Gluten Free Strawberry Almond Flour Cake

4 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups almond flour
1 Tablespoon coconut flour (or 1/4 cup almond flour, if preferred)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 to 2 cups mixed fresh berries, for topping.

          Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease the bottom and sides of an 8 inch round cake pan.  Sprinkle the 2 Tablespoons sugar on the bottom.

          In a large mixing bowl, beat together the egg yolks, 1/4 cup of the sugar, and the vanilla until smooth.  In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until they form soft peaks.  Slowly beat in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar.  Set aside.

          Whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt, and add to the egg yolks.  Stir together to form a thick dough.  Fold in the egg whites 1/2 cup at a time, incorporating them fully between each addition.  The final addition should result in a smooth fluffy batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake the cake on the center rack until it's golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven  and allow it to cool on a rack for about 5 minutes.

          Run  a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake from the sides;  turn the cake out onto a serving platter.  Allow the cake to cool fully before topping with sliced strawberries or other fruit of your choice. 

TIM'S NOTES: There were two choices for almond flour--one that was superfine, and one that was coarser.  I suppose either one would work, but I like a more refined product, so I chose the superfine flour.  I did not use the coconut flour because it didn't seem worth it to buy a whole other kind of flour for such a miniscule amount.  If you happen to have it on hand, feel free to use it, but the extra almond flour works fine as well.  I thought maybe this cake was going to be too dry, so I added freshly whipped cream (sweetened with a little sugar and vanilla) before adding the berries.  The cake would have probably been moist enough as is, but the whipped cream just added another dimension to the flavor.  I put the cream on top of the cake, but if you were up to it, you could probably split the cake and put the whipped cream between the layers. This recipe also did not say how long to bake the cake.  I baked it about 20 minutes and it was perfectly done.