Over the weekend, I was excitedly introduced to an awesome concept– tasty yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting that were also gluten free. Let me repeat, tasty yellow cupcakes. The secret ingredient– beans. I know.

I was so impressed by the shock value of being able to tell people that this sweet cake was made with beans that I had to give it a try, and the results have been great. I found several yellow cake recipes online, but many contained sugar substitutes that I don’t really care for as well as find expensive, so I simply used honey. Give yourself an extra day to make the cakes, they actually taste better if left to rest for 24 hrs! I had lots of oranges around for a cake we made for an event, so I adapted a basic yellow cake recipe into the Orange Almond Cake recipe below, and it was fabulous.

-Jamie

Orange Almond Cake (Gluten Free)

Adapted from the recipe posted on the food blog Healthy Indulgences, which is also a great one to check out. Makes one 9” round cake, or you can also put it into cupcake tins.

Ingredients:
1-15 oz can white beans, rinsed OR 1 1/2 cups cooked white beans (cannellini or kidney were recommended, I used whatever I had and it worked fine)
5 large eggs plus 1 yolk
6 tablespoons unsalted organic butter
1/3 cup honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 teaspoons almond extract
Zest of one orange
Juice of ½ orange
6 packed tablespoons Almond or Garbanzo/Fava flour (or other gluten free flour of your choice)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Rinse beans and shake off the water. Blend beans with the eggs, vanilla, almond extract and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, cream softened butter and honey until light in color and smooth and creamy in appearance. I usually get the butter and honey going first and by the time I’m ready with the egg mixture, it’s looking pretty good and creamed. You cannot over cream the butter and honey, so if it goes for a while it is ok.

Slowly add pureed egg and bean mixture to the creamed mixture. Beat well.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Add to the batter and whip together for another minute or two. I actually did switch attachments and used the whisk attachment on my mixer for this part. It may not be necessary, so feel free to experiment! It never did get “fluffy,” but I whipped it for about 3 minutes. The finished product looks more like a porridge than a batter, but don’t worry, it bakes up nice.

Lightly spray pie pan or baking dish with your cooking spray of choice (or you can use butter to grease the pan). Pour batter into a prepared pie pan or baking dish, until it is about ¾ full. Bake for 25 minutes or until fully cooked in the center. I averaged about 25 to 35 minutes per cake. The cake will be golden brown around the edges.

Let cake sit for 24 hours, so that all of the bean flavor disappears. This really did work, although depending on the flour may not be entirely necessary. The bean flavor is not overpowering, so if you are making it for dinner that same night and don’t mind a slight beany taste, go for it.

Note from Jamie: I have found this recipe to be pretty flexible and think you could substitute just about any flavors you want in place of the orange juice, zest and almond extract (I added them so you would just have yellow cake without them). If you want a chocolate cake, substitute Cocoa Powder for the flour! Would love to hear what you come up with!