I have been trying to jump-start my workout and healthy eating habits after my break in Toronto. The first couple of days were the hardest. I felt like the ice creams and cakes I ate on my vacation were literally padded to my legs making it hard for me to move! I am finally over that hump and doing regular weight training at the gym. I like to end my weight training sessions with a high-intensity cardio routine; 8-10 minutes of that last hurrah that jacks up your heart rate and gets you sweating hard.
I was recently reading an interview with Mark Harari, a personal trainer. In the interview, he talked about his secret weapon, a routine he calls “The 666 Devil Run”. You basically run on a 6 miles/hour speed, on a 6.0 incline, for 6 minutes. In the interview, he says that he has lost a lot of friends because of this workout. I am always up for a challenge so I had to add this little devil to my next workout!
So after an especially tiring weight training session at the gym, before heading home, I jumped on the treadmill all gung-ho for my run. I try to run a 5k every week, so I didn’t think much of a 6-minute run; boy was I in for a surprise! All the emotions that we all feel while overcoming an obstacle were all condensed in a 6-minute patch – starting from the 1st minute of “Yep, I am going to nail this”, to the 3rd minute of “This would have been a lot easier at the beginning of the workout”, the 5th minute of “I got nothing to prove to anyone. What am I, a professional athlete?”, to the last minute of “Don’t quit now. You will hate yourself if you do!” Well, I made it! I am happy to report that the Devil Run does get easier if you keep at it, just like life!
The cake I have baked today is kinda like the Devil Run – it’s bittersweet, but it’s good for you! The cake is made with quinoa and almond flour, making it gluten-free. I prefer my cakes not too sweet, and the slight bitterness of quinoa flour works perfectly with this cake! Quinoa flour is also protein rich and adds a light, airy texture to your cake. Did you know that Quinoa is a “complete protein”, meaning that Quinoa has all the nine amino acids that make up all of the protein needs of human beings? Talk about a superfood! I hope you enjoy this protein-rich, all-natural cake with your loved ones!
Matchmaker Alexandra Freeman has recommended this recipe in her series cook together and fall in love!
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Quinoa and Almond Flour Cake
Cook time:
Recipe
2 cups almond flour
1 cup quinoa flour
3 large eggs
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup ghee or coconut oil at room temperature – extra for greasing
1 tbsp cardamom powder
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
Heat oven to 320°F degrees. Grease the cake pan with ghee and set it aside.
Mix all the dry ingredients – almond flour, quinoa flour, baking powder, cardamom powder and salt. Put eggs, honey and ghee in a bowl and mix well. Now add the dry ingredient mix to this bowl. Mix well and make a smooth batter.
Put the batter in the greased pan and bake for 30-45 minutes until the top is golden brown. Insert a toothpick in the middle of the cake and make sure it comes out clean. Let it cool for at least 30 minutes before removing it from the pan.
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What a healthy cake! You are such a creative, Medha. Cake looks delicious. Cant wait to try this out. Guilt free dessert 🙂
Awesome……
that devil run sounds like something i should try as well. and devour this cake afterwards.
Haha, the Devil Run. Congrats, Medha! This cake looks fabulous; a treat without being something to feel bad about afterwards.
Yum!! This cake looks great. Such great ingredients and I am always a sucker for cardamom. Lovely to see you last week. Let’s get together soon!
Simple… and perfect! I love that it’s not oversweet. I prefer it still lukewarm, which is quite funny because normally I don’t 🙂
Hey Alice, everyone has a different way of eating their cake! I am working on a system to define personality types based on cake eating 🙂
how about a 777 Divine Run, you basically run on a 7 miles/hour speed, on a 7.0 incline, for 7 minutes…
Haha..I am sure there are ways to ramp the run up. Try the Devil Run, I doubt that you will find a need to ramp it up though 🙂
Oh I would love hearing about your system 😉 (I mean when it’s done)
The other day unluckily I had to throw away the rest of quinoa flour because of moths… Made me sad. But that happens!
Thanks for stopping by Alice! Hope you try this recipe when you buy more quinoa flour 🙂
Stumbled on this recipe while I was looking for Quinoa desserts/snacks. WOW! this cake is so yummy!!
I improvised a bit with the recipe for the ingredients I had on hand. Almond and quinoa flours are too expensive to buy, so I made my own at home. I made the cake in a half batch, to see if it would still turn out okay with the homemade flours. I added bourbon vanilla extract instead of the cardamom powder, but will try with cardamom next time. Also I had little extra egg in my recipe since I used 2 eggs for half a batch. It’s very delicious. It’s a little bitter from the quinoa, but not too much. Also, no one in our house likes cakes to be too sweet, this one had the perfect sweetness for us. But if i was making it for others, I would increase the sweetness a bit (or may be serve with some jam). Really really yummy!
Thanks so much for coming up with this recipe and will look to try your other recipes too!
I like the recipe but what are the options for the people who would prefer not to have any eggs ? any suggestions.
Thanks
Hey Dev, you can substitute eggs with chia seeds or ripe banana. I have not tried this substitution for this particular recipe, so texture and taste of the cake will be different from what I had.
Grind your chia seeds into a meal/powder. Mix 1 tbsp ground chia seeds with 3 tbsp water for 1 egg. Allow to sit for 10 minutes or so, or until it takes on a gooey texture.
1/4 cup pureed ripe banana for 1 egg.
Hi Medha,
This recipe is very nice ! thanks
I want to make it a chocolate flavor one ( my sone loves chocolate ) . Can i just replace the cardamom powder with cocoa powder.
Thanks
Vaishali
Just made it. I used olive oil instead of ghee. It is delicious and so healthy. This recipe is definitely worth keeping in my iPad best recipes. Thank you for sharing!
The cake was great!! Loved it, tasted delicious. You should really look into making a cookbook.
Fabulous cake! My guests loved it!
This looks fantastic! My son and daughter-in-law are gluten intolerant. She is still breast feeding my baby granddaughter. She is such a good mum, so when we get together I want to treat them to a nice gluten and dairy free desert. I have a few treats already for such occasions of course. I recently saw in my local health food store quinoa flour and I bought it! This is the first recipe I found to bake with it. I do not have at home cardamom powder. I have cardamom pods which might be hard to grind. They have a very powerful flavour ( I think there are 2 kinds of cardamom) so I will improvise this time with orange and lemon rind. Next time I will use the cardamom powder to try the original recipe. Gluten free and dairy free baking is new to me. I considered myself a reasonably good baker, I love baking. When our son was growing up and all the way to his teenage years we were not aware of any food intolerances. I love my family and it is worth learning to meet their needs