Coffee & Caramel Sourdough Vegan Birthday Cake

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 180°C. 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!