This pumpkin poke cake recipe comes from my friend Danielle McKinney. The cake is moist and delicious. She used melted chocolate chips to pour into the poked holes (hence the name poke cake). You could use a chocolate sauce if you prefer. Or, mixing the chocolate chips into the cake batter would probably work too.
The meringue and caramel topping are optional. Honey is the only sweetener Daniel uses on the specific carbohydrate diet, but the honey flavor can be quite strong when used in the cake, meringue, and caramel. If you can tolerate it, you might try using other sweeteners such as coconut palm sugar.
If you can tolerate dairy, this caramel topping recipe would be delicious (it’s not paleo, though).
This cake is inspired by a Betty Crocker pumpkin cake, but it’s made without the wheat flour and sugar. You can eat it as is or top with meringue frosting and caramel sauce – a delicious combination for the holidays. Take this to a holiday party and you’ll have to fight off the gluten-eating crowd!
Pumpkin Poke Cake (Paleo)
Ingredients
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 ½ cups almond flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup coconut oil (melted) or butter (softened)
- ¼ cup melted chocolate (I use Enjoy Life Chocolate Chunks)
Optional Toppings
- Meringue Topping
- Caramel Topping or Caramel Sauce below
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F and grease an 8 x 8 inch pan.
- Blend together pumpkin, honey, softened butter, eggs and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, mix almond flour, salt, baking soda, and spices.
- Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and mix.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake 30-35 minutes, or until cake pulls back from the pan’s edges and springs back lightly when pressed.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool 5 minutes. Using wooden spoon, make holes in the cake and pour in melted chocolate.
- Let cake cool completely. If desired, top with meringue and drizzle with caramel sauce.
Notes
Caramel sauce can be made by heating 1 cup honey in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it foams up. Allow to boil 1-2 minutes, or until it darkens in color. Stir in 1 stick butter (1/2 cup) one tablespoon at a time, allowing each to dissolve before adding the next. After all butter is dissolved, remove pan from heat and allow to cool and thicken as desired.
Danielle is married to Ryan and is the happy mom of baby Rory and a turtle named Grimace. She has been successfully following the specific carbohydrate diet since 2011 to treat Crohn’s Disease and loves to cook and bake items that are delicious and healthy!
Yum! This looks absolutely amazing and I love that it’s also paleo 🙂 I can’t wait to get baking!
What can be used in place of almond flour and coconut oil. We are allergic to nuts too. Thanks
This recipe looks GREAT! I’m pinning it and can’t wait to try it 🙂
-Cassidy
Hi,
I made the Pumpkin Poke Cake and I made 1 mistake… I put in a cube of Butter.. It came out very good…. I also used G F all purpose Flour that I had.. It worked great!!!! Thank you so much for the G F recipe’s it is so nice to have something different to make and eat!!!! I am sensitive to Gluten Dairy and Soy I do ok sometimes with Dairy….. Thanks Add
Hi can I use any G F Flour for this recipe?? I live in a very small area and don’t have a lot of G F Flour around here.. Thanks
Since this recipe uses almond flour, a substitute other than a nut flour would probably have very different results. You could try ordering products online. Amazon often has good prices.
OMG!!! It was my boyfriend’s mom’s birthday today, and I made this cake, and it is soooooooooooooooo good!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you for an amazing recipie 🙂
I have a tree nut allergy but find your recipes so interesting. Is there an alternative to almond flour?
Hi Vanessa. No, I can’t recommend a substitute for almond flour, but there are many other recipes on my site that do not use it, such as this pumpkin sheet cake (omit the pecans). http://glutenfreehomemaker.com/pumpkin-sheet-cake-gluten-dairy-soy/
If I use unsweetened chocolate is there anyway I can sweeten it my self, like with honey or stevia?
Looks so yummy!!!! Definitely going to try this! Thanks for sharing.