Hazelnut Cake with Chocolate Mocha Frosting

Cake time! This past weekend I celebrated my birthday, and what birthday is complete with out cake? Honestly, I think everyday deserves cake but that’s just one person opinion. If you like chocolate, and coffee, look no further. Mama has you covered!

Hazelnut Cake with Chocolate Mocha Frosting

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 c. Sugar
2 c. Four
1/4 tsp. Salt
3 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 c. Coconut Oil
1 1/4 c. Almond Milk
1 Egg
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 1/2 c. Toasted Hazelnuts

Frosting:
2 containers of Vegan Cream Cheese
1 1/2 c. Confectioner’s Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
4 tbsp. Cocoa Powder
3 tbsp. Coffee
1/4 c. Almond Milk
Pinch of Salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and grind the toasted hazelnuts until the nuts become fine.

Whisk together all the dry ingredients for the cake (flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder). Melt 1/4 cup of coconut oil and allow it to cool. Once the coconut is cooled, but still liquid, add 1 egg and 1 tsp. vanilla. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir together. Slowly add 1 1/2 cup almond milk to the batter (If the batter seems to thick, add a little more milk). Lastly, Stir in 1 cup of the hazelnuts. Set side the remaining 1/2 cup of hazelnuts for decorating.

Bake the cake in a round 8 inch baking pan for about 45 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean. Once the cake has baked, remove it from the pan and allow it to cool. Make sure to allow the cake to cool completely before frosting it.

While the cake cools, prepare the frosting. In a large bowl, whip together vegan cream cheese, sugar, cocoa powder, coffee, vanilla, almond milk, and salt. With a hand mixer, whip the frosting until it is light and fluffy.

Cut the cake into 4 layers. Place the bottom layer on a cake stand and frost. Continue to layer the cake until all 4 layers are stacked. Dirty frost the cake and place it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Remove the cake from the fridge and frost the cake one more time. Use the remaining hazelnuts to dress the sides of the cake.

Wether it’s your birthday or just another day in the neighborhood, this cake is a great idea!

Apple Coffee Cake

Apple Crumb Cake

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times, coffee and coffee cake were made for one another. I imagine that their original story is stuff that rom coms are made of. After crossing each other’s paths for years, they finally became friends. “How could coffee and coffee cake just be friends?!” everyone asked. Then one fateful day, coffee realized that coffee cake was his cake mate. Of course, coffee was her soul beverage, and the rest is history. Or something like that… and like any good rom com I will gladly binge on that pair until someone drags me away.

Apples:
3 Apples
3 tbl. Brown Sugar
2 tbl. Flour
2 tbl. Butter
1 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

Crumbles:
1 1/2 c. Softened Butter
1 1/2 c. Flour
1 c. Brown Sugar

Cake:
2 c. Cake Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 c. White Sugar
1 Stick Butter
2 Eggs
1 c. Buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

The best thing to do for this recipe is to first get the apples and crumbles ready and on standby.  Dice and peel three apples.  In a frying pan melt the butter, add apples, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon.  Sauté till the apples become soft, then remove from the heat and set aside.
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In a medium bowl place the butter for the crumbles, as well as flour and brown sugar.  Mix the dry ingredients into the butter until they start forming little balls.  Once the crumble mixture is finished set it aside.

Put all the dry ingredients, for the cake, into a large bowl and use a whisk to thoroughly mix the ingredients.  In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar, then add the eggs.  Once the butter mixture is finished, stir it into the dry ingredients.  When the two mixtures are blended pour a cup of buttermilk in and add vanilla.

In a lined muffin tin, begin by filling the cups a third of the way up with apples, pushing it slightly down.
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Next, pour a layer of cake batter, about half of a spoonful (just so the batter covers the apples).  Final step, add the crumbles to the top (be generous with the crumbles, more the merrier!).
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Bake for about eighteen minutes, until the coffee cakes start to brown.  Make sure to allow the cakes to cool before eating.
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