I fell victim again! A reader emailed me asking if I had a Paleo King Cake and when I said no, I instantly volunteered to experiment. I mean what a fun challenge, how could I pass it up?! So I basically stopped what I was doing and ran to the kitchen.
Now, you may ask what business this Jewish girl has baking a king cake. Truth is, I grew up in Houston, just a few hours down I-10 from the king cake motherland. I’ve participated in one too many Bourbon St experiments, eaten my weight in beignets, and can suck down some gumbo with the best of em. So while I won’t be baking any babies in this cake (or putting them in afterwards), I am more than happy to pay homage to my Cajun neighbors!
I wanted to make the real deal, rolled up version which can sometimes be hard with grain free ingredients. So I took into consideration the recipe for Chocolate Babka that I wrote for The New Yiddish Kitchen and went from there. I wanted to create a delicious cinnamon sugar filling and of course a festive Mardi Gras inspired icing but without the artificial dyes.
So off I went! I’m really happy with the end result and in the spirit of Mardi Gras I had a lot of fun creating this! Laissez les bons temps rouler!!
Ingredients:
For the cake:
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 packet quick rise yeast
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup maple sugar or coconut palm sugar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3/4 cup cassava flour
- 3/4 cup potato starch
- 1/4 cup arrowroot + 1/4 cup reserved
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons finely ground psyllium husk powder
For the filling:
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- 2 tablespoons ghee, melted
- 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar or maple sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch sea salt
For the icing (see alternate options in directions below):
- 1 1/2 cup grain free powdered sugar (divided)
- 1/4 teaspoon spirulina or chlorella powder
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon oj
- 2 blackberries
- water
- Preheat the oven to 350. Now start by making your dough- combine the water, yeast, palm sugar and maple syrup in a mixing bowl. Stir gently and allow to sit for 5 minutes; your yeast should begin to foam
- Add in the remaining ingredients, saving the psyllium husk powder for last
- On a large piece of parchment paper, dust 1/2 of the remaining 1/4 cup of arrowroot, spoon out the dough and then sprinkled the rest of the arrowroot on top
- Place another piece of parchment paper on top of the dough and roll it out into a rectangle. Exact size is not important but you’ll want it to be around 1/8″ thick and longer than it is tall
- Now mix together the filling and spread it all over the rolled out dough
- Starting with the long side of the dough nearest to you, roll the dough up until it looks like a long jelly roll
- Then bring the two edges together and seal them by pressing the dough so that they form a ring
- NOTE: the dough can be very sticky. If you need more flour, just sprinkle 1 tablespoon at a time after it is on the parchment paper and roll it slowly, adding more flour as you go
- Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown
- While the cake is baking, make your icings. For the Green, blend 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon water, and 1/4 teaspoon chlorella or spirulina powder. For the Yellow, blend 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon orange juice, and 1/4 teaspoon turmeric together. For the Purple, blend 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 2 blackberries, and 1 tablespoon water together. If you need more water add it but you don’t want it too thin or it won’t set as easily and will just run off your cake
- NOTE: If you prefer not to use grain free powdered sugar, you can make the frostings with coconut butter and stevia (and aforementioned “dyes”) or you can experiment with melted coconut oil which after solidifying will harden like icing
This cake is absolutely beautiful! Im glad you took the challenge of making a readers request and made this perfect cake!
Aw thanks Bethany! I do admit I love a good challenge!!!
Looks fantastique! 😀 I made a grain free King’s cake last year that was very good but it uses stevia and almond flour. I’ve really been liking the cassava flour, so I will have to give this one a try this year! Thank you! 🙂
BTW: voted! And I would have voted for you without the bribe. 😉 Gook luck!
Thanks Amy! Hope you like it!
What psyllium husk powder do you buy? There are so many to choose from.
Typically NOW Foods brand bc it’s easy to find!
Ahhh!! Someone finally did it. I’m born and raised NOLA so I cannot wait to share this with my friends and family! Btw I realllly have loved your Down South Paleo. You and I may have the same tastebuds… I drool over everything you make! 🙂
Thanks Monica! I really really appreciate your words and if we have the same tastebuds then we MUST have the best taste in food LOL
Looks awesome! I got some beetroot powder recently and I think I may substitute that in for the pretty pink frosting! Love your creative and delicious recipes!
Beetroot powder would work great!
Hi Jennifer. I’m new to your site and just got your cookbook this week. I’m excited to try the bread recipe today as I’ve got 7 lunches to pack for our family field trip tomorrow and sandwiches would be nice to have. One question for you – what does the psyllium husk powder do in your recipes? Would the outcome change significantly if I leave it out? It’s the one ingredient I don’t have and haven’t seen in other paleo recipes. Can you clue me in please? Thanks!
It definitely helps the texture, you could try leaving it out but I am not sure what the outcome outcome would be.
Thank you for this recipe–I made it for my middle daughter whose class was having king cake at school, and it was delicious and easy to make too! My older daughter thought it was better than the store bought one that her school served. Thanks again!
WOW!!!! That’s so amazing, thank you!!
Thanks so much for the recipe! I’ll try it tomorrow. What can I use instead of potato starch? My body doesn’t like it!. Thanks!
If you can source sweet potato starch at an Asian grocery, that works great!
Thanks for answering so quick! Unfortunately I can’t have sweet potatoe either.
I’ve used tapioca starch in place of potato starch in recipes.
Hi! This is gorgeous!
I am wondering if you have any suggestions to use in place of cassava flour? It’s prohibitively expensive where I am.
Thank you!
I am not sure what to substitute as all grain free flours are so different. Almond flour might work but I can’t make any promises!
Umm this is awesome! I even messed up and used wax paper instead of parchment (bc I didn’t have anymore and figured it would be fine…not the case) and it ended up sticking so badly that when I tried to roll it I had to just scrape it into a blob on the sheet pan. I hoped for the best and even though it looks nothing like its supposed to it tastes amazing!!!! Thank you for this recipe!
Oh no! LOL well at least there was sort of a happy ending!
Do you need to make the day of? Or can you make the day before and it still be good?
Day before should still be good.