Paleo Banana Bundt Cake

I feel very fortunate to be visiting with my parents for a few weeks. Living the expat life is fabulous in many ways, but being away from family is always hard. We have the opportunity to visit at least once, sometimes twice a year; and of course Skype helps with the distance to see each other often.

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But nothing beats in person, of course! While visiting, we are not only enjoying each other’s company and conversation, but we are also able to share experiences in the kitchen, which always brings us together. My mother has been making some delectable typical Spanish and Portuguese dishes, that I had been longing to eat again with her special touch. And I’ve been baking quite a lot more than I generally do.

I baked a Paleo carrot cake for my mother’s birthday per special request from my father. Okay.. it was her birthday and he chose the flavour. 😉 But we all enjoyed it.

I’ve also been making a lot of things to “teach” her how to bake Paleo style. The following cake is an example.

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Since going Paleo, reading about and experiencing the nutritional benefits of this lifestyle, I’ve been trying to share my new-found knowledge with my family. Every day cooking is very easy to adapt to Paleo. However, baking is a more complicated venture.

Nut flours, and coconut flour especially, react differently to heat and liquid content. And although in Spanish pastry making the almond is used quite frequently, my mother has never really baked with nut flours alone. Therefore sharing my recipes and techniques with her is helping her learn how to use them.

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(This is the batter with the swirl dropped into it. I apologise for the poor picture quality, which was taken late at night.)

Baking with bananas is a good starting point in Paleo/Primal baking. Bananas act as a binding agent and a liquid component at the same time. So it’s an easier ingredient to experiment with and add nut flours, coconut flour and/or starches, such as tapioca and arrowroot.

For this cake, I kept it simple. And it’s quite delicious and very easy to make; in fact, it’s a great recipe to share with children.

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(The swirl incorporated into the batter.)

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By making it in a bundt tin and adding the banana-cinnamon swirl, this cake is also a delicate and elegant dessert, which can be served at a party, yet works great for “every day” use.

We are enjoying it “bare”; but I do see it as a beautiful event cake with some icing….

By the way, I was inspired to make the banana-cinnamon swirls by this recipe from Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations.

Paleo Banana Bundt Cake
Author: The Saffron Girl
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Ingredients
  • For cake:
  • 4 ripe bananas, thoroughly mashed (1 1/2 cups or 400ml)
  • 6 eggs
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons raw honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup almond flour (ground almonds)
  • 1/3 cup coconut flour
  • coconut oil, for greasing
  • For swirl:
  • 1 ripe banana, thoroughly mashed
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Grease a cake tin with some coconut oil (I made a bundt cake). Set aside.
  2. In a food processor, blender, or by hand, blend until smooth the bananas, eggs, honey, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. (I did this by hand in a bowl, as I was being lazy and didn’t want to wash more dishes.)
  3. If using a food processor, pour the batter into a mixing bowl for the next steps.
  4. Add the almond flour and baking soda and mix well with a hand whisk.
  5. Add the coconut flour and mix well with a hand whisk.
  6. Pour the batter into the cake tin.
  7. For the swirl:
  8. Mash the banana and mix well with the cinnamon.
  9. Place spoonfuls of the swirl over top the cake batter and with a fork, cut the swirl into the batter.
  10. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

 

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22 Comments

  1. 9.5.13

    Wow – love the use of the Bundt tin. Looks most impressive. Hope you’re enjoying the time with your family

    • 9.5.13
      thesaffrongirl said:

      Thanks Ceri!

  2. 9.8.13
    Diana DeCrona said:

    Looks great! I’m guessing you bake at 350 degrees?

    • 9.8.13
      thesaffrongirl said:

      Yes! I’m sorry. Just updated the recipe. Thank you for catching that. Multitasking is not working for me this week. 😉

  3. 10.4.13
    Fey said:

    Hi. Can coconut flour be used for the almond flour? Due to nut allergies. Thanks.

    • 10.4.13
      thesaffrongirl said:

      Hi Fey. No, the coconut flour cannot replace any nut flour; it reacts differently, absorbs liquids in a completely different manner. However, you could try with seed flours, such as ground up sunflower/pumpkin seeds. A word of caution: (I haven’t experienced this yet, as I’ve not baked with sunflower seeds flour yet) I’ve read that when it is mixed with baking soda, it will turn green due to the chlorophyll in sunflower seeds. So you may end up with a slightly green banana cake. 😉

  4. 10.7.13
    Chris said:

    Hi! I’d like to use date paste instead of honey. How would I make that substitution? Thanks!

    • 10.7.13
      thesaffrongirl said:

      I’ve never used date paste as a sweetener. I only use ground up dates or whole dates. However, in any case, it will depend on your own taste. I would add the date paste just before adding the coconut flour and add enough depending on how sweet you want it. As a paste, it will fit into the recipe just as honey does, as a liquid. So no need to adjust anything else. Let me know how it goes, if you would please! I’m interested to hear.

  5. 12.3.13
    Jacqi said:

    Great! I was short on bananas so ground up enough pears to make up the difference and was delicious. Hubby had to top with honey but I liked it the way that it came out.

    • 12.3.13
      The Saffron Girl said:

      Hi Jacqi,

      Oh what a great idea! I’m sure the flavours were delicious! Thanks for sharing. Debra xx

  6. 12.3.13
    Jacqi said:

    I had 3 overripe bananas. I used 2 for the cake and added enough pears to get the total of one and a half cups. For me, that was 3 pears. I even left the skin and and just ground them together in my vitamix. I saved the last banana for the swirl. Anyway, you could really taste both the pears and bananas-really yummy!

    • 12.4.13
      The Saffron Girl said:

      Good morning Jacqi,
      I’m definitely going to make it your way too! It sounds delicious; and maybe even add pear chunks…. oh what a great idea! Thank you. Debra xx

  7. 12.7.13
    Jodi said:

    Hi, I made this cake today. We haven’t tasted it yet, but just the smell alone filling my house is worth it! I know it will be delicious! Thanks for posting the recipe. I did link to your recipe on my blog.

    • 12.7.13
      The Saffron Girl said:

      Hi Jodi,
      I’m happy to hear that you made it. I hope you like it as much when you try it as you did making it! Thanks for sharing on your blog too. Debra xx

  8. 4.7.16
    Amber said:

    Thanks for sharing the recipe! I can not wait to try it out. I was wondering what the nutritional information was? Calories, carbs, etc.

    Thanks!!!

    • 4.7.16
      The Saffron Girl said:

      Hi Amber,

      I’m sorry, but I don’t calculate nutritional information. I know there are apps online that do it; but also never use them so I wouldn’t know which to recommend.

      Thanks for stopping by! Debra xx