Dessert is probably the most challenging thing to make Plant Paradox compliant, simply because it’s not necessary food for fuel. We mostly eat ground up salad and olive oil, so bringing a dessert to a family gathering can create what I’ve hilariously coined a “Plant Paradoxical Dilemma:” How do I make something I can eat that everyone else will want to eat?

I took it on as a personal challenge to create the easiest, lectin-free compliant sheet pan cake that you could bring to any food-centered occasion and “wow” your friends and family. Here’s my recipe and method for easy sheet pan ginger cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

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Ingredients for Ginger Sheet Cake

Cassava Flour

The closest wheat flour substitute on the market, cassava flour is your best bet for mimicking a gluten-like texture. I use it in my vanilla cake mug muffin to get the exact texture we’re going for. The best brand for both consistency and mild flavor is available through Amazon Prime.

Superfine Almond Flour

To get the best possible cake texture, we’re using two different kinds of flour. There are several brands of almond flour, but make sure to get one that says “superfine.” A superfine grind will yield the most consistent texture in a cake. There are several brands available at my local grocery store, and a good brand is also available on Amazon.

Erythritol Sweetener

Erythritol is the best cane sugar replacement for both its low glycemic index and its delicious taste. We’ll be replacing two types of cane sugar in this cake: granulated for the cake and powdered for the icing. Swerve has an awesome Baker’s Bundle available through Amazon that contains the two different types we need to make our cake and frost it too. I bought one specifically for use in this recipe!

Coconut Milk

Full fat coconut milk is a great replacement for whole milk or buttermilk in a recipe. You can purchase it in cans, usually in the Asian food aisle of a grocery store. Be sure to get full fat, unsweetened, and shake the can well before opening.

Apple Cider Vinegar

It’s not entirely necessary, since we’re gonna kill it all with high heat, but there are some great benefits to using raw, unfiltered, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar that contains “the mother”–a colony of live bacteria that aids the fermentation process. Braggs is available at most grocery stores and through Amazon Prime. You can read more about the benefits of raw cider vinegar here.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

You can buy it pre-made or make your own using these ratios:

• 9 parts ground cinnamon
• 2 parts ground ginger
• 2 parts ground nutmeg
• 1.5 parts ground allspice
• 1.5 parts ground cloves

You can get the above by using 3 tablespoons cinnamon, 2 teaspoons each ginger and nutmeg, and 1.5 teaspoons each allspice and cloves.

Full Fat Cream Cheese

Do not use light cream cheese for the icing, or you will get more of the milk protein that is the reason we don’t eat conventional dairy in the first place. Use full fat, organic or grass fed cream cheese.

French or Italian Butter

It’s not absolutely necessary to use European butter, but southern European cows produce milk with a protein that is safer for humans to digest. Since butter is nearly all fat, it’s not a huge concern unless you have a true milk allergy. At least go for organic or grass-fed domestic butter.

 

The Method

Prep the Coconut Milk

Coconut milk can act as a buttermilk in a recipe if you first prep it with vinegar. Simply mix the coconut milk and the apple cider vinegar, and let it sit for about 10 minutes before adding to the recipe.

Mix Dry and Wet Separately

Cake-Making 101: Sift together your dry ingredients (flour, salt, spices, baking soda, baking powder) and beat together your wet ingredients (oil, sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla, water) before combining the two. This way you get even distribution of spices and reactors for the perfect consistency.

Use a 9×13 Glass Pan

Sheet cakes are the easiest thing to bring to a gathering, because you can bake, cool, frost, store, and tote the cake without it ever leaving the pan. It is foolproof (and pothole proof).

Cool the Cake Entirely Before Frosting

You can cool the cake right in the pan, but resist the urge to whip up the frosting and frost it right away. The aesthetic of the icing depends on the butter and cream cheese not melting once it hits the cake, so I recommend waiting at least 2 hours.

Use a Pastry Bag or Plastic Bag for a “Drizzle” Effect

You can choose to frost the cake traditionally by spreading it on or you can make it look dang near professional by doing this simple process for what I call the “drizzle effect:”

1. Spoon frosting into a pastry bag or plastic ziploc bag.
2. Cut off one tiny corner of the bag, so there is a small opening for the frosting to come out.
3. Squeeze the frosting into that corner.
4. Hold over the cake, and “drizzle” it on back and forth.
5. Sprinkle the whole thing liberally with cinnamon.

Lay it on Thick

Cream cheese frosting is the best part of any cake (even cakes that don’t have cream cheese frosting could benefit from cream cheese frosting). This is a really simple cake recipe–the cake by itself is simply delicious for us Plant Paradox people, but your guests will exclaim with delight when they hear that the lectin-free health nut brought a cake with cream cheese frosting.

 

The Recipe

Ingredients

“Butter”milk

• 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Ginger Cake

• 3/4 cups cassava flour
• 1/3 cup superfine almond flour
• 1.5 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granular erythritol
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• (the coconut milk mixture from step 1)

Cream Cheese Icing

• 4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
• 4 ounces full fat cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup confectioners erythritol
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• water for thinning (if needed)
• cinnamon for sprinkling
• whole cinnamon sticks and cloves, for serving (optional)

Directions

Prep

1. POSITION a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat to 300 degrees F. Liberally grease a 9×13-inch glass pan.
2. MIX the coconut milk and apple cider vinegar together in a measuring cup. Set aside.

Ginger Cake

1. WHISK the flour, ginger, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
2. BEAT the eggs, butter, and sugar together in a separate bowl. Add the coconut milk (from step 1) and vanilla, and whisk to combine.
3. COMBINE the wet ingredients and dry ingredients together in the larger bowl, using a spatula to stir and make a thick batter.
4. POUR the batter into the prepared 9×13 pan. Spread the batter evenly across the width and length of the pan with a spatula. Give the pan a few gentle “shakes” back and forth and side to side, and then gently bang it on the counter
5. to settle the batter. Bake in the center of the oven until a toothpick comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

Cream Cheese Icing

1. BEAT together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. Beating on low, slowly add the confectioners erythritol, and beat to combine. Beat in the vanilla extract.
2. ICING should be thin enough to spread with a knife, but not so thin it drips off a spoon. If icing is too thick, add 1 tablespoon water at at time to thin, until desired consistency is reached.
3. SPOON icing into a pastry bag or plastic bag, and cut a small hole in the corner. Going back and forth over the top of the cake, squeeze the icing out in a “drizzle” pattern.
4. OR spread frosting evenly over cake in the traditional manner, using a spatula to smooth.
5. SPRINKLE the top liberally with cinnamon.
6. SERVE precut into squares with a cinnamon stick and cloves on top or serve straight from the pan!

 

Printable Ginger Cake Recipe