Maple Nut Cake (Gluten Free Vegan)

We love nut flours!  They make baked goods so delicious with a sweet hint of almond while adding extra protein! The layers of this Maple Nut Cake are nutty and light with a hint of maple. The frosting sandwiches them together in a creamy, almondy goodness that is topped with the crunch deliciousness of nuts with a hint of sea salt.

Ingredients:

Salted Maple Nuts:

1 cup sliced almonds

1 cup sliced walnuts

2 Tbsp maple syrup

2 Tbsp maple sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt

Cake:

1/2 cup almond flour

1/4 cup ground hazelnut meal

1/4 cup ground walnut meal*

3/4 cup coconut flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sea salt

1 cup coconut sugar or maple sugar

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 1/2 cups light organic coconut milk or almond milk

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

2 tsp maple extract

2 Tbsp cider vinegar

Frosting:

2 15 oz cans full fat coconut milk, chilled

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 tsp cider vinegar

2 tsp maple extract

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup raw almond butter

1 1/4 cups coconut butter

Instructions:

To make nuts, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and position rack in center of oven.  Line a baking sheet with foil.  Toss nuts together with maple syrup, sugar and sea salt and spread out on pan.  Bake for about 10 minutes until toasted.  Remove from oven and let cool but leave oven on for cake.

For the cake, line two six-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides with parchment paper. Coat parchment paper and pan sides with coconut oil.

Whisk almond flour, walnut meal, hazelnut meal, coconut flour, baking soda, sea salt, and sugar in a large bowl to blend well. Whisk oil, milk, vanilla extract, and maple extract, together in small bowl to blend well, then whisk into the flour mixture until well blended. Whisk in cider vinegar and stir quickly.

Transfer cake batter to prepared pans, place in the oven, and bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes.

Cool cakes completely in pan on rack, about 1 hour. Cut around sides of pan to loosen. Turn cake out onto platter; peel off parchment paper. Let cool completely, then place in the fridge to chill until very cold to make slicing easier (so they don’t crumble). When chilled, slice cakes horizontally in half so that you have 4 layers.

To make the frosting, combine all ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth. Pour into a bowl, and place in the freezer until thickened. You want to whisk it every 15 minutes and you know it is ready when it is thick like whipped cream, about 30-45 minutes depending on how warm it has gotten.

To assemble cake, place one layer on a plate, and top with about 3/4  cup frosting. Spread out over cake layer to the edge.  Top with another cake layer and repeat, then the next 2 layers ending with a top layer of cake. To frost cake, spread frosting over top and sides, smoothing out as you go. Decorate cake with maple nuts and enjoy!

*To make walnut meal, grind walnuts until very fine and put through a fine meshed strainer to remove any large chunks

*If you want to make it easier on yourself, and you just have almond flour on hand, go ahead and use it in place of the hazelnut and walnut flours.

*If you would like a 4 layer 9 inch cake, double this entire recipe and bake in two 9 inch cake pans.
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