Special Treat! Grain-Free (Gluten Free) Chocolate Cake With "Boiled" Icing

One of my favorite traditional family desserts is chocolate cake with boiled icing.  Now we're gluten free (for now anyway), grain free, and only using honey as a sweetner, well almost always.  This recipe uses maple syrup in the icing  and makes a lovely rare treat.  I guess honey would probably work just as easily but you just can't beat the maple flavor which is closer to the traditional boiled icing flavor I grew up with since it was made with brown sugar.  So here is the recipe!

Grain Free Chocolate Cake:

1 1/2 cup almond flour  (finely ground)
1 cup coconut flour
1 cup honey
1/2 cup cocoa powdeer
1/2 cup softened butter
1  1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch sea salt
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups hot water

Preheat oven to 350.  Put all ingredients into mixing bowl ( in order) and beat very well. Pour into greased
9 x 13 pan and bake for 40 min. 

"Boiled" Icing

4 egg whites
1 cup maple syrup (the real stuff!)
1 tsp vanilla

Put egg whites, syrup, and vanilla into a  good size pot.  The egg whites will expand quite a bit.  Beat with hand mixer over medium low heat  until soft peaks form and icing is shiny.  This won't take too long, maybe 4  or 5 minutes.  Spread over cooled cake.  This icing shouldn't sit in the pot too long as it will begin to separate so it's best to make it when your cake is already cooled.

Frozen Peanut Butter Pie (SCD, Gluten Free, GAPS friendly)

I'm not  a GAPS or SCD diet expert by any means, but this pie I whipped up yesterday is as far as a know compliant.  We are newly trying to follow the basics and so far I really like this way of eating, lots of room for creativity and yumminess.  This is a crustless pie but you could easily add a press in nut type crust, or even a baked coconut flour crust.  Cooking With Coconut Flour by Bruce Fife is an excellent resource and has several good pie crust recipes.

Here's the recipe for the filling:

1 cup natural peanut butter (no additives)
1 cup plain yogurt, NOT low fat (preferably homemade)
1/4 cup butter or coconut oil
1/3 cup honey
4 egg whites
pinch of sea salt

beat the first four ingredients until light and fluffy
in separate bowl, beat egg whites and salt until stiff
fold the egg white into the peanut butter mixture in two parts (half at a time)
pour into buttered pie dish and smooth out, cover and freeze until hardened if you can wait that long! 

I served this with homemade vanilla ice cream and it was good.