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Paleo Coffee Cake

This grain-free, refined sugar-free paleo coffee cake is a healthier alternative to classic coffee cake. PLUS it is great for breakfast or brunch.

Paleo Coffee Cake - grain-free and refined sugar-free made with coconut flour, arrowroot flour, and pure maple syrup | theroastedroot.net #glutenfree #healthy #breakfast #brunch #recipe

Fluffy, nutty, sweet, cinnamon-y coffee cake. Le sigh…nothing compares (<- sang like Sinead O’Connor).

One of my recent freelance projects was a tutorial on how to make classic coffee cake. So buttery, sugary, and gluten-y. Delicious, right?

It’s my favorite breakfast treat next to the cheese danish. Given my undying love for the treat, I decided to whip up this Paleo Coffee Cake for the same great taste, a little less guilt.

Paleo Coffee Cake - grain-free and refined sugar-free made with coconut flour, arrowroot flour, and pure maple syrup | theroastedroot.net #glutenfree #healthy #breakfast #brunch #recipe

As soon as the classic version left the house, I put my thing down, flipped it and reversed it and made a healthier grain-free, refined sugar-free coffee cake. And.oh.my.lanta. where has this been all my life?!

Paleo Coffee Cake - grain-free and refined sugar-free made with coconut flour, arrowroot flour, and pure maple syrup | theroastedroot.net #glutenfree #healthy #breakfast #brunch #recipe

What Does This Coffee Cake Taste Like?:

Is it just like regular coffee cake? Nay. But it’s pretty close! It turns out surprisingly fluffy for being gluten-free, with the nicest nutty cinnamon crunch. I’ve been heating up big hunks for breakfast and drizzling full-fat coconut milk on top to get my sog on.

 Paleo Coffee Cake - grain-free and refined sugar-free made with coconut flour, arrowroot flour, and pure maple syrup | theroastedroot.net #glutenfree #healthy #breakfast #brunch #recipe

Ingredients for Grain-Free Coffee Cake:

The nutty topping involves nothing more than walnuts, maple syrup, cinnamon, butter and smidge of coconut flour. The base of the cake is made with coconut flour and arrowroot flour (<- very similar to tapioca flour, which I told you about in my Paleo Raspberry Crumble post).

Arrowroot flour may sound like one of those foreign ingredients only used in the the upside down, but it’s actually very commonly used in grain-free baking. In fact, it is an incredible resource for making baked goods airy and fluffy.

Arrowroot flour comes from the arrowroot plant, and can often be used interchangeably with tapioca flour. If you don’t have arrowroot or tapioca flour on-hand, you can replace it with almond flour, but the cake won’t turn out quite as fluffy.

The recipe listed in this post doesn’t turn out super sweet (just the way I like my baked goods), but you can double up on the maple syrup or simply serve the coffee cake with maple syrup or honey.

Paleo Coffee Cake - grain-free and refined sugar-free made with coconut flour, arrowroot flour, and pure maple syrup | theroastedroot.net #glutenfree #healthy #breakfast #brunch #recipe

More Healthy Coffee Cake Recipes:

Coffee cake, reloaded.

My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!

If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag @TheRoastedRoot on Instagram!

Paleo Coffee Cake - grain-free and refined sugar-free made with coconut flour, arrowroot flour, and pure maple syrup | theroastedroot.net #glutenfree #healthy #breakfast #brunch #recipe

Paleo Coffee Cake

Recipe adapted from Nourishing Gourmet's Coffee Cake (Grain-Free and Refined Sugar-Free)
Recipe updated 6/27/2015
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
1 (8" x 8") coffee cake

Ingredients

For the Cake:

For the Walnut Topping:

Instructions

Prepare the walnut topping:

  • Combine all of the ingredients for the walnut topping in a small bowl. Stir well to combine and set aside.

Prepare the cake:

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly butter or oil a 8" x 8" baking dish.
  • In a mixing bowl, stir together the coconut flour, arrowroot flour, baking powder, and salt.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, maple syrup, coconut milk, and butter. Pour this wet mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture and mix until smooth. Note: The batter will be thick.
  • Pour half of the cake batter into the prepared baking dish and spread evenly with a rubber spatula. Spread half of the walnut topping over the batter. Repeat for the remaining cake batter and walnut topping.
  • Bake on the center rack for 28 to 35 minutes or until cake tests clean when poked in the center (Note: mine took 32 minutes).
  • Allow cake to sit 20 minutes before cutting large chunks and serving.

Notes

*You can also use tapioca flour or almond flour
**Use up to 2/3 cup pure maple syrup for a sweeter cake

Nutrition

Serving: 1grams
Course: Breakfast
Cuisine: American
Keyword: dairy free, easy healthy recipes, gluten free recipes, gut healthy recipes, healthy
Servings: 1 (8" x 8") coffee cake
Author: Julia
Recipe Rating




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Vittoria

Thursday 9th of February 2023

Absolutely loved this - followed the recipe exactly- great texture, cinnamon taste is perfect! You cannot tell this is paleo. Entire family loved it and they are picky! And it’s the perfect level of sweetness in my opinion and perfect with coffee or hot chocolate:)

Julia

Friday 10th of February 2023

Wahoo! That's so great to hear, Vittoria! I'm obsessed with the coffee cake, myself. I just love how moist and cinnamony it is. Thanks for the sweet note! xo

Andrea

Monday 23rd of August 2021

Just wondering if I can substitute flax eggs for the 4 regular eggs? Can’t do eggs right now.

Julia

Monday 23rd of August 2021

Hi Andrea! In my experience, flax eggs make baked recipes like this very dense. If you're okay with that, feel free to proceed with flax eggs! As far as other egg alternatives go, I don't have a huge experience with them, but I have found Bob's Red Mill's egg replacer to be pretty useful. Hope that helps!! xoxo

Kathryn

Saturday 7th of March 2020

Okay well I made it today and decided not to make any high altitude adjustments and it’s absolutely perfect!! I’m in love, thank you thank you!! I got some blueberries but chickened out about baking them in but they’re delicious just mixed with the bites I take!

Stephanie

Sunday 23rd of February 2020

Hi Julia, the coffee cake is in the oven now and it smells wonderful. However I have a couple questions. 1)Why do the directions call for sifting the coconut flour which wasn't lumpy, but not the tapioca flour which is lumpy? 2)My streusel topping was runny from the liquid of the melted butter and the syrup, so it just sunk into the batter. There is no streusel topping on top. I did use the correct amounts. How do you get yours to stay on top of the batter? Thanks so much. Great site and recipes!

Julia

Friday 28th of February 2020

Hi Stephanie,

You can absolutely sift the tapioca flour too...I just have never experienced lumpy tapioca flour. ;) I'm not sure what happened with the streusel topping since you didn't change anything in the recipe. It could be that the batter itself wasn't thick enough to support the weight of the topping. I'm wondering if elevation or the brand of flours had something to do with it. What brand did you use? Hope the coffee cake turned out alright in spite of the issues!

AJ

Monday 19th of August 2019

Just wanted to say that this is a foolproof recipe, even with a whole gaggle of substitutions.

I didn't have arrowroot flour or tapioca flour, so I used 1 whole cup of coconut flour instead of 3/4, and I used a bit of oat fiber, a bit of psyllium husk and a bit of golden flaxmeal to make up the difference in arrowroot flour. I didn't have sugar free maple syrup, so I just used 2/3 cup erythritol and liquid sweetener for sweetness, and bumped up the cream to 2/3 cup. Used heavy cream to replace the coconut milk. Added some vanilla extract, and /attempted/ to whip the egg whites, which failed, ended up with egg white foam.

Folded everything together and hoped for the best. While my "batter" seemed a lot thicker than what I'd like, the end result is absolutely delicious. Moist, flavorful, beautiful texture and golden color. Definitely not as light as your version, but made a delicious pound coffee cake nonetheless.

Julia

Monday 19th of August 2019

Ooh la la!! All of that sounds amazing! I'm so happy to hear it turned out well, and thanks so much for letting me know the changes - I'll have to try your version :D xo

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