Banana Cocoa Cake with Almond Butter Swirl (Paleo)

This Banana Cocoa Cake with Almond Butter Swirl will satisfy your chocolate cravings without breaking your diet. This cake is Paleo, gluten-free, sweetened almost entirely with bananas, and healthy enough for breakfast!

Happy New Year, internet friends! Can you believe it’s 2015? I hope the first few days of the New Year have been treating you right.

Unfortunately, my first few days of the year I’ve been stuck on the couch trying to fight off a monster of a cold/flu combo. Not fun. I’m on my couch bundled in blankets right now, so I’m not gonna type your ear off, but rather, tell you about this delicious cake and get back to recovering so I can bake up more treats to share!

This Banana Cocoa Cake is easy to throw together, and marries together a bunch of my favorite flavors. Chocolate, banana, and almond butter? Yes please!

This cake is less of a celebration cake, and more a snack cake – one that’s totally healthy enough to enjoy for breakfast! It’s sweetened mostly with bananas (so make sure they’re ripe!), with just a bit of honey to balance out the cocoa. The bananas add lots of sweetness and moisture, and who doesn’t love chocolate and banana together?!

The combo of flours in this cake is one of my favorites for Paleo desserts – I love how the combination of almond flour, tapioca flour, and coconut flour makes a light and fluffy cake that’s barely distinguishable from gluten-filled counterparts.

I also added a swirl of almond butter on top of this cake. I adore the way that it looks swirled onto the cake, and it tastes delicious with the chocolate and banana. If you’re not Paleo, peanut butter would be delicious here as well!

Again, happy 2015 everyone, and I hope your year is off to a sweet start :) enjoy!

PrintBanana Cocoa Snack Cake (Paleo)

Ingredients

• 2 large ripe bananas (~250g), mashed
• 2 tablespoons (30g) coconut oil, melted
• 2 tablespoons (30g) honey
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup (63g) almond flour
• 1/4 cup (28g) coconut flour
• 1/4 cup (25g) tapioca flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 oz. dark chocolate, chopped (optional, omit for strict paleo)
• 1/4 cup almond butter

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease an 8" or 9" round baking pan with coconut oil.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, honey, eggs, milk, mashed bananas, and vanilla.
3. Stir in the almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Fold in chocolate chunks if using.
4. Spread batter in prepared pan and dollop almond butter on top. You may want to warm the almond butter slightly in the microwave so it's a thinner consistency. Swirl almond butter into the batter.
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool completely before serving.

3.0http://www.bakerita.com/banana-cocoa-cake-almond-butter-swirl-paleo/