The Nostalgic Ice Cream On The Cake: Don’t Let This Neo-polean Cake Be Your Waterloo

Yield: 1 3 layer cake

Ingredients: Chocolate Layer

• 1/4 cup coffee liqueur
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise (weird I know, but go with it)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup cake/pastry flour (or all purpose is fine too)
• 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegan butter
• 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cups cane sugar
• 2 egg replacer

Directions: Chocolate Layer

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 1 9 inch round cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease the paper and dust with flour, knocking out excess flour (I highly recommend not skipping this step, it will make removing the cake from the pan afterwards a breeze).
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the coffee liqueur, water, instant coffee powder and cocoa powder until smooth, then whisk in the mayonnaise and vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.
4. In a large-ish bowl, beat together the butter and both sugars with an electric mixer. Add egg replacer one at a time, beating between each addition. Alternate beating in cocoa and flour mixtures (beat in each in a few batches).
5. Pour batter into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes (or longer if you’re not too impatient) before carefully inverting cake onto a plate or cooling rack to allow to cool completely. Once cooled completely, if you’re not completing the cake right away, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until assembling.

Ingredients: Vanilla Layer

• 1 1/2 cups cake/pastry flour (or all purpose is fine too)
• 1 cup cane sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegan butter, room temperature
• 2 egg replacer
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions: Vanilla Layer

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease 1 9 inch round cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease the paper and dust with flour, knocking out excess flour (I highly recommend not skipping this step, it will make removing the cake from the pan afterwards a breeze).
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. On low speed of a hand mixer, slowly add in the vegan butter a few cubes (or blobs if you’re me) at a time, mixing until there are no huge chunks left.
4. Add egg replacer one at a time, blending between each addition.
5. Add in the vanilla and almond extract, mixing to combine.
6. Add in the almond milk in a few additions, mixing between each addition.
7. Pour batter into pan and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes (or longer if you’re not too impatient) before carefully inverting cake onto a plate or cooling rack to allow to cool completely. Once cooled completely, if you’re not completing the cake right away, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until assembling.

Ingredients: Strawberry Layer

• 1 3/4 cups cake/pastry flour (or all purpose is fine too)
• 3/4 cups cup cane sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegan butter, room temperature
• 2 egg replacer
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon rose extract (or just add extra vanilla extract)
• 1 tablespoon beet juice (this is just for colour, so feel free to replace this with another tablespoon of almond milk if you don’t have it)
• 1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons almond milk
• 3/4 cups strawberry jam
• 1 cup chopped fresh strawberries

Directions: Strawberry Layer

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease 1 9 inch round cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease the paper and dust with flour, knocking out excess flour (I highly recommend not skipping this step, it will make removing the cake from the pan afterwards a breeze).
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. On low speed of a hand mixer, slowly add in the vegan butter a few cubes (or blobs if you’re me) at a time, mixing until there are no huge chunks left.
4. Add egg replacer one at a time, blending between each addition.
5. Add in the vanilla, rose extract and beet juice, mixing to combine.
6. Add in the almond milk and strawberry jam in a few additions, mixing between each addition.
7. Lightly sprinkle chopped strawberries with a bit of flour and give it a bit of shake so they’re all lightly coated (this helps to stop them  sinking in your batter, so feel free to omit this step if you want). Fold chopped strawberries into your cake batter.
8. Pour batter into pan and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes (or longer if you’re not too impatient) before carefully inverting cake onto a plate or cooling rack to allow to cool completely. Once cooled completely, if you’re not completing the cake right away, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until assembling.

Ingredients: Chocolate Buttercream

• 3/4 cups vegan butter, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/4 cup melted vegan chocolate
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons almond milk

Directions: Chocolate Buttercream

1. In a medium sized bowl, beat together the butter, vanilla and chocolate.
2. Slowly add the cocoa powder and mix to combine.
3. Beat in the icing sugar.
4. Add the almond milk slow, only adding as much as you need to get the right spreadable consistency.

Ingredients: Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing

• 3/4 cups vegan cream cheese
• 3/4 cups vegan butter
• 3-4 cups icing sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons strawberry jam
• 1-2 teaspoons beet juice (this is just for colour, so feel free to omit if you don’t have it, it just won’t be as pink)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions: Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing

1. In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy.
2. Beat in the strawberry jam, beat juice and vanilla.
3. Slowly add the icing sugar until you get the desired spreadable consistency and sweetness you want.

Directions: ASSEMBLY

1. To ensure the layers sit on top of each other evenly, slice off the top layer of each cake so that you get a smooth surface. If you want it to be super even, use a cake level or toothpicks. The toothpick method: Use toothpicks and a ruler to mark level points all around the cake by pushing the toothpicks about half the way in at the height you want. Then use a serrated knife and cut from toothpick to toothpick. I’ve had so much trouble with layer cakes in the past, that I did this, and it turned out to be the best looking layer cake I’ve ever made, so might be worth trying 🙂 .
2. Place your chocolate cake on a cake stand or plate, lined with a few pieces of wax paper around the edges (which you will remove after icing, so just place around the edges for easy removal) and evenly spread about a third of your chocolate buttercream on top. Lay your strawberry cake on top of this and take another third of your chocolate buttercream and evenly spread on top. Top with your vanilla layer.
3. Using an offset spatula, take the final third of chocolate buttercream and very thinly spread over the sides and top of the cake to create a “crumb layer” (this will make it so that you don’t get crumbs in your strawberry frosting after. If you don’t care about this, feel free to just split the chocolate buttercream between the chocolate and strawberry and strawberry and vanilla layers instead).
4. Place cake in freezer for 30 minutes.
5. Remove cake from freezer and place a huge dollop (i.e. most of the frosting) of strawberry cream cheese frosting on the top of the cake.
6. Using an offset spatula, slowly work the frosting to the edges and down the sides of the cake and smooth it out as best you can.
7. Decorate with strawberry roses if desired (here’s a tutorial if you’re interested).
8. Store covered in the refrigerator.