When the pandemic hit in 2020, one of my early coping mechanisms was the Great British Bake Off. I became absolutely obsessed with this show, determined that it was the most wholesome thing I could consume at the time. My visual deep dive lead me to baking anything and everything, which lead me to making birthday cakes for majority of my friends through the entire year of 2021. I tried a LOT of different recipes and some very quirky decorating. I finally landed on one that is fool-proof, vegan, and easily made gluten-free.
It's simple, not too sweet, easy to decorate, and can be eaten for breakfast (as you should on your birthday). The first one that I made like this was for Kare's birthday last year. Since then, I've made it about 6 more times with lots of variations to the fruit! Passionfruit, white chocolate, and golden berry was a phase I'll never forget. Terrible quality photo of that at the bottom of this recipe. It just had to be commemorated.
Tips:
- make your own whipped cream using Avalon Organic Whipping cream
- making your own jam is easy, but time consuming. Look for one with simple ingredients and low sugar.
- I've added ground ginger to the whipping cream and it gave it a little zing once that I think I'll go back to often.
- Use a piping bag for the whipping cream. It's so easy to make it look beautiful, even if you just cut the corner out of a ziplock bag.
Cake Ingredients:
2 cups oat milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
⅔ cup neutral oil (you can use canola, sunflower, olive oil, or coconut oil)
3 cups all-purpose flour or GF flour
1¾ cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
Topping Ingredients:
500ml organic whipping cream
1/2 cup icing sugar
strawberry jam, bought or homemade
Fresh berries, fruit, and flowers
Cake Recipe:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare either three 6-inch cake pans or two 9" pans. I use springform pans and find that makes it really easy to remove the cake when it's done. Grease the pans, line with parchment paper. I trace and cut the parchment paper into a circle to fit into the bottom of the pan.
Mix together the oat milk and vinegar. Set aside for 5 minutes.
In a large bowl, stir together the wet ingredients: oil, vanilla, and oat milk mixture.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. If you're using a stand mixer, use the batter attachment to mix on medium until just mixed. Do not over mix.
Pour or scoop the batter evenly into the pans. To get an even bake on both cakes, I'll put a clean bowl on my kitchen scale and pour the batter in to see what it weighs. Then I divide that number evenly between the pans. If you don't have a scale, you can eyeball this but one might take a little longer to bake than the other.
Before placing in the oven, tap the pans on the countertop to remove air bubbles, ensuring that it will form an even bake.
Bake for 25 minutes on a middle rack, or until a toothpick comes out clean when stuck into the center of the cake. You can also do the sound test: if you remove the cake and hear it bubbling rapidly, it's likely not done yet.
Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before removing from the pans.
To decorate:
Using your stand mixer or hand mixer, make the whipping cream on a medium/high speed. When getting firm, add the icing sugar. When it has the consistency you're looking for, transfer to a piping bag or a large ziplock bag with a hole cut out at one of the bottom corners. Set aside in the fridge.
Prepare your cakes: remove parchment paper from the bottom. If you used 6" pans, carefully slice the cakes lengthwise through the middle to create two discs from each.
Place one disc on the serving plate, and spread jam evenly overtop. Pipe whipping cream either in drops or circles to fill the top of the disc. You'll only see the edges here, so be mindful of what you want it to look like from the side.
Top with your next piece of cake and repeat the jam and whipping cream process for as many layers as you are wanting. I find when I use the 6", I stick to 3 layers and keep an extra layer in the freezer for a casual snack down the road.
Decorate the top with fresh fruit in any design you'd like.
Enjoy with people you love down the very last bite. We highly encourage this as a next-day breakfast option.
