**World's First Grain & Sugar-Free King Cake** (with Dairy Free Option)

World's First Grain & Sugar Free King Cake

I have lived in Southern Louisiana for a little over 9 years and I have had some delicious King Cakes.  King Cakes are a traditional cinnamon roll-like "cake" made around Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday, the date differs but usually mid to late February) and usually you can't find them after St. Patrick's Day.  For more history, check out this link.

I thought I was taking a break from creating recipes since my Cookbook was published but I was challenged this year by a few people, one being my friend from untilthethinladysings.com to create a grain and sugar free King Cake.  She also is surrounded by these tempting cakes.  I accepted the challenge!

Cream Cheese Icing....yummy!

So, here is my version.  The batter is the secret part.  I used a basic popover batter.  I had never heard of popovers until making them in a nutrition class in college.  The batter is simple: eggs, flour, milk and sometimes butter.  I kept mine simple and didn't add any butter but added vanilla and of course Pure Kal Stevia.  The leavening comes from the hot pan (I used a pretty bundt pan) and the stem from the eggs and milk.  Traditional popovers are made in popover pans or cupcake pans and they puff up pretty high and are hollow on the inside.  I took advantage of that hollow part by baking in my favorite fillings.

The fillings I chose were based off of an Apple Pie-Cheesecake-Pecan Pie I had created a few years ago.  Such a great flavor combination!   I am already envisioning spin off recipes such as Cinnamon "rolls" and even Sub-sandwich buns!

Apple, cream cheese & pecan filling.

The key to this cake is a hot oven, preheated pan and not to open the oven door even to peak!  This is the hard part. The recipe may look a bit grooling, but the individual parts are VERY easy.  The batter is the easiest part of all.  Toss all ingredients in blender and blend, voila!

Sweeteners of choice:
For those of you who have followed my blog and purchased my cookbook, you know that I use Pure Kal Stevia in all of my sweet recipes. I will also on occasion, use a minuscule amount of honey to get that extra sweetness without risking bitterness which could occur from using too much Stevia.  I made 3 separate trial runs of the King Cake. One I used honey as my additional sweetener, one version I used coconut sugar and the last I used xylitol.  The sweetness was all the same the key is which sweetener you prefer to use.  The key is to taste every stage of the recipe so that the final result will be the correct sweetness for YOUR pallet!   Again, taste your batter!

Note For Dairy Free Version
I have added variations to recipe to make dairy free.  I was quite surprised how good the dairy free version tasted.  I made a mini one with unsweetened almond milk and one with coconut milk and really couldn't tell the difference.  Of course, omit the cheesecake filling and instead of the cream cheese based icing, a drizzle of raw honey is all that is needed.

Mardi Gras King Cake (Grain & Sugar Free with Dairy Free Option)
Serves 12- 6 Net Carbs per serving

Batter
1 tbsp butter, for bunt pan (use coconut oil for dairy free)
3 eggs (room temperature)
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp half & half (use unsweetened almond milk or coconut milk for dairy free)
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp almond flour
1/8th tsp plus 4 servings Pure Kal Stevia (to taste)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Add butter (or coconut oil) to bundt pan and place in oven and allow to preheat.  The butter will brown but this will not negatively affect the cake. The pan should preheat for at least 10 minutes but no more than 15 minutes.

Prepare batter.  Place remaining ingredients in blender or Magic Bullet and blend until smooth.  Taste for sweetness and adjust if needed.  Set aside.  Prepare Cheesecake Filling:

Cheesecake Filling (OMIT FOR DAIRY FREE VERSION)
5 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/8th tsp Pure Kal Stevia (to taste)

Blend all ingredients in medium bowl until smooth.  Taste for sweetness and adjust if needed.  Set aside and prepare crumble:

Pecan Crumble
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/8th tsp Pure Kal Stevia (to taste)
1 tbsp coconut sugar (honey or xylitol)
1 tbsp salted butter, melted (use coconut oil for dairy free)

Toss all ingredients in a medium bowl until well coated.  Taste for sweetness and adjust if necessary.

By now, the bunt pan should be preheated.  Carefully remove bunt pan from hot oven.  Using pastry brush or paper towel, be sure to get butter all over the sides of bunt pan (at least the lower half).  Work quickly but carefully. Next pour in half of popover batter (eyeball amount).  Then using tablespoon, spoon cheesecake mixture evenly over batter.  Next, sprinkle pecan crumble over cheesecake mixture and finish with remaining batter.

Bake at 425 degrees F for 20 minutes, being sure not to open oven door.  After 20 minutes, turn off oven and leave in for an additional 5 minutes.  Carefully remove cake from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan.  Cake will fall after the 10 minutes.  This is normal.  Before attempting to remove, use butter knife and go around all edges to make sure cake is loosened.   Place plate on top of cake and invert.  You may have to give it a good "knockin" for it to come out.

**Note:  I made 3 large cakes and 2 smaller ones when testing this recipe.  The first big one came out beautifully, the second broke and the 3rd came out 99%.  If any breakage occurs, it will be covered by icing so don't panic too much!

While cake is baking, prepare apple filling & cream cheese icing:

Apple Filling
2 small apples (I used gala), cored, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp salted butter (omit for dairy free version)
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp Pure Kal Stevia (to taste)

Place all ingredients in small sauce pan.  Combine ingredients, cover and cook on low-medium heat for 5-10 minutes.  Taste for sweetness and add more sweetener if desired.  Turn off heat.  While cooking apples, prepare icing:

Cream Cheese Icing (OMIT FOR DAIRY FREE VERSION)
3 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup half & half (or other dairy but not heavy cream)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Up to 1/8th tsp Pure Kal Stevia (to taste)
1 tsp coconut sugar (honey or sugar substitute)
1/4 cup chopped nuts or Candied Pecans (optional)

For cream cheese icing, blend all ingredients in medium bowl (except nuts) until smooth.  Taste for sweetness and adjust if needed.

**DAIRY FREE ICING
Drizzle just a bit of raw honey over prepared King Cake along with chopped nuts.

FINAL ASSEMBLY:

Take King Cake, which has been inverted onto a plate, and using another plate, invert it back to where the flat side of cake is up.  Top with cooked apples and some of icing. Invert cake back to serving dish.  The apples should be on bottom and cake on top.   (If you like, you can serve the cake any way you like it, putting apples on top).  Next, top with icing (or raw honey for dairy free) and additional pecans if desired.  To get the colors of Mardi Gras without the colored sugar sprinkles which are traditionally used, fill center of cake with colored Mardi Gras beads.  Serve cold or room temperature. You could also purchase a plastic baby and insert it into cake before serving.

**Dairy Free Version- Great warm or room temperature.