healthy recipes too! I eat gluten/sugar free as well, due to Lyme disease. Glad to hear your health us good and my, your kids have grown!
Katrina, I was so happy to see you pop up on my Pages Feed today! I've thought about you often, especially since my brother-in-law was diagnosed with MS last year, at the same time as my sister learned that she had a rare form of lymphoma. She is in remission and guardedly optimistic, but both got a huge shock at how vulnerable they were to health problems. Their diet is atrocious but they still are not ready to listen to nutrition advice. I've been gluten free now for more than three years, so I am delighted that you will be converting some of those old recipes. I have missed you and missed seeing your family. Welcome back!
Shelby <3 The craziness is real!
Twila, thanks! Sorry you have to deal with Lyme disease. That's a nasty one.
Anonymous. Thanks! Do I know who you are? Love to you and your family with health trials.
Your boys are growing up so fast! I haven't been over to your blog forever, I am glad I visited!!
I'm SO glad you're back! I had looked at your site a few times over the last year and thought maybe you'd given up blogging. For whatever random reason I checked again today! I really like the new direction you're taking the recipes!
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