Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

This year, I made a gluten-free, low-lectin chocolate cake for Lauren's birthday and it was amazing!  What is lectin, you ask?  I've been reading the book The Plant Paradox about lectin in foods so I wanted to experiment and Lauren agreed to let me experiment on her for her birthday celebration last night.  What a girl!

I think it was the best chocolate cake I've ever made.   Seriously.  It was so good; moist, fluffy, sweet, flavorful.  You couldn't tell it was gluten-free at all. 

In a nutshell, lectin is a protein in foods that the author of The Plant Paradox, Dr. Steven Gundry, (a cardiac surgeon) claims are hard for many people to digest.  There are different kinds of lectins and different foods contain different levels of lectin, from high levels to low levels and how we cook food can effect the levels of lectin.  We have been so bombarded with lectin in our food chain (because of the Standard American Diet or SAD) that our bodies are having allergic reactions to them, only the reactions aren't like typical allergy reactions.  The reactions are more serious like autoimmune diseases, chronic pain and fatigue, low immune system thus chronic illness...just all kinds of horrible things.  The reason lectin is so prevalent now in our food chain is because the foods highest in lectin are grains.  And not just wheat but all grains.  Most processed foods are made from grain, grains are fed to all the animals we eat so we get it in our meats, too.  One type of lectin is casein, the protein in dairy so we get it in dairy products and it's also in most fruits.  What's left?  Vegetables.  But then, some vegetables are high in lectin, too, like soy products, peas, beans, and legumes. It's not natural for our bodies to eat this much lectin and our ancestors never ate this much.  So what's a person to do?   Eat a low lectin diet.  

Why am I even interested in this diet and reading the book?  For one thing, I've been trained as a clinical dietitian so I have a natural tendency to keep up with all the latest nutrition trends.  I've experienced so many patients with food sensitivities (that we use to call allergies, back in the day) and I've always been curious as to why now so many people feel they don't tolerate basic foods.  There are so many people following a gluten-free diet, a vegetarian diet, the Paleo diet, the keto diet, the Whole 30 diet, vegan diets, raw diets, dairy free diets and specific allergy diet...it just goes on and on.  You can't really welcome new neighbors when they move into the neighborhood anymore by taking cookies over to their house because most likely, someone in the family can't eat them.  I think about this a lot because we've been to Japan three times to visit Nick and his family and people in Japan don't follow "special" diets, they just eat their typical Japanese diet.  And they eat processed grains like white rice and white bread that we've been taught are so "unhealthy".  Whole wheat bread basically does not exist there.  And you don't see any overweight people at all; that horrid issue that so many people in our country battle with, yet our population just keeps getting fatter and fatter.  Similarly, in Europe, everybody eats full-fat cheese and dairy products that we've deemed "unhealthy" because of the fat, and again, they eat white bread - usually really good quality like the crusty french-type bread.  They smoke (like the Japanese) but have less heart disease and they aren't overweight either.  Why are we, in this country, on so many "diets" and yet people are still constantly searching for that one thing that will make them feel better.  And why are so many people suffering from autoimmune diseases where their bodies are attacking themselves causing suffering.  I'm starting to think that it's because of lectin.

Oops!  Lectin, not Lecter

Lectin is in all the "high allergenic" type foods like peanuts, dairy, corn, wheat (and especially high in the wheat germ thus whole wheat), and soybeans. I ran across The Plant Paradox because I was wondering if there was a true "anti-inflammatory diet" for my arthritic knees. I have arthritis in my knees and will probably need knee replacement surgery eventually but I hate to think about that.  I'd rather think about maybe a diet to help the inflammation.  There is so much out there about "anti-inflammatory diets" and even my doctor didn't know what to tell me about that.  (Not that doctors know that much about nutrition anyway, but that's a whole other topic.)  That's where I ran into The Plant Paradox because lectin causes inflammation.  It makes sense because that's why people feel so much better on a gluten-free diet even though they don't have celiac sprue.  Just reducing lectin intake a little bit can make people feel better since we get so much in our diets.  I don't expect a low lectin diet to cure my arthritic knees but it might help the stiffness.  The Arthritis Foundation recommends a Mediterranean Diet high in fish, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, beans, olive oil, oats and high fiber.  They are neutral about the nightshade vegetables because of the lack of evidence (although nightshades are all high in lectin).  They recommend to avoid processed food, reduce salt, and drink alcohol in moderation.  Those are all basic healthy eating recommendations.  There really isn't a "anti-inflammatory diet" per se.  

So, back to the chocolate cake.  This is my "anti-inflammatory cake" or you could call it, my "low allergenic cake" or my low-lectin cake.  It's gluten-free and milk-free, thus low lectin.  It's not dairy-free because certain kinds of butter are low in lectin and of course, it's not sugar-free so it's not a "healthy" cake.  I was so happy to read certain butters are low in lectin because I LOVE butter.  The recipe uses coconut sugar, which I'm not exactly sure why it's suppose to be better than cane sugar.  Maybe coconut sugar is less inflammatory?  Cane sugar is listed as an inflammatory food on some sites, as well as regular omega-6 vegetable oils, which is all controversal in the nutrition field.  There are no proven studies, that I know of, as to why people following a gluten-free diet ought to feel better unless they have celiac sprue or have a tested wheat allergy, but an awful lot of people are doing it; so much so that the grocery stores are full of gluten-free products.  I didn't have any trouble finding products for this recipe except for powdered coconut sugar so I just put regular coconut sugar in the coffee grinder to make it into a nice, fine powder.   

I've only found two blogs from people who are posting about a low lectin diet so those are the only recipes I've found here and here.  Most recipes would need to come from a Paleo diet or gluten-free diet cookbook or blog since there are a ton of those.  This chocolate cake recipe came from a blog called Downshiftology.  The author has celiac sprue so she follows a gluten-free diet but posts all kinds of recipes that are more than just gluten-free like this one.

Here is what I learned from making this cake:

1.  Almond flour is the main flour in this recipe, providing most of the bulk. Almonds contain lectin but are low.  Lectin is in their brown skin on the outside of the almond.  (Remember, I'm taking about a low lectin diet, not a lectin-free diet with is pretty much impossible.)  Tapioca flour provides the light, airy, fluffiness. The coconut flour provides the structure to the cake.  I think those three flours make for really good gluten-free products and I'm going to experiment more with these three for maybe pancakes, muffins, cookies, etc. 

2. Coconut sugar is used because the crystals are what helps to provide the mini air pockets that make the cake so delicious.  Honey or maple syrup for the sweetener, for example, would create a much more dense cake.  I'm still not clear about the whole alternative sweetener issue and why some are supposedly better for your health than others.  I know sugar alcohols like sorbitol, mannitol, isomalt, and xylitol can cause gas and abdominal issues so I suppose coconut sugar is better for that reason.  

3.  For the shortening, I used regular European butter because butter from Southern Europe produces casein called A-2 that does not turn into a lectin-like protein during digestion.  Cows that produce casein-2 are Guernsey,  Brown Swiss, and Belgian Blue. Dairy cattle in the U.S. are generally the black and white Holstein that produce casein A-1. During digestion, casein A-1 is turned into a lectin-like protein called beta-casomorphin so this is what you want to avoid on a low lectin diet.  

4.  The full fat coconut milk makes the cake moist.  It is thick and adds necessary fat, on par with dairy milk or buttermilk.  Unless you can find milk that is A-2 milk (that is hard to find), you'll have to use coconut milk. 

5.  Speaking of buttermilk that is frequently used in traditional cake recipes, this version is coconut milk plus vinegar, thus the apple cider vinegar.  The vinegar also creates a chemical reaction with the baking soda, a la baking powder-style, to create fluffiness in the cake. 

3.  The espresso powder makes the cake rich and decadent.  I also used espresso powder in my tiramisu cake so it's a good tip to keep in mind.  It doesn't make the cake taste like coffee or even mocha.  You taste more depth of chocolate flavor that makes you go "Wow!"  You can compare it to adding vanilla extract to most baked goods to enhance the flavor.  Well, that's what espresso powder does.  It takes the cake recipe to the next level.

Low-Lectin Chocolate Cake

   Dry Ingredients

3 cups almond flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1/4 cup coconut flour

4 cups coconut sugar

1-1/2 cups raw cocao powder

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. espresso powder

1 tsp. salt

Wet Ingredients

4 large eggs

1-1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk

1 cup water

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Frosting

8 cups organic powdered sugar (or powdered coconut sugar - I used regular coconut sugar and ground it in a coffee grinder to form a nice powder)

1 cup raw cacao powder

1 cup shortening 

1/2 to 3/4 cup coconut milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

To make the frosting, add all ingredients to a stand mixer and blend on low for 30 seconds.  Once the ingredients have started to combine, slowly increase the speed to high and blend for one minute.  To thin the consistency (if needed) add more milk, or to thicken add more powdered sugar. 

For the cake:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  Grease three 8-inch cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper.  (I used the paper from the butter to grease the pans)

3.  Add all the dry ingredients to a very large mixing bowl and whisk together.

4.  Add all of the wet ingredients to a separate medium mixing bowl and whisk together. 

5.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together for 1-2 minutes to create your cake batter.

6.  Evenly divide the batter between the three baking pans and cook for 28-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on racks.

7.  Once the cake has completely cooled, assemble the cake by adding the chocolate buttercream frosting between each layer and frost the outside.