Spice Cake with Candied Almonds

Okay, totally not upholding my New Year's resolution of trying to blog a little more... And I've got so much to talk about too!  But I've been CRAZY busy.  More so than I honestly ever knew was possible.  Free time, boredom, down time - those are not words in my vocabulary at the moment.  I remember the days when I used to blog during nap time - sometimes I'd write several posts at a time for back-up when I did find I was too busy to sit down and write.  Nap time?  Sadly, I haven't been in charge of getting my kid down for a nap in over two weeks.  Babysitters or the car seat have all been in charge of that.  I'm looking forward to being able to snuggle with him for a bit while he drifts away, then enjoying an hour or two of quiet "me" time, but those moments are a faded memory right now.

The month of January and the start of 2014 has brought us a lot of excitement.  Our house progress has picked up speed and therefore so have the decisions to be made and the shopping trips to squeeze in.  Justin's been laid off, which is a great thing since I've needed all the help I can get with Harlee - my business has exploded in the past few weeks.  It's been next to impossible to squeeze clients in last-minute - everyone has pretty much had to wait a week or two or sometimes three to get in to see me.  The snow days we had didn't help matters, leaving me to reschedule people and cram my days tighter than they already were.  And then Harlee broke his arm, which was a crazy weekend for us, and I fully intend to tell that tale as soon as I get a little more time to sit down and type it out and post some pictures - it was a great opportunity for me to exercise my natural healing knowledge, which then proved to be a great testimonial for how well it works, so I do want to share that with you all.  On top of all this I managed to fit in a trip to Arizona, which had been booked since December (when, believe it or not, life wasn't quite THIS crazy), and thank goodness I didn't cancel that trip because it turned into a very much needed, reviving getaway for me - and another story I fully intend to share with you as soon as I *ahem* find time to type it up.  Amidst all this, we've managed to attend a trivia night with friends, go out for birthdays (including Justin's), and I've stayed on top of working out at Flex, still made it to my therapy appointments, plus added in visits to a craniosacral therapist (no matter how busy I get, I will NOT slack on taking care of me - now is a more important time than ever to do that, but more about that later, too).  Have I mentioned we still have laundry and dishes and vacuuming and grocery shopping and bill-paying to do?  Yeah.  Busy is an understatement.

So therefore the blog has been on the back-burner.  And I miss it.  Here we are, February 1st, and it's the first Saturday we haven't had a whole lot going on in a very long time.  I had an appointment scheduled with another craniosacral therapist all the way out in St. Charles, MO, which is a hike for me, but it turned out to be a pretty incredible experience and well worth the drive.  This woman is powerfully intuitive and really delved into some intense, deep issues I've had stored up inside me that, even with months of regular talk therapy for the past two and a half years since Harlee's been born, hadn't been broke loose yet.  Whew.  Meanwhile Justin and Harlee went down to my aunt and uncle's house to help make deer sausage.  I met up with them this afternoon when I got back (though I kinda felt like a zombie after the session I just came from), and we came home early enough to actually have a real family dinner and chill for the rest of the evening - meaning I actually get to sit down to blog a little!  Might I mention that family dinner included a new recipe I'll get to share?  Yep, amidst all this crazy hectic chaos going on, I haven't lost my creativity in the kitchen, thank goodness!

Today I'm going to share two great recipes with you.  It was my dad's birthday yesterday, and he's been pretty interested in my paleo creations (horray!), so for his birthday I made him a spice cake.  Not really upon his request, he didn't really care what kind of cake I made him, so I figured I'd call the shots and spice cake is one of my personal favorites... He didn't object, so spice cake it was!  I based it off of the basic vanilla cake recipe I have on my blog, and tweaked it as needed.  It was a hit!  Very delicious!  Here's what I came up with:

Preheat oven to 350º
4 eggs
3/4 cup almond milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup palm sugar
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Stevia

2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, almond milk, vanilla extract and palm sugar.
2. Add in the almond flour, coconut flour, salt, baking powder, stevia, and spices.

3. Grease an 8x8 inch baking dish and pour in batter.4. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a knife stuck in the middle comes out clean.

I iced it with a non-paleo recipe... I made a cream cheese frosting with 8oz cream cheese and 1/4 cup organic maple syrup mixed until smooth.  I guess it's healthier than conventional cream cheese icing... but not paleo by any means.  It's a good option for those who like to use cream cheese icing but want a healthier recipe, though!

I decided to top the cake with candied almonds.  I searched around for common candied nut recipes and based this one off of those, and it turned out pretty good!  They're not as attractive... but pretty yummy nonetheless!

2 egg whites

2 tbsp water

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup coconut palm sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

12 oz almonds (or nut of choice like walnuts or pecans)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Whisk egg whites, water, and vanilla in a bowl.  Mix in the almonds to thoroughly coat.

Place the sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a plastic bag and mix together.

Remove almonds with a slotted spoon and transfer to the bag of sugar.  Toss to coat.

Spread almonds out over a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and roast for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, mixing every 15 minutes.

Let cool, and enjoy!

Harlee helped with the candles

flame throwers make the candle-lighting process way more interesting!

Sorry, Opa, nothing like a picture of a flaming birthday cake to make you seem old...

Clearing the smoke!

This isn't a family of paleo converts - ice cream is still a staple for birthday parties.  But the cake was a success!