Happy Birthday To ME! ๐
Today is my birthday! ๐๐ I posted some photos of this lovely vegan birthday cake I made for myself yesterday on Facebook and Instagram and you guys seem to love it. So I will be sharing the recipe here with you in case you need something extra fancy on a special occasion, or you just want to eat some cake. โ๐ป๐ You can also check my previous birthday cake recipes if you are interested. ๐
Inspiration
This recipe is inspired by Salvia + Limone‘s recipe. But as you know how much I love baking with natural yeast (aka sourdough), I used sourdough starter here to make the cake extra moist and fluffy, but you can just substitute the starter with 1/4 cup of flour of choice and 1/4 cup of water.

Layers Of Heavenly Goodness ๐คค
This vegan birthday cake consists of three layers of 6 inch coffee sourdough cake, layered with some vanilla coffee cream frosting. And finally topped with drizzle of vegan caramel sauce. Doesn’t it just sound so heavenly? It might seem a bit complicated but it’s totally worth the work as it was so delicious and so gorgeous! I can ensure you that no one will notice it is vegan. ๐คฃ This cake serves 4-6 people and can be stored in the fridge for up to a week. ๐ฐ

I used spelt flour in this recipe as I really like the earthiness and health benefits of this ancient grain. Feel free to use white flour or any kind of whole grain flour if you want. You may also notice that part of the sugar that I’m using is maple sugar. Maple sugar gives this cake a more caramel-y flavor. But of course you can use any kind of sugar you want! The choice is always yours ๐โโ๏ธ
Coffee & Caramel Sourdough Vegan Birthday Cake
Course: DessertCuisine: WesternDifficulty: High6
servings1
hour1
hourRecipe adapted from Salviaย + Limone
Ingredients
- Cake Layers (Make at least a day ahead)
1 3/4 cup spelt flour
1 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup maple sugar (sub cane sugar or more coconut sugar)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
3 to 4 tsp ground coffee*
2 flax eggs (2 Tbsp flax meal + 6 Tbsp water)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup plant-based yogurt (I used my homemade almond milk yogurt)
1/4 cup sourdough starter (around 80g)
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
3/4 cup water
- Vanilla Coffee Cream Frosting (make at least 1 day ahead)
300g cashew nuts (soaked overnight)
280g firm tofu
1 Tbsp cacao butter (melted)(or sub coconut oil)
7 tsp maple sugar (or sub any icing sugar of your choice)
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 tsp ground coffee powder*
1/2 tsp salt
- Salted Caramel Sauce
1 can coconut milk
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp maca powder
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Directions
- Vegan Coffee Cream Frosting (Make at least a day ahead)
- Make your own icing sugar by blending your choice of sugar in a high-speed blender such as Vitamix.
- Rinse and drain the soaked cashews and try your best to press most of the water from the firm tofu.
- Add the drained cashews, vanilla bean paste, melted cacao butter to the blender with the icing sugar and blend until smooth. The texture of the mixture should resemble that of cashew butter.
- Now add the firm tofu and ground coffee into the mixture, blend again until smooth. Taste and adjust sweetness.
- Place the frosting mixture in an airtight container and store in the fridge overnight for it to set and the flavors to develop. The mixture might smell a bit tofu-y at first after blending but it will be gone after a night of resting.
- Cake Layers (Make at least a day ahead)
- Preheat the oven at 180ยฐC. Grease with oil the 3 6″ cake tins.
- In a small bowl mix together 2 Tbsp flax meal and 6 Tbsp water.
- In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together. And in another bowl, mix all the wet ingredients (including the flax egg) together.
- Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients bit by bit, while gently folding them together.
- Pour the batter in the tins equally. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the cakes to cool in the tins until they are tepid, remove from the tins and let them cool in the fridge.
- Salted Caramel Sauce
- In a small pot, add 1 can of coconut milk, salt and 1/2 cup of coconut sugar over medium high heat. Bring to a boil and immediately turn the heat down to low.
- Let it simmer for 30-40 minutes, while stirring it occasionally to prevent it from burning.
- When the caramel starts to thicken a bit, stir more frequently to incorporate the darker caramel bits from the bottom into the sauce.
- Once the sauce has turned a dark amber and has thickened to coat the back of a spoon, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla bean paste and maca powder.
- Serve the sauce warm or refrigerate in a sealed glass jar.
- Assembling The Cake
- Gently cut away the domed top of the cake layers if desired. Place the first cake layer on a plate or a decorating cake stand. Top it with a layer of vanilla coffee cream (around 1 cm thick).
- Cover with the second cake layer and repeat.
- Now place the third cake on top, but upside down, so the perfect bottom become the top of your layered cake.
- Scoop abundant frosting on top and with a spatula start distributing it to the edges, and down the side. Fill up any hole and gently scrap away any extra.
- Once finished with the frosting, drizzle some of the salted caramel sauce and decorate the cake with your choice of toppings. Here I use berries, dehydrated blood orange slices, dehydrated pineapple, cacao nibs and shredded coconuts.
Enjoy!
Notes
- You can replace coffee with herbal coffee such as this one from Teeccino for no-caf version.

