Photo courtesy of Sara Salahub http://www.sarasalahub.com

Eat these in moderation!  Although they are gluten-free/dairy-free, they still contain sugar and should not be part of your regular Paleo/Primal diet.

In celebration of a very special girl’s birthday – Sio’s (one of the founders of Crossfit Quantum) – I wanted to test out my skills to see if I could do the unthinkable….make a Cupcake using paleo-ish ingredients! What the what?!?! Impossible!  No.  The cake was easy as I used the same recipe as my Pineapple Upside-Down cake (sans pineapple)…it was the icing that was going to be the challenge.  After scouring the internet for recipe ideas, I stumbled upon a world of fellow ‘healthy’ bakers – people whose lifestyle is foreign to me, aside from the fact that I heard Demi Moore might subscribe to this way of life – they are Raw foodies.  I highly recommend using “raw” as a search term when looking for recipes because you’ll find some amazing raw food blogs that can provide wonderful inspiration for Paleo meals.  I found the icing recipe from The Sunny Raw Kitchen blog and modified it a bit.

Ingredients (makes 12 cupcakes)
Cake
– 2 Tbsp coconut oil
– 4 Tbsp coconut milk
– 1/2 Cup coconut flour
– 2 Tbsp raw honey or maple syrup
– 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
– 3 eggs
– 1 tsp aluminum free baking powder
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 2 whole mashed bananas (very ripe)
– 1/4 C toasted coconut shreds (for the garnish on the icing)
Icing
– 1/4 Cup macadamia nut butter
– 1/4 Cup coconut milk
– 2 Tbsp coconut sugar (I found mine at The Big Carrot in Toronto).  You could sub raw honey or maple syrup.
– 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice (or more)
– 1/4 Tbsp 100% vanilla extract
– 1/8 Cup coconut oil

Directions:

  1. To make the icing:
    1. Melt the macadamia nut butter (especially if you’ve had it in the fridge) so that it’s smooth and easy to mix.  Melt the coconut oil with the coconut sugar.
    2. Mix all of the icing ingredients together thoroughly.  Refrigerate for a few hours until it’s texture is similar to icing.
  2. For the cupcakes:
    1. Pre-heat oven to 350
    2. In a bowl, mix together coconut flour, salt, baking powder, coconut milk, vanilla extract, bananas and eggs
    3. Melt the coconut oil and honey/maple syrup and then slowly add it to the mix.
    4. Mix together thoroughly and pour into greased (use coconut oil or non-stick spray) muffin baking pan.
    5. Bake for about 20-30 minutes – check after 20 minutes because you might have a better oven.  You want to be able to stick a fork into the middle and have it come out dry.
    6. Remove from oven and let it cool completely (otherwise the icing melts off)
  3. To toast the coconut, spread it out on a baking sheet and pop it into the 350 oven for 5 minutes.  Shake it around and put it back in for another 2 minutes or until it’s toasted.
  4. Spread the icing on top of each and sprinkle with toasted coconut