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Paleo Plantain Cake with Caramel Sauce

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This Paleo plantain cake is made with coconut flour and sweetened with maple syrup. I’ve included a recipe for dairy free caramel to drizzle overtop.

If you’re on a Paleo diet, or just trying to cut down on gluten, you’ll love this Paleo plantain cake! It’s sweet and delicious, and perfect for any occasion.

Plus, it’s really easy to make – you won’t believe how good it is!

Plantain cake is one of my all-time favorite Paleo cake recipes.

I love experimenting with different ingredients, and I’m so happy I tried plantains for this cake. You can use ripe plantains just like you would ripe bananas.

This cake is very moist like a banana cake but since it’s plantains, it’s not as sweet as banana cake.

The coconut flour gives it a great texture, and the maple syrup and plantains add plenty of sweetness.

Plus, it’s gluten free so everyone can enjoy it! Give this recipe a try for yourself and see what you think. I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Paleo Plantain Cake with caramel sauce and on a cake platter.
Paleo Plantain Cake

Gluten Free Plantain Cake

This grain free paleo plantain cake happened by sheer accident. I was at the grocery store and saw plantains. I was intrigued by them so I put them in my shopping cart and continued shopping. 

I thought I would make plantain chips out of them but I forgot the plantains on the counter and they ripened before I realized it. 

Then I thought let’s make a yummy paleo cake out of these plantains. So I did and it turned out delicious. 

The maple syrup flavor and caramel sauce make this cake so indulgent.

Paleo Plantain Cake on a cake platter.
Paleo Plantain Cake

Paleo Plantain Dessert Recipes

This tasty cake is made with your normal cake ingredients except instead of flour you use coconut flour.

Ingredients used to make plantain cake:

How to Make Gluten Free Plantain Cake

Preheat the oven. In a bowl combine egg whites and cream of tartar.

Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

In a separate bowl cream together coconut oil and maple syrup. Add the egg yolks.

Mix until smooth. Add mashed plantain and vanilla until mixed.

Add the sifted coconut flour, baking soda, and salt to the egg yolk mixture.

Mix until smooth. Slowly add the egg yolk mixture to the whipped egg whites.

Line a cake tin with parchment paper and grease the sides.

Bake for 35 minutes until the top is firm to the touch and a toothpick can be inserted and comes out dry.

Paleo Plantain Cake with caramel sauce and on a cake platter.
Grain Free Maple Plantain Cake

What to Serve with this Cake

I love serving this delicious cake with a dairy free caramel sauce. This sauce is extremely easy to make. You could also add some whipped cream. Here’s my dairy free whipped cream recipe.

Here’s how to make the simple caramel sauce.

  1. In a saucepan, heat the ingredients over medium heat stirring constantly with a whisk until desired thickness. Pour over the cooled cake to serve.

Can I use Almond Flour instead of Coconut Flour?

No, you cannot use almond flour instead of coconut flour in this recipe. The eggs would need to be decreased and more almond flour would be needed to be used to make the cake batter.

Can I use Bananas instead of Plantains?

Yes, you can use bananas instead of plantains. Use 1 cup of ripe bananas to replace the plantains. This would make a tasty Paleo banana cake.

More Paleo Dessert Recipes

If you love desserts like this I have two cookbooks you really need to check out asap!  Indulge, for all your Paleo dessert needs and The Grain-Free Snacker for amazing Paleo snacks!

Yield: 1 cake

Paleo Plantain Cake

Grain Free Maple Plantain Cake

This Paleo plantain cake is made with coconut flour and sweetened with maple syrup. I've included a recipe for dairy free caramel to drizzle overtop.

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs, separated
  • 2 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin coconut oil
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1 cup ripe plantain, mashed (equals one plantain)
  • 4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour, sifted
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp dash of salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl combine egg whites and cream of tartar.
  2. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
  3. In a separate bowl cream together coconut oil and maple syrup. Do that for a few minutes.
  4. Add the egg yolks. Mix until smooth. Add mashed plantain and vanilla until mixed.
  5. Add the sifted coconut flour, baking soda and salt to the egg yolk mixture. Mix until smooth. Slowly add the egg yolk mixture to the whipped egg whites.
  6. Line a 8 x 1.5 inch cake tin with parchment paper and grease the sides.
  7. Bake for 35 minutes until the top is firm to the touch and a toothpick can be inserted and comes out dry.

Notes

Coconut flour baked goods need to be consumed within 3 days. If you do not think you will eat the cake within a few days, slice it and freeze it.

Did you make this recipe?

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DISCLOSURE: Not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader. Ditch the Wheat is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. I only endorse products that I believe in.

Gluten Free Resources

Do you need help with gluten free meals?
I recommend this meal-planning app. It makes cooking gluten free dinners extremely easy and family-friendly.
What gluten free snacks can I eat?
Lots! I have a ton of practical gluten free snack recipes in my cookbook.
How can I eat dessert on a gluten free diet?
You can 100% eat dessert while eating gluten free. Try my dessert cookbook for easy gluten free dessert recipes.
How do I know what is gluten free and what isn’t?
I have a whole section is it gluten free?
How do I make substitutions?
If you need substitution advice I created a ton of resources here.

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15 Comments

  1. Sooo, liquid coconut oil does not “cream.” You did not mention if the coconut oil needs to be in solid form at the point in the recipe where you instruct one to cream with the maple syrup. My coconut oil is liquid, since it is July. I am proceeding with the recipe as it is written and hoping I am not wasting my expensive ingredients and this works out.

    1. It helps the texture. It won’t ruin it if your coconut oil is already liquid.

  2. What is the purpose of the cream of tartar? Can I use yogurt as a substitute? Or omit? Very happy to find this recipe. Thank you!

  3. I wanted to report that I had good success with this cake. My substitutions were softened organic butter for coconut oil and raw honey for maple syrup. It is not sweet enough to serve for company but just fine for my own tastes.

  4. So I gotta say, I do not understand how this recipe doesn’t have hundreds of gushing comments like some of those other blogs we could all name, because this is one of the best, if not THE best, Paleo/Primal/whatever cake/dessert I have tasted/made. I’m a little nuts for plantains lately, so I just googled “Paleo plantain cake” and when I saw maple AND plantain I thought, this is it. And it was! It is! To me this is the perfect wheat- , dairy-, and white-sugar free dessert. It absolutely has the texture of a real cake, and it tastes fabulous. My omnivorous husband loves it, too. I also disagree with the commenter who said it’s not sweet enough for company. I guess that depends who your company is and what they’re used to, but I absolutely intend to bake this for dinner guests. What I think I’ll do then is double the caramel sauce, pour half on the cake, and serve the rest in a little pitcher so that if someone wants a little more sweetness they can have it. Five stars! I will be making this again and again!

    1. I love the texture of this cake too! Creaming the sweetener with the fat makes a huge difference and making sure the cake has the correct amount of coconut flour is the secret to achieving a good texture.
      I think you’ll really like the texture of my chocolate chip cupcakes. Search for it on the blog. Omit the chocolate chips and eat as a plain vanilla cupcake.

        1. No, it wouldn’t work. Sorry, egg replacers don’t work well in coconut flour based recipes.

      1. Hi Carol,

        I plan on making this cake with bananas as in Oz we dont have access to plantains as freely as you guys.

        Cheers,
        Vonny.

  5. I have this cake in the oven at themoment and I hope it tastes great, as I am making it for company later tonight. I have used plaintains in pancakes without any type of flour and they were awesome. The only thing I did different with this cake recipe was I added some cinnamon for extra flavouring. Besides the carmel sauce, I’ll probably serve with a dollup of whipped cream. Looking forwards to our dessert tonight! Thank you for sharing your recipe.

    1. I had to send you an update. The cake was soòoooo good. I often find baking with coconut flour difficult as I tend to not care for it’s chalky texture, but depending what you mix it with, you can have success. All of our company enjoyed the cake, including the carmel sauce (adding the dollup of whipped cream truly elevated this cake to another level). If you don’t eat dairy, try making coconut milk whipped cream…it’s worth the effort. I will definately be making this again.

  6. Do you think this recipe would work for cupcakes? I’m trying to find a good cupcake recipe using plantains and this sounds good but don’t know if the texture will be right? Hope you can get back to me soon please!! 🙂

Comments are closed.