I have a recipe up on my blog for honey cakes, which consist of barley flour, water, clear honey and olive oil. I have also mentioned I have a rather serious grain intollerance. Needless to say, the two don't match. So, for a while now, I have been using an adapted recipe and I can't believe I haven't shared it with you guys yet! Yesterday I got an ask on Tumblr that prompted this realization:

"Hi Elani! I was curious....I am a Hellenist and for the Noumenia celebrations, I really wanted to make honey cakes to sacrifice to the Gods (using the recipe posted on your blog). My issue is that I have a gluten intolerance that is agitated by eating glutinous grains like barley. Would it be appropriate to switch the barley out for a grain I'm capable of eating? I know it wouldn't be as "authentic" but if I were to partake in sacrifices, I'd have to eat it. What do you think?"

I can't eat grains of any kind and I did want to partake in the sacrifice--I find that part of the sacrifice more important than using ingredients the ancient Hellenes would have had access to--so I made my own recipe long ago. It is based off of the recipe for honey cakes but uses coconut and tapioca flour instead and it doesn't use olive oil although you can add a drop once it's done. I have found that adding it to the recipe keeps them from firming up enough not to break once taken off of the tray. Without it, they stay nice and firm and a little gooey on the inside. Delicious! The recipe below makes one hand-sized cake or, like I ususally do, four smaller cookies, the size of an Oreo.

Ingredients:
- 10 grams of coconut flour
- 5 grams of tapioca flour
- 5 grams of honey
- luke warm water

Let me run through these real quick. Cocunut flour is one of the few non-grain flours that sucks up moisture and becomes a paste. It's a thickener and you need that. Tapioca flour is what makes the cake crispy on the outside but gooey on the inside. You can use 15 grams of coconut flour but it won't come out as nice, in my opinion. you can use more honey if you want but it'll mess with the consistency a bit. Also: coconut flour is very sweet already and you really don't need more than 5 grams for the taste. I'll show you what it needs to look like below, but you add water until the consistency of the dough is crumbly but sticky. Just add a liiiiitle bit at a time. Make sure the water is a little warm to help the honey dissolve later on.

Once you are done with the dough, you need to form it into the shape you want. The dough will want to fall apart just a little but you can use a knife to press it down and scrape it off of the counter to add to a baking tray. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and slide the plate into the center. Turn them after 5 to 7 minutes, when the edges start to brown. You might have to scrape them off and turn them carefully! Then bake them until the new top edges have browned again, probably another 5 to 7 minutes.Voila! Honey cakes!

 
Coconut flour, tapioca flour and luke warm water mixed to a crumbly consistency

 
With added honey--you really don't need more than this for consistency or flavour

 
Oreo sized cookies or one big one

 
Bake until the edges turn golden, then turn with a knife to bake until the edges are golden again

 
Done! Crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside and deliciously sweet!