Cinnamon Crumb Grain-Free Coffee Cake – paleo, w/ low-carb & vegan options

Today I am sharing with you one of our new favorite recipes, a low-carb coffee cake.

And by favorite I mean, kids practically jumping up and down whenever I tell them I am going to make it.

When I was little, one of my favorite things to eat was coffee cake.

My family would occasionally buy those Entenmann's coffee cakes — you know, those perfect-looking cakes in those clean, white boxes.  The crumbly stuff on top was sooo delicious – some people (ahem) would be tempted to pick the crumble off the top and leave the plain cake for others.

The Paleo Low-carb Coffee Cake Recipe

Well, this grain-free coffee cake has yummy special stuff all the way through, so the whole thing is a treat.  I don't think “topping pickers” will have much work to do :).

Plus, with some easy substitutions, this is easily low carb. Our family has really worked on eating lower carb since we knew we were dealing with candida.  It's not easy, but it's worth it.

Even when you remove sugars, grains have a lot of carbs, so moving towards more grain-free recipes is a good move.  I already have some grain-free treats that we love like these No Bake “Almond Joy®” Bars, Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough Balls, and Coconut Delights, but a Grain-free Coffee Cake that's also low carb and vegan (my son has life-threatening allergies to dairy and egg) was something I never really thought I would be able to enjoy.

Truth is, I haven't baked much recently.  Mostly I've been busy, but we moved this past year and getting the house ready to sell is something I hope to not have to repeat anytime soon.

And then after moving, we had a lot to do to get the house ready that I didn't bake.

But what really threw a wrench in things was that along with the new (to us) house, we inherited a broken oven.  We didn't know it for awhile, but finally tried to make my Focaccia Flax Bread, I baked it — twice — and it still wasn't done.  Turns out the oven was about 100 degrees off!

Anyhow, fast forward several months, and I finally picked out a new oven and started baking again.  And this grain-free coffee cake is one thing that has been in our new oven at least 3 times since.

Back to the coffee cake recipe.

I so wish that I could take credit for this recipe, but I can't.  When mom makes something and the whole family LOVES it, it's so much nicer when it's my recipe that is a keeper, but this one isn't mine. It's by my sweet online friend, Kelly Smith of The Nourishing Home.

Kelly came out with an amazing cookbook, The Everyday Grain-Free Baking cookbook and it's just loaded with amazing recipes, like this one.

Quite a few of the recipes call for eggs, but typically if you are dealing with almond flour (or some other nut or seed flour) and not coconut flour, you can use an egg substitute (like this Homemade Egg Substitute) and get pretty good results, but sometimes things vary a bit.

In the case of this cake, using my Homemade Egg Replacer, we got almost perfect results.  Using flax or chia egg, the cake was fairly “gooey” in the middle especially, but it still tasted great.  In other words, my family really didn't care what I made it with, as long as I made it.  They did prefer the egg replacer version, but the others got gobbled up pretty quickly too in all their yummy gooeiness.

I didn't try it with a gelatin egg, but I suspect the results would be about the same as with the flax or chia eggs.

Regardless of what form of a binder you use — make this cake.

You'll love it.

In fact, make two — since they'll be gone before you know it 🙂 .

Side note – you can easily make this into a vegan coffee cake with the subs in the recipe.

Here is a link to Kelly's amazing (and gorgeous) cookbook.

Some of the other tempting recipes inside include: (all of these either are egg-free or should work without eggs)

Sweet Cinnamon Roll Biscuits
Ultimate Cookie Bars
Pizza Crust
Raspberry Crumble Bars
Fruit and Nut Snack Bars (like KIND Bars)
Nut-Free Snack Bars
Almond Flour Blondies
Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches
Almost Oatmeal Cookies (my husband LOVES oatmeal cookies – can't wait to make these for him)

and so many more. There are some special dietary indications in the book so if you're on a special diet, you can choose from the following categories to meet your needs:

• Dairy-Free
• Dairy-Free option provided
• Egg-Free
• Nut-Free
• SCD (Special Carbohydrate Diet)

What You Will Need for this Low-carb Coffee Cake Recipe

You will need the following things to make this recipe:

• Coconut Oil
• Xylitol
• Ground Cinnamon
• Blanched Almond Flour
• Coconut Flour
• Salt (I recommend Real Salt)
• Stevia Scoops
• Stevia Extract
• Palm Shortening
• Coconut Butter
• Coconut Milk
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Egg Replacer

and here is the absolutely delicious recipe for a low carb coffee cake that you will love.

• You can use organic coconut oil instead of the butter in the topping and swirl, and you can substitute either organic palm shortening or organic coconut butter – here's how to make your own, for the butter in the cake.
• For low carb, substitute xylitol for the honey in the topping and swirl, and for the honey in the cake, you can use either xylitol straight or 1/4 cup xylitol and 2 scoops stevia – here's my post on how to use stevia.
• If allergic, use other nuts or seeds instead of walnuts.
• See Easiest Homemade Coconut Milk for a homemade coconut milk option.
• For AIP or if otherwise needed, you can use a flax, chia, or gelatin egg, as well as any other compliant substitute, instead of eggs; if only avoiding eggs but not on the AIP diet, you can substitute egg replacer (see my homemade version here).
• For AIP, substitute organic tiger nut flour or organic cassava flour for the almond flour.

Cinnamon Crumb Healthy Coffee Cake - grain free with low-carb & vegan options

This low-carb & grain-free paleo coffee cake recipe reminds me of the not-so-healthy ones I grew up enjoying! This recipe is VERY allergy-friendly!

Print Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: AIP, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Keto, Low-Carb, Paleo, Vegan

Keyword: Paleo Coffee Cake

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Servings: 9

Ingredients

Topping

• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 4 tsp honey
• 1 1/2 tsp organic ground cinnamon
• 1 cup walnut pieces (finely chopped)

Cinnamon Swirl

• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp organic ground cinnamon

Cake

• 3 1/2 cups organic blanched almond flour
• 1/4 cup organic coconut flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)
• 1/2 cup organic coconut milk
• 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tsp organic apple cider vinegar
• 4 large eggs (plus 2 egg whites)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 315°F. Lightly oil a 9" x 9" baking dish; set aside.

For the Topping

• In a small bowl, whisk together the butter (or coconut oil), honey, and cinnamon until well blended. Add the finely chopped walnuts (or other nut or seed) and toss well to combine. Set aside.

For the Cinnamon Swirl

• In a small bowl, whisk together the butter (or coconut oil), honey, and cinnamon until well blended. Set aside.

For the Cake

• In a food processor, combine the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt. Add all of the remaining ingredients except the eggs and egg whites to the top of the dry ingredients in the order given. Cover and pulse a few times to combine. Then process until the batter is smooth and creamy (about 20-25 seconds).
• Add the eggs and egg whites. Cover and pulse a few times to combine. Then process just enough to blend the eggs into the batter (about 10-15 seconds). Use a thin spatula as needed to scrape down the sides.
• Carefully spoon half of the batter into the prepared baking dish. Use an offset spatula to smooth out the top.
• Drizzle with the cinnamon swirl across the top of the batter. Then carefully spoon the remaining cake batter on top. Use an offset spatula to smooth the top of the batter. Next, starting at the edges of the cake, crumble the topping evenly across the cake. Use your fingers to gently press the topping into the batter a bit.
• Bake the cake for 45-55 minutes until light golden brown along edges and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool on the stovetop about 5 minutes. Serve warm with your favorite coffee or tea.

And, as I mentioned, many substitutions can be made to adapt other recipes as well.  And for all of them, you can easily substitute in xylitol or stevia or erythritol to make them low carb.

Time to start baking!

Do you love coffee cake as much as I do?
And anyone else here who loved the topping more than the cake?