A basic vanilla cake turbo-boosted by Dutch-spice goodness in the middle. I just threw this cake together one afternoon for Edward’s birthday but it was so good I made another one and wrote the recipe down. It’s great with or without the icing and it seems like it would be too sweet but it’s just shy of that. Perfect for tea, dessert, birthdays, second-breakfast, in the back pocket of your cycling jersey…
Basic Vanilla Cake
2 cups almond milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1⅓ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoons baking soda
¾ cup sunflower oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Speculoos Layer
2 cups crumbed cake
~60g Speculoos cookies
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbs icing
1-2 tbs coconut water, as needed*
Icing
Powdered sugar
2 tbs Coconut fat*
*You will need 1 normal sized can of full-fat coconut milk for all the coconut needs.
Directions
For the cake…
Preheat oven to 175C/350F. Grease or line 2 9 inch cake tins. Put the can of coconut milk in the fridge to cool.
Mix milk and lemon juice together to let sour. Add vanilla and oil and then whisk in the sugar.
Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Stir into the wet mixture until just combined.
Evenly split the batter between tins and bake for 25-35 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely.
For the icing…
Combining 2 tablespoons of fat from the chilled can of coconut milk and powdered sugar. Mix until combined. The icing should be liquid enough to spread but firm enough to stay on the sides of the cake. Adjust with more coconut or sugar as needed. Reserve leftover coconut water for later.
For the Speculoos layer…
When cakes are completely cool, cut the first 0.5cm off the top of one cake and the bottom of another using a knife or string method (dental floss works great!).
Using a fork, crumb the two pieces of cake in a bowl.
In a food processor (or with a rolling pin!), crumb cookies and add to the cake crumbs.
Add in cinnamon, vanilla, and icing and start to mix.
Add in coconut water 1 (reserved from the can) tablespoon at a time until the mixture is combined into a thick paste. Add more coconut water to thin the mixture, more cookie crumbs to thicken.
Assemble the cake…
Place the cake without it’s top on your serving plate. Evenly spread the Speculoos paste on top, reserving about 1/4 cup full. Place the second cake (the one with it’s top) on top. Fill in any big side gaps with the remaining Speculoos paste. Finish by icing.
*cake pictured is double the recipe
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