Sticky Bun Cake

I have been in love with these Cinnamon Bun Muffins since the day I discovered them a couple years ago. I have made them countless times to rave reviews. Over time, I've tweaked the recipe several different ways but often following mostly as-is, using maple syrup and no nuts to make a straight-up cinnamon bun taste sensation. Lately, since I'm doing my Keto experiment, I have been playing around with using only just enough caloric sweetener to get the flavor profile, while filling out the sweetness with either Swerve or Stevia. Cute man hates this but tolerates it in some recipes but not others. When making this one, he did not notice so score one for the home team! All in all, the fewer baked things I eat, the better for my fat loss goals, but I enjoy being able to live a little without completely blowing it.

As for the caloric sweeteners, after reading about the GAPS Diet, I'm doing my best to avoid maple syrup in favor of honey. It has to do with the former being a disaccharide made out of two bonded sugar molecules, which are harder to digest, thus making it further down the digestive process to then be food for the "bad" bacteria in our guts (aka nasty beasties). Honey is considered a monosaccharide, which digests more quickly and is bio-available to us as opposed to the nasty beasties. This doesn't make 100% sense to me, because doesn't honey have both fructose and glucose aka two different sugars? Maybe they're not bonded or something; I don't really know and can't seem to find a satisfactory explanation anywhere. So, if you understand, please explain it to me. I am missing my maple syrup like crazy!

Moving on... I knew honey tasted differently, but I'm finding that it's usually not the flavor profile I'm looking for. As a result, I started looking for things in which I would purposely use honey... When I looked at this recipe again, I realized I could use the honey option and add pecans for more of a sticky bun as opposed to cinnamon bun flavor. I also adjusted it to be a cake, not muffins and changed the liquid measurements to compensate for not using the full amount of honey. I normally don't reprint others' recipes unless there is a significant change. I think I've met that threshold here, but please visit the original recipe for more inspiration and to support the author's work. I've also reviewed her cookbook on the Paleo Parents' site.  

Here is how it shaped up for me:

Sticky Bun Cake

Makes 8 servings

For the Cake

1/2 cup of coconut flour

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of sea salt

1/4 cup of Swerve (can use 1 teaspoon of Stevia)

4 eggs

3/4 cup canned coconut milk

For the Sticky Topping

2 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter (can use ghee or coconut oil)

4 tablespoons of honey

1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon

1/4 cup of chopped pecans

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix all the cake's dry ingredients together.
• Add the egg and coconut milk, mixing to combine.
• Pour into a greased baking pan (like from this set or an 8 inch round)
• For the topping, melt butter in a 2 cup glass measuring cup in the microwave or on the stove.
• Add remaining ingredients and stir.
• Pour over the cake batter and swirl the surface with a knife.
• Pop the cake into the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until a knife comes out cleanly when you poke it.
• Let cool a bit (if you can) and enjoy :)
• To store, you can leave it out, covered, at room temperature for a few days or put it in the fridge to extend it to a week (I hear, but never experienced it lasting that long!

Healthy Amelia