A comfort standard. Perfect for a chilly spring day with an under-the-weather child. My daughter is at home today and we wanted to tempt her with dishy things healing and yummy.

Rice paper rolls filled with egg crepe, lettuce, grated carrot and vietnamese mint were seasoned with lemon, tamari & sauerkraut juice… while the oven preheated for…

Pound cake.

The thought of it alone induces dreams of steaming tea and a sunny couch. We’re not going to make Miss Anstey’s Common Pound Cake from 1784, nor Great-Grandmother’s Pound Cake from 1928, both of which used along the lines of a ‘pound’ each of flour, sugar and milk as well as a little volatile salts, amongst the other ingredients (currants sometimes).

It would have been a rare treat back then, but today, with cakes so commonly available daily wherever we turn, we need to ensure they have a low glycaemic index and be packed with nutrition. Cake has become as common today as bread was in Miss Anstey’s day. So let’s make it count.

Beautiful cultured, organic butter is the centrepiece of this cake, and will help the body extract the nutrition from the almond meal, the eggs, the honey and the buttermilk. Here are our healthy (and Paleo) replacements.

Crunchy Butter Cake – Paleo

Preparation Time:

20mins

Cooking Time:

45 mins

Ingredients:

Cake Mix:

• 2 cups almond meal
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 2-3 tbsp rice malt syrup or honey
• 1 cup butter, cubed and softened
• 4 eggs
• 3-4 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp xanthum gum
• 1.5 cups buttermilk

Butter Glaze:

• 1/3 cup butter
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160deg celsius. Mix all the cake ingredients together in a mixing bowl or food processor for a couple of minutes until well combined but not overmixed. We used Elodie’s 4 silicon love heart pans (13cm/5inch diameter), but you could just as easily use one large loaf pan or a beautiful bundt pan. If you use these latter, butter them liberally. We poured a little water onto a pre-heated baking tray, then placed Elodie’s little heart cake pans on top. They cooked for around 45minutes until they were golden brown on top. Leave them in their cake pans after removing from the oven.

Make the glaze now.  Mix the Butter Glaze ingredients in a saucepan on medium heat, stirring constantly. Using a skewer, poke holes through the cakes to help the glaze soak through a little. As soon as the glaze is melted and combined, pour over the cakes slowly so you don’t lose it all over the edges. Leave them until they are cool, so the glaze crisps a little. Enjoy a moist slice with yoghurt or home-soured cream (for the added benefits of live cultures) on this Sydney spring day (or wherever you are!) in the sun for afternoon tea. Or dessert tonight. Or breakfast tomorrow. My favourite cakes are the ones that still feel like treats, and yet are healthy enough to eat anytime!