Last fall, my chiropractor had me remove almost all foods from my diet and slowly reintroduce foods one by one as we tried to pinpoint migraine sources that weren’t readily apparent.  It was a successful venture as we found things like green beans that I would never have suspected.  How many times do you hear, “Avoid green beans to limit your migraines”?  Right.  Just me.

Anyway, strawberries were one of the few foods I had not added back in yet because I was having a strange pattern of reacting to reddish fruits (including raspberries, blackberries, cherries, and watermelon).  Today I finally decided to risk the migraine and test them out because we were at Boggy Creek Farm, and they had fresh strawberries that I knew I could trust to be truly organic.  They were deliciously so worth the risk, and happily, I passed the test.  Strawberries will be able to be part of my spring diet.

To celebrate, I adapted a recipe that I made in a gluten version uncountable times in the past two years.  I have been told by someone who has tried a lot of my baked goods that I tend to be a bit perfectionist about my cooking, and it’s admittedly true.  I wasn’t going to post this recipe because it wasn’t quite up to my standards, but my boys LOVED it.  They didn’t complain it was gluten free, and they both went back for seconds.  I still plan to make another version of it with lemon instead of cinnamon, but it seems this recipe was a keeper from my boys’ viewpoint.

Cinnamon Berry Cake

Highly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

½ cup organic brown rice flour
½ cup organic tapioca starch
½ cup sorghum flour
½ cup almond meal
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon organic ground cinnamon
1 1/3 cups organic granulated sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) organic salted butter, softened to room temperature*
2 large organic eggs
2 teaspoons GF organic vanilla extract
1 teaspoon GF organic white vinegar
1 cup organic rice milk
2 cups fresh organic berries (any combination of raspberries, blackberries, diced strawberries, and/or blueberries works well)
2 tablespoons organic granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 400F.  Oil the bottom of a 9×13” glass baking dish.  (I used organic canola oil.)

In a small mixing bowl, blend brown rice flour, tapioca starch, sorghum flour, almond meal, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together 1 1/3 cups sugar, butter, and eggs using a hand mixer.  Add in the flour mixture plus the vanilla extract, vinegar, and rice milk and continue blending on low speed with the hand mixer until all ingredients are blended.

Use a spatula to scoop the batter into the oiled pan and spread the batter out evenly across the pan.  Sprinkle the berries across the top of the batter.  Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar across the top of the berries.

Bake at 400F for 28-30 minutes.  Serve warm or cold—it’s delicious either way.

(This recipe can be cut in half and baked in an 8×8” pan.)

*To make this recipe dairy free, substitute organic palm shortening for the butter.

©NaturallyElizabeth.com