Best Ever Allergy-Free Banana Cake

This sugar free (that includes refined, sugar alternatives and even honey and maple syrup!) banana cake is super easy to make, tastes DELISH and is perfect for kids and toddlers as well as adults. Free from gluten, dairy, preservatives, additives and with a vegan alternative, it gets its sweetness from the bananas (that’s why you want to pick the ripest bananas possible), and is a great recipe that can be made to a cake, mini muffins or a loaf depending on how you like it! It also freezes really well.

Ingredients

2 cups almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground sea salt
2 large overripe bananas (the black, nearly mushy ones you would prob throw away, the riper the better)
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1 tsp vanilla essence/ extract
2 eggs (vegan version: 2 flax or aquafaba eggs, see below)

Optional: fresh or frozen raspberries, blueberries or grated dark chocolate

Method
Mix the dry ingredients together.
Mix the wet ingredients together. The amount of coconut oil is for when it’s melted - if yours is still solid, simply place the oil jar into a larger bowl and add boiling water into the bowl; you can then pour the melted oil directly out of the jar into your measuring cup.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, mix well then pour into your baking forms. I used 2 mini silicon cake forms but you can use mini muffin tins, a loaf tin or whatever you have on hand*

You can add berries, nuts or chopped dark chocolate into the mix - I personally love fresh raspberries as it gives an extra sweet tang. The cake is super moist and the riper the bananas the better (sweeter).

For a larger form or cake, allow 30-40 minutes, the mini cupcakes are done in 20-25 minutes or until brown on top.

Important: especially with the cake, leave them in the oven, slightly ajar, and in the forms until they cool down before trying to turn them onto a wire rack. I made the mistake of trying to take them out early and they fell apart - it would've been perfect and moist if I'd left it sit!

*Note re: baking tins - I don't use anything other than silicon baking forms because they’re fuss free, need no extra fat or baking paper and nothing sticks. If you don’t have something like this handy, make sure you oil or butter your tin well or use baking paper (baking paper hack: wet the paper, crumple to a ball to squeeze excess water out then place in your tin - this makes it so much easier to mould to your tin).

Vegan eggs:
Flax: 1 tbs ground flax seeds + 2.5tbs warm water = 1 egg. Mix and let sit for 5 mins
Aquafaba: 3 tbs of canned chickpea juice = 1 egg.
Note: You won't get the same rise when using vegan eggs. Some might find the flax seed taste comes through slightly but the vegan version also tastes good

Kudos to the Big Man's World for the original recipe!