This grain-free, refined sugar-free paleo coffee cake is a healthier alternative to classic coffee cake. PLUS it is great for breakfast or brunch.
Fluffy, nutty, sweet, cinnamon-y coffee cake. Le sigh…nothing compares (<- sang like Sinead O’Connor).
One of my recent freelance projects was a tutorial on how to make classic coffee cake. So buttery, sugary, and gluten-y. Delicious, right?
It’s my favorite breakfast treat next to the cheese danish. Given my undying love for the treat, I decided to whip up this Paleo Coffee Cake for the same great taste, a little less guilt.
As soon as the classic version left the house, I put my thing down, flipped it and reversed it and made a healthier grain-free, refined sugar-free coffee cake. And.oh.my.lanta. where has this been all my life?!
What Does This Coffee Cake Taste Like?:
Is it just like regular coffee cake? Nay. But it’s pretty close! It turns out surprisingly fluffy for being gluten-free, with the nicest nutty cinnamon crunch. I’ve been heating up big hunks for breakfast and drizzling full-fat coconut milk on top to get my sog on.
Ingredients for Grain-Free Coffee Cake:
The nutty topping involves nothing more than walnuts, maple syrup, cinnamon, butter and smidge of coconut flour. The base of the cake is made with coconut flour and arrowroot flour (<- very similar to tapioca flour, which I told you about in my Paleo Raspberry Crumble post).
Arrowroot flour may sound like one of those foreign ingredients only used in the the upside down, but it’s actually very commonly used in grain-free baking. In fact, it is an incredible resource for making baked goods airy and fluffy.
Arrowroot flour comes from the arrowroot plant, and can often be used interchangeably with tapioca flour. If you don’t have arrowroot or tapioca flour on-hand, you can replace it with almond flour, but the cake won’t turn out quite as fluffy.
The recipe listed in this post doesn’t turn out super sweet (just the way I like my baked goods), but you can double up on the maple syrup or simply serve the coffee cake with maple syrup or honey.
More Healthy Coffee Cake Recipes:
- Paleo Blueberry Coffee Cake
- Chai-Spiced Paleo Coffee Cake
- Paleo Peach Coffee Cake
- Paleo Strawberry Coffee Cake
Coffee cake, reloaded.
My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!
If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag @TheRoastedRoot on Instagram!
Paleo Coffee Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- ¾ cup coconut flour sifted
- ¾ cup arrowroot flour*
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 4 eggs
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup**
- ½ cup full-fat canned coconut milk
- ¼ cup unsalted grass-fed butter melted
For the Walnut Topping:
- 1 cup raw walnuts chopped
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Pinch salt
- ¼ cup unsalted grass-fed butter melted
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
Instructions
Prepare the walnut topping:
- Combine all of the ingredients for the walnut topping in a small bowl. Stir well to combine and set aside.
Prepare the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly butter or oil a 8" x 8" baking dish.
- In a mixing bowl, stir together the coconut flour, arrowroot flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, maple syrup, coconut milk, and butter. Pour this wet mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture and mix until smooth. Note: The batter will be thick.
- Pour half of the cake batter into the prepared baking dish and spread evenly with a rubber spatula. Spread half of the walnut topping over the batter. Repeat for the remaining cake batter and walnut topping.
- Bake on the center rack for 28 to 35 minutes or until cake tests clean when poked in the center (Note: mine took 32 minutes).
- Allow cake to sit 20 minutes before cutting large chunks and serving.
Notes
**Use up to 2/3 cup pure maple syrup for a sweeter cake
This is incredible. My family enjoyed it so much this morning. Thank you for sharing!
~Christine
Asheville NC
You’re very welcome, Christine! I’m so happy to hear your family enjoyed the coffee cake! 😀
@Julia, Just made this again and have made it many times! But this time I had to make a substitution, so I wanted to let you and your readers know because it worked so well. I didn’t have coconut flour and also didn’t have the proper amount of almond flour to substitute with (according to suggestions I found somewhere online), but I went ahead and tried it anyway. It was awesome. Online suggestion that I found is 1 cup almond flour for every 1/4 cup coconut flour. However, I used a rounded 2 cups of almond flour and like I said: awesome! I always add a dropper of dark liquid stevia to both the batter and the topping and only use butter, not coconut oil. Thanks again for this easy and delicious recipe!
Yaay! Great success! I’m so happy it worked out with your changes, and that’s super helpful to others! Thanks so much for swinging back around and letting us know!! xo
This is exactly what I need for my pre-wedding breakfasts! (and..it looks so tasty….my post-wedding breakfasts too!)
The texture here looks amazing! I bet if I made this, no one would even think it’s paleo.
Who could even guess this is GF?! NOT I. Seriously, it looks like the best ever coffee cake central around here.
You are all about the different flours! I love it. I need to expand my pantry so I can make all of these goodies you are baking up.
This is awesome, my friend! As usually you post the best recipes! This cake is making my mouth water 😉
Whooooa yes, please!!! This looks SO good!
Healthy coffee cake? Did hell just freezer over? We better check. Seriously, this is one sexy looking healthy cake. I love that it’s free of everything bad for our bodies. Please send coffee cake! Pinned.
I know, hard to believe, right?! I was absolutely dumbfounded when the thing came out of the oven all poofy and delicious.
I love a great coffee cake, and I’m fascinated by the coconut and arrowroot flours, I always reach for oat or almond meal and I need to branch out!
Almond’s a great one too – Next time I bake coffee cake, I’m going to try out the recipe with almond instead of arrowroot…will let ya know how it turns out!
Look at how fluffy!! For reals tho, I would take this over regular coffee cake any damn day. That cinnamony walnut topping…ugh. Want to shove in the face right now.
For reals, sister!
What a beautiful coffee cake! That is one of my favorites!
Thanks, Annie! Let me know if you try it out!
Want. It. All. Right. Now!!!!! Looks amazing!!
Thanks, Rebecca! It really is a winner!
Oh, coffee cake is sooooooooooo good! I miss it, because we can’t do eggs. This version looks so buttery and yummy!
Nothing comparesss TO YOUUUU. Singing that song all morning now. This is glorious. I expect nothing less from the breakfast sexpert that is Julia. I just said sexpert instead of expert.
And I love you for it, ha! xo
I just bought arrowroot flour to use in body butter and was wondering what I could do with the extra 8 cups I accidentally bought but don’t need. THISSSSSS. Because once I see coffee cake, time basically drags on at a snail’s pace until I eat coffee cake. Fact.
YEEEES! Make 10 coffee cakes with that arrowroot, woop woop! Coffee cake forever!
Hooray for being coffee cake twins today! Except mine is a little more, ahem, sugary. I’ll need a slice of yours after a slice of mine for the balance, fo’ sho’.
Your carrot cake coffee cake was making me suh-woon, sister! Seriously, you’ve got that coffee cake thing down!