Last Monday my little girl turned 2 years old! It was such an overwhelming feeling to accept that two years have just flashed by.
We had an intimate garden party with our family and it felt so good to have something to celebrate.
My daughter absolutely LOVES Moana, so here’s my attempt to put that on a cake for her. I’m so happy that she loves this movie, all about a brave girl on an adventure to save the world, and of course with some great songs to sing along too. Brilliant message… ok I may love it too.
The lead up to it however was so stressful, especially in the heat wave that we had. I actually made 8 cakes the week prior to her party, determined to perfect the recipe and just two days before it all came together… phew.
Thank you to Anuradha, founder of @lotuscakes for her temperature tips, that finally got that last piece of the puzzle to come together (if you haven’t seen her page you NEED to).
I went with the winning combination of orange and chocolate, it was a refreshing little burst of flavour on a hot summers day.
For the cake and chocolate frosting I substituted coconut sugar to reduce the refined sugar content.
For the colouring of the waves I used blue spirulina powder from @theorganiclab.eu
I also found vegan chocolate wafer rolls and used them to go around the cake to depict a bamboo like island look.
The small pink and white sugar flowers are from @tescofood
25 mins
25-30 mins
15
Ingredients
Dry:
300g Self-Raising Flour
200g Coconut Sugar or Caster Sugar
1 Tsp Bicarb of Soda
4 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
150g Vegan Butter
1 Tsp Coffee Granules (Optional, Can be decaf)
½ Tsp Vanilla Extract
Buttermilk:
300 ml Plant Based Milk
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Frosting:
260g Vegan Butter
500g Icing Sugar
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
3 Tsp Orange Extract
2-3 Tsp Plant Based Milk
1 Tbsp Blue Food Colouring Powder
1-2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Vegan Golden Biscuits
Method
Cake:
This make enough for two 20 cm Cake Trays.
1. Preheat the oven at 160°C and line the cake trays.
2. Make your buttermilk and leave aside to curdle.
3. Mix all dry ingredients and add in the buttermilk. Mix together using a hand whisk.
4. Pour equally into the two cake trays.
5. Bake for 25-30 mins.
6. Check it’s cooked through and set aside to cool.
Frosting:
This is enough for a three tier cake.
1. Mix together, butter, icing sugar, milk.
2. Take out one cup.
3. In the rest of the mixture add in cocoa powder, orange extract.
4. In the separated icing mix in blue colouring and vanilla extract.
Layer up:
1. Fill the frosting between each layer and then the outside and top as a crumb coat.
2. Let it set in the fridge.
3. Place the blue frosting in a piping bag with a medium star nozzle.
4. Mark out where you want to depict the sea and make swirl like movement to show waves.
5. Crush up the biscuits and sprinkle where you’d want to show the sandy beach.
