Healthy Banana Cake

My dearest friend's son was getting ready to celebrate his birthday, and we started chatting about his cake.  This wasn't just any birthday, but his first birthday.  This meant a smash cake was in order!  So the talks began simply, with her stating she wanted a healthy cake for him to dive into.  We first got into cakes, then into sugar-free, healthy, but tons of work frostings.  Then we set a plan in place: a healthy, banana cake and a frosting recipe we discovered after powering through everything on pinterest.

On event day,I got up early and headed over to begin my baking extravaganza (We needed not just a smash cake, but cupcakes for guests, too!). I wisely packed up my Kitchenaid to help with the job.

Coconut flour is a great. light flour, and since spelt flour is so dense I decided to use some coconut to dilute it a bit and hopefully keep the cake light. Coconut flour can replace about 20% of your base flour in a recipe, so I went a little lower and used 1/4 cup. I combined the flours, baking soda, and a bit of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg in a large bowl.

In my large mixing bowl, I mashed the bananas until they were liquidy. I added in the applesauce and vanilla, then gradually stirred in the flour. Note the lack of eggs - I have used bananas as an egg replacement before and it really does work great!

I used my mini bundt pan for these so that we could get the right size (and a cute little shape!). I scooped them into the pan and let them bake for right about 20 minutes, until they were golden brown on top.

Look at those little cuties!

Despite the lack of added sugar in the cake, I did use agave nectar in the icing, because plain old butter on a cupcake just sounds gross. And using my frosting kit, I made some light and dark blue frosting for this little guy's celebration.

This was a dense cake, almost bread-like. It reminded me of banana bread. The coconut flour worked out well, as the cake was a nice consistency, without being too heavy. The frosting added the right amount of sweetness to qualify this bad boy as a cake, and the ingredients themselves made this a great option for my friend's son. Of course, come cake time, he mainly covered himself in the frosting, but isn't that the point of a smash cake? Baking successes are the best when shared with friends and family.


Healthy Banana Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup spelt flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 bananas
3/4 cup applesauce
3 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. In a medium bowl, mash the bananas until they are a thick liquid consistency, then mix in vanilla extract and applesauce. Mix in flour just until just combined, then pour into cake pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

adapted from banana smash cake