Cashew-Raspberry Second Breakfast Cake

By Natalie Eve Garrett December 11, 2014

There are many things I love about Tina Fey and her 30 Rock alter ego Liz Lemon, but one thing stands out: I love her love of food. I mean, I’m a long time fan of food. I come from a family that regularly talks about one meal while eating a totally different meal. Often I’ll read recipes (with their “line breaks like poetry”) that I never plan to make, or read reviews of restaurants that I never plan to go to, or just daydream about food. And like Tina Fey (it is my new goal in life to casually start as many sentences as possible with “like Tina Fey…”), I try my best to eat two breakfasts a day.

Okaaay fine, I eat breakfast all day. No, I don’t mean pickled egg and fermented lentils, though if someone made that for me, I probably wouldn’t say no. (I might say no.) My breakfast/second breakfast regimen usually involves warm baked goods, fruit, yogurt, eggs with cheese and vegetables, sausage, sweet potatoes. Sometimes, salads.

And don’t worry, Tina: there is cake.

The Cashew-Raspberry Second Breakfast Cake was inspired by a delicious scone recipe and also by my own carrot-almond cake recipe. It’s great for one of those weirdly warm, windy fall days that temporarily delude you into thinking you’ll wear sandals and eat berries forever despite the fact that it’ll almost certainly be at least 30 degrees colder the next morning.

More about the taste: it’s nutty and dense, lightly sweet, with a crumbly texture — and it can easily be grain-free too, if that’s helpful. Also, it manages to be both surprisingly filling AND surprisingly addictive — a combination that I like to imagine Liz Lemon would relate to and approve of.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups cashews (roasted/salted or raw, or sub 1 1/3 cups cashew flour — they sell it at Trader Joes — or any other kind of nut flour)
¼ cup whole grain flour (or try arrowroot flour if you’re gluten free, paleo or fancy. I used whole wheat in the batch pictured here, but also tried an arrowroot batch and it was great.)
2 large eggs
¼ cup cashew butter
¼ cup honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a 9” cake pan (I used coconut oil spray) and set aside.

Grind your cashews in a food processor (or use pre-ground cashews from TJ’s if you don’t have a food processor), and then add in the flour, egg, cashew butter, honey and vanilla. Mix well.

Add in the baking powder and mix just until combined.

Fold in the raspberries and mix gently with a spatula or spoon.

Scoop the (incredibly sticky — just roll with it) batter into your cake pan.

Bake for half an hour, and let me know what you think!