Father’s Day is approaching, and for once I’m in time for some celebration! Usually I make the cake or the recipe only on the day of celebration and end up posting the recipe in this blog later. But this time I tested the recipe in time. The coming Father’s Day is, by the way, the first that we’re celebrating first in our household (well, a bit in advance, unless the little person in my tummy decides to hurry up), and then at my Dad’s place again. This means having cake in two places, so I’m not complaining, even though the baking turn is mine twice on the same day.

I’ve I kind of fallen in love with the mini cake form, which takes a bit more time in preparing but nothing much more. So, these test cakes were also prepared into mini cakes, but you can definitely prepare the recipe into one whole cake and skip the trouble of decorating each mini cake separately. In that case, I recommend using a springform pan, plus a baking sheet, greasing the sides and coating them (with sesame seeds, for example). You might want to divide the dough into two springform pan, so as to achieve a beautiful layering in the cake.

But aren’t these mini cakes just adorable – well worth the trouble, I think!

The bottom crust is made out of almond meal with a touch of buckwheat flour to add some fluffiness to it – the cakes are grain-free as well. There are no animal products in the recipe either: the strawberry cream is made out of nuts, and the chocolate icing is made out of coconut cream, so the cake is gluten-free, grain-free and dairy-free, making it perfect for vegan dads as well.

Choco Coco – Mini Cakes with Strawberry Cream

approx. 6 cakes

Bottom crust:
3,5 dl coconut milk
2 ripe bananas
5 Tbsp maple syrup
2 dl almond meal
0,5 dl buckwheat flour
2 Tbsp psyllium fibre
3 Tbsp cacao powder
0,5 Tsp salt
1 Tsp baking soda
0,5 Tsp vanilla powder
0,5 Tsp Ceylon cinnamon
virgin coconut oil

Filling:
2 dl cashew nuts (soaked over-night)
ca. 1,25 dl frozen strawberries (thawed)
coconut sugar to taste
1 banana sliced in between

Chocolate icing:
1 can of coconut cream / congealed coconut milk
raw cacao powder / cocoa powder to taste
coconut sugar to taste

Heat the oven to 175 degrees (Celsius). Add first the wet ingredients into the blender (also the bananas), and blend until smooth. Then add in the flours and let the dough mix in the blender until the dough is smooth. Pour the dough into a baking tin that has been coated with a greased baking sheet. The dough should form approximately a one-centimetre thick layer in the tin. Bake the crust in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cocktail stick comes out dry after pricking it.

While the crust is in the oven, prepare the strawberry cream: blend first the nuts into a fine paste, and then add in the strawberries. Blend until smooth. Add coconut sugar to your taste.

Then prepare the chocolate icing: drain the separated excess fluid out of the coconut milk/coconut cream can, and mix into the congealed mass raw cacao powder and coconut sugar to your taste. Leave both the filling and icing to rest in the cold.

When the cake crusts are ready, let them cool down for a while. Cut out small cake crusts e.g. using a drinking glass (I used Riedel’s big red wine glass) or a cookie mould.

Then slice the banana and take the filling and icing out of the fridge. You can now compile the cakes: spoon some strawberry filling on top of the crust, add some sliced banana in between, and place a lid on top of the two layers, and spread the chocolate icing on top of the lid. When everything is ready, sprinkle some coconut sugar on top of the cakes, and leave it to melt nicely. This is good to do just before of serving, as the sugar will melt beautifully on top of the cake, but not too much in advance, as it the sugar will be absorbed into the icing if there’s too much time between decorating and serving.

There will be some left-over crust if you made your cakes into round shapes like I did. It didn’t bother me, as there was a lot of strawberry filling too. This way I could do the tasting while compiling the cakes and no one had to wait too long to taste the results. Suits well for baking with kids, or impatient adults, ha ha!

Wishing you a scrumptious Father’s Day,
tuulia
xx