Cake for Breakfast!

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I’m not a morning person.  Really, really not a morning person.  I have also never cared much for breakfast because breakfast foods, with the exception of pancakes, just are not that appealing to me.  Almond meal pancakes are good and pancakes made with Pamela’s pancake mix are awesome.  As much as I like them, making them on a weekday rarely happens.

We all know eating a healthy breakfast is important. Hot cereals can be great but they never appealed to my sons.  Cold cereals are fast and easy but according to what I’ve read in Nourishing Traditions and elsewhere even the best of them are not a very healthy choice.  

This cake packs enough nutrition to count as breakfast and it’s a sweet way to start the day.  It’s fast and easy to make and tastes even better by the next morning. It’s grain free and full of heart healthy almonds and protein packed eggs.  Almonds are a stage 2 item in Feingold, so FG friends keep that in mind.  If you would prefer a vegan cake, just sub flax meal for eggs and you’ll be just as happy with the results.

You can’t go wrong with this one, it’s a quick grab and go breakfast for my oldest and something my youngest snacks on throughout the day.  It’s endlessly adaptable by adding dried fruit and nuts and makes great muffins, too. This is the version my family likes the most.

Vanilla Almond Breakfast Cake with Chocolate Chips

1 lb. Pkg  Almond Meal (see Notes)

6              Eggs

1 cup       Grapeseed Oil

2/3 cup    Sugar, Organic Cane (see Notes)

1 T          Vanilla (I make my own so I know it’s gluten free)

½ t          Salt

1 T          Baking Soda

1 cup       Dark Chocolate Chips or roughly chopped dark chocolate

Double check your ingredients and make sure they're all gluten free.

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl until well incorporated, pour into lightly greased 9 x 13 pan.

Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or until golden brown. 

Notes:

I use Trader Joe’s almond meal.  It’s accessible and reasonably priced.  I like the convenient one pound bags and develop most of my almond meal recipes around that weight.

Not everyone would appreciate the fact that there is sugar in this recipe – even such a relatively small amount.  If that’s the case for you, check out Deanna’s recipe for Bossk Brownies at TheMommyBowl.com.  She purees whole dates with boiling water to use as a sweetener.  

It's a creative and fun site and I'm looking forward to trying several of her recipes.  I loved the idea of using the date puree, so I experimented with 1 cup firmly packed dates and 1 cup boiling water pureed in my Vitamix in lieu of the sugar in this recipe and my chocolate coconut bar recipe (will post that soon).  We all loved the results in both recipes and I would definitely use dates again.