Although we celebrated Lukas birthday together with Granny birthday last weekend he is officially turning 2 today (wow, where does the time go!). It was good to get together with the family in Devon, staying here a little longer with the kids while Joni is sorting out our new kitchen (hopefully will share about it more soon).
As for a birthday cake I am very very pleased that I was not asked to bake him a cake in Paw Patrol theme (or something along those lines), so I chose to make woodland themed one. Which is much prettier and tasteful in my opinion. I really dislike heavily iced cakes! I also decided to keep it simple as I am quite busy these days (bringing up baby and toddler at the same time is no joke).
DAIRY AND GLUTEN FREE CHOCOLATE BIRTHDAY CAKE
(for the cake)
- 6 eggs
- 300ml oil (I used olive oil)
- 400g caster sugar
- 300g ground almonds
- 3tsp baking powder
- 50g cocoa powder mixed with 125ml boiling water
(for the frosting)
- 1 avocado
- 85g dairy-free sunflower spread
- 200g dairy-free chocolate, melted (do it carefully if doing in microwave)
- 50g cocoa powder mixed with 125ml boiling water
- 150g icing sugar, sifted (+100g extra for thicker frosting)
(for the decoration)
- woodland themed gingerbread cookies
- rosemary stalks
1. First bake a cake. Whisk the eggs with sugar and oil until you have custard like consistency. Add almonds, baking powder and cocoa powder liquid. Mix everything again to combine. 
2. Pour equal amount of cake mixture into two lined baking tins. Bake in 180C oven for 40-45min.
3. While waiting for the cake to bake, prep gingerbread cookies. You may be able to buy yours in store, but I needed dairy free ones at least so I ended up baking my own. I used this recipe and replaced butter with sunflower spread. 
4. Finally, time to make the frosting. Place all the ingredients (only 150g icing sugar at this stage) into electric mixer/processor and whizz. The mixture should turn into smooth frosting .
Spread half of the frosting in between the cake layers, top and sides.
Use pallet knife to smooth the frosting on the cake.
5. To decorate add 100g more icing sugar into the remaining frosting to make it thicker. Pipe it on top to make a decorative texture. Top the cake with woodland themed cookies and rosemary stalks to represent trees/bushes. 
Hope I inspired you ;-)
Rasa xoxo
No comments yet.