Gluten Free Pumpkin Smash Cake with Coconut Cream Frosting (GF/DF/Refined Sugar-free)

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I am still processing and mourning the fact that my sweet baby boy is 1. Like so much so that I can’t even start talking about it too much or I’ll get all teary eyed. It is truly incredible how insanely fast the first year flies by. With this baby, I can honestly say without a shadow of a doubt that I have tried to e n j o y him as much as a I possibly could. With my other first two babies I always felt like I was to stressed or busy or overwhelmed to even be able to enjoy them enough or cuddle them enough. But with this sweet boy Mr. Eli, I have snuggled the heck out of him and enjoyed every single darn moment. Even more so because he was so much goodness and sweetness born right in the midst of such a dark terrible year that is 2020. I spoiled the heck out of that baby with snuggles and love (just kidding, you can’t actually spoil a baby with love but if you could I definitely did.)

Anyway, I haven’t written a blog post entry for a WHILE guys but when I tasted this cake I knew I had to put this one in the books because it was truly incredible. Its 100% gluten free, dairy free with zero food dyes or refined sugars and it has a delicious pumpkiny/orange taste to it. It’s also super moist too, which I find is the most important thing about any cake.

Honestly, I was trying to make something that I wouldn’t be horrified for my baby to stuff his face with, but I never expected it to taste this darn good!! I loved it so much that I am going to make this same recipe and turn it into cupcakes because that’s how great it turned out.

My little man of course loved it too. Smushed his face realllllll good alright. I almost thought for a minute he might eat the whole entire thing.

This base of this cake is made with gluten free oats that you grind in the blender. My favorite gluten free brand of oats is One Degree because they guarantee they do not spray glyphosate on their oats (or any of their other products either).

I prepared the cake in small ramakins that I purchased just for this job but you can also bake the cake inside of muffin tins alternatively. This recipe will make 4 small stackable cakes. I chose to only stack 2 of them for my smash cake but I think it would also look cute (and extra cake-smashy) if you stacked three. I frosted in between the cakes to make them stick then I used a spoon to also frost the outside of them.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/3 cup canned pumpkin

• 1/3 cup applesauce

• 2 eggs

• 1/3 cup coconut oil

• 1/3 cup coconut sugar

• 3 tsp orange zest

• 2 tsp vanilla

• 1 + 1/2 cup gluten free oat flour (I use One Degree Oats)

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1/8 tsp sea salt

  
  COCONUT CREAM FROSTING:

• 1/3 cup coconut cream from a can of full fat coconut milk

• 1/3 cup ghee (this is my absolute favorite ghee brand)

• 3-4 tsp agave or maple syrup

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease 3 ramakins (alternatively you can use a muffin tin) with coconut oil.

3. In a large bowl, add all the wet ingredients: pumpkin, applesauce, eggs, coconut oil, orange zest and vanilla. Combine and mix together well.

4. In a separate bowl, add the coconut sugar, oat flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt and combine well.

5. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir until combined with no bumps in the batter.

6. Distribute batter to each ramakin (there should be enough to go into 4 ramakins).

7. Bake until the tooth pick test passes, about 25 minutes.

8. Let the cakes cool off for about 5 minutes, then release them from the ramekins. Slice the top off the top of the cakes to make them easier to stack and frost.

For the Coconut Cream Frosting:

1. Use a spoon to gather off the top thick creamy layer out of a can of full fat coconut milk. Add it to a small mixing bowl

2. Add ghee and agave.

3. Use an electric mixer to froth the ingredients together until it turns into a frosting-like consistency.

4. Place in the refrigerator until you’re reading to frost your cake.

5. When you’re ready, first use a butter knife to spread some frosting in between the two cake layers to stack them. Then frost the outside of the cake.

   ***Note: I used food-dye free sprinkles for decorating.