Yummy Strawberry Cake

With a family full of allergies and a home-school co-op with more allergies, I have to come up with new inventions at times in the way of food.  I find it incredibly fun trying out new "science experiments" of taking a base recipe and making into something completely my own.  So today I present to you a homemade Strawberry Cake, gluten free and dairy free!!! 

My inspiration was a little girl turning 5 who has a dairy allergy. We all wanted to celebrate together. With my family's gluten problems, I had to come up with a cake we could all eat.  I like testing things on kids. If kids don't like them, then they don't really taste good as far as I'm concerned.  So this one wins--one of my students had two pieces in a matter of seconds! I hope you enjoy too.

Before Mixing anything I had to prepare my ingredients. I again used raw, unbleached, unrefined sugar, so my first step was to blend it down in my husband's coffee grinder. 

My next step was to take 2 1/4 cups of gluten free oatmeal and pulverize it in my food processor so it was flour and set aside. 

Last I pureed the strawberries, thus the sticky stuff would be in there last.  I used 1 cup of frozen strawberries, slightly thawed, and pulsed them in the food processor until they were a smooth puree. You will use half in the cake and half in the frosting.

• 1 3/4  cups  raw sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vanilla coconut milk * if you do not use vanilla then add vanilla to your recipe.
• 1/2 cup strawberry puree
• 2 1/4 cups oat flour (pulverized)
• 1 c. coconut butter (not oil)
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  zanthan gum

Frosting...

• 1 cup of coconut butter (not oil)
• 1/2 c. strawberry puree
• 5 T vanilla coconut milk
• 1/2- 1 cup sugar you grinded up. 
• 1 Tablespoon of pure cranberry juice (not cocktail)

Preheat oven to 350° F / 176° C

I did two rounds. 

1. In a small bowl mix the eggs, 1/2 c of puree, and milk with a fork.
2. In your mixing bowl mix up dry ingredients.  add the coconut butter, the batter should become crumbly. 
3. Pour in wet mixture.  Beat for 1 minute, scrap and beat for 30 seconds. 
4. Pour into two well greased pans.  Our trick is to coat in coconut oil, freeze the pans for a couple minutes to harden the oil, then cakes won't stick.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool for 10 minutes or more before putting on cooling racks.  Cool completely before frosting.
7. While cooling, make the frosting.  Pour all the remaining ingredients into your food processor with the remaining 1/2 c of puree.  Blend well, and then frost the cake.  
8. Tada! You are done: a strawberry cake with no artificial colors or flavors, and gluten, dairy and nut free.  

If you aren't allergic to dairy I think the cream cheese frosting would be divine on this cake as well with strawberry puree folded in.  Check out my last post on the carrot cake for the cream cheese frosting recipe.