"The buckwheat cake was in her mouth, the tear was in her eye,"

"Oh Susanna"... a great kids song. I would love to revive buckwheat! Very tasty, it is also gluten-free. A bit crumbly for baked goods, but who cares! The goal in allergy-free cooking is not always to make a stunning, moist, spongy cake, it's to make something that remotely tastes yummy and homemade and that isn't going to make you or your kids sick.

So, I'm working on a buckwheat cake for my son's birthday, and yes - I'm going to allow some pure cane sugar in it.

For the cake (adapted from "Vegan with a Vengeance")
1 c. buckwheat flour
1/2 c. sorghum flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/4 c. safflower oil
1 c. coconut milk
1/3 c. sugar (use as unrefined as possible)
1/3 c. maple sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
1 c. unsweetened shredded coconut

I baked this on 350 for a little over 30 minutes, in one round cake pan. I will be doubling the recipe for the birthday cake and adding frosting. The trick to make it not stick in the cake pan is to cut a piece of wax paper to fit the bottom, and grease the pan, then put in the wax paper, and grease again.

First sift together dry ingredients, then combine wet ingredients and mix into the dry. Add the coconut last.

Instead of frosting, I topped my trial version with strawberries. The buckwheat almost looked like a chocolate cake!