A Gluten Free Treat

I have been trying to go for a mostly gluten-free diet lately. I noticed a few months ago that I was getting random, itchy dry patches, and when I got it checked out, they said it was a gluten allergy. To my knowledge, gluten allergies are digestive, but I decided to limit gluten from my diet, and I would take a Claritin before eating gluten. Surprisingly, my skin did improve, but my stomach started getting very upset whenever I ate noodles or breads. I began to just avoid gluten, for the sake of my skin and tummy.

Today is a special day to me, and so I wanted to make a gluten free dessert. :) This recipe was mostly inspired from Just-Making-Noise, so if you want to check out her original recipe, click here! I tried following directions to the best of my ability. Unfortunately, I had no luck finding fresh mangoes, and the only frozen mangoes I found came in a pack with pineapple and strawberries. Even after freezing my fingers off to extract all the mangoes in the pack, I only had about a cup. Also, I made a few substitutes based on the fact that I did not want to break the bank buying ingredients that I might not use that often. Anyhow, enjoy!

INGREDIENTS: 1 cup diced frozen mango ½ cup brown sugar 3 eggs 1 agave nectar ¼ cup coconut oil 2½ cup almond meal 2 tsp baking powder

INSTRUCTIONS:

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. BLEND! This part is probably the easiest; first blend the mangoes, sugar, eggs, agave nectar, and oil. This should leave you with a nice, thin texture

3. Blend some more! Add the almond meal and baking powder into your mixture, blending until smooth and creamy. This is where I ran into a bit of trouble. My blender was too small, and I eventually did have to dump out the mixture into a bowl and mix by hand. It did end up a little lumpier...

4. Grease your bowl/plate/container and pour in your mixture! Stick it into the oven and bake until fully cooked. Mine took about 25 minutes in a 2 inch thick ceramic holder.

Mine definitely did NOT come out as pretty and smooth as the original, probably due to being unable to blend my almond meal down to a creamy batter. Also, I did not fancy-pants decorate it, nor give it a photoshoot. Let's be honest: it was about 2AM when I finished baking, and all I wanted to do was sleep.

ORIGINAL

MINE

And yes, those ginormous holes are from me checking whether it was fully cooked with a chopstick, just because I'm Asian. HOWEVER, I think it tasted bombdiggity. It was nice and moist, and the flavours of mango, almond, and coconut kept the cake very refreshing! I think this cake would taste delicious with a bit of light coconut and/or lemon-flavoured frosting and fresh fruit.

생일도2주년 축하해요, 우리오토바이깡패할아버님! 너무 보고 싶다, 바쁘신 것 알아요. 난 특별히 너를 위해서 그 걸 만들었어요. 좋아하면 좋겠어요. 미안해요, 난 널 사랑하는것을 멈출 수 없어. 기다릴께.

Enjoy!