Healthy Birthday Cake / gluten free / Vegan

This Healthy Birthday Cake is not only gluten free and vegan, but oh so light and delicious. I used gluten free flours (buckwheat and rice) and olive oil in it and I got such a beautifully light and moist sponge which I accompanied with whipped cream and berries (raspberries and strawberries both work beautifully).

I love making vegan sponge cakes cause I find them to be a safe bet, light and soft, not heavy at all as most raw cakes are. And they are almost fail safe (compared to conventional sponges that are usually at risk of not rising or sticking or falling apart – had a lot of that myself in previous years).

If you never tried making a vegan sponge cake you’ll be surprised to how easy it is. It’s always the same drill: all dry ingredients together, then the wet, then mix both together and bake. If you’re wondering what replaces the eggs in the sponge, it is 2 things.

1. Finely ground flax seeds mixed with 3 times as much water – create a mixture that resembles the beaten egg in consistency – it is commonly known as flax egg and it binds the batter
2. Combination of baking soda and apple cider vinegar creates a reaction that rises the cake.

Important tips:

1. Be gentle when folding wet into dry ingredients as the cake could come out chewy instead of soft.
2. The duration of baking will depend of thickness of the batter in the pan. When it looks done, check it out with a toothpick – should come out dry or just greasy, but not covered in batter.
3. I only topped the cake with whipped cream and berries but you can slice the cake through the middle and apply a layer of the two and then again on the top.

[recipe-foody] Preparation time: 20 minutes + 35 minutes baking time

Yields: 10 slices

Dry ingredients:

• 1 cup rice flour

• 1 cup buckwheat flour

• 2/3 cup blanched almonds meal/or ground almonds

• 1 tbsp chia seeds

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp Himalayan salt

• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder (1 tsp extract – add it to wet ingredients)

• zest of 1 large lemon

Wet Ingredients

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 1/2 cup agave or maple syrup 

• 2 tbsp flax (grind it) + 6 tbsp water = 2 flax eggs

• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

• 2 tbsp fresh orange juice 

• 1 cup oat or almond milk + 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

• 1 grated apple

Decorations

• Whipped cream and raspberries for decoration (and eating)

Method

1. Turn on the oven to 180° Celsius or 350F
2. Mix the milk and cider vinegar and leave to stand
3. Sift the flours and mix them in a bowl with all other dry ingredients
4. Grind the flaxseeds and mix them with water. You will see that what you’ll get will look a lot like a beaten egg
5. Mix oil, agave or maple syrup, lemon and orange juice
6. Mix flax and oil mixture with a spoon and add into dry ingredients, then add milk and mix again. Do it gently, do not over mix it because if you do it too harsh the cake could turn out chewy. Now fold in the grated apple. Alternatively you can use apple sauce (say 1/2 – 1 cup). The batter should be fairly thick but still pourable
7. Pour the ready batter into a lined cake tin (I used 22 cm spring form)
8. Bake for 35 minutes. Baking time will depend on the thickness of the batter. In a wider pan the batter will be thiner and will require shorter baking time.
9. Test the cake with the tooth pick. When it’s done the tooth pick should come out clean.
10. The cake will keep out of the fridge for at least 4 days and longer if kept in the fridge.

11. You can slice the cake in half and fill it with whipped cream and berries, and top it the same. Alternately serve the cake with cream and berries on the side
[/recipe-foody]

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And if you’re a cake, check some other cake recipes like Vegan Chocolate Sponge Cake, Double Chocolate Vegan Cake and if you like raw cakes, check out Double Chocolate Raw Cake and Raw Nutella Cake.

Zdrava Torta / bez glutena i veganska

Ako još niste probali napraviti zdravi veganski biskvit koji je i bez glutena i napravljen sa cjelovitim sastojcima: maslinovim uljem, heljdinim i rižinom brašnom, limunom, vanilijom i bademom.

Jako ga je jednostavno napraviti. Uvijek je ista metoda: suhi sastojci zajedno, mokri zajedno i onda ih pomiješate. Sve radite ručno jer treba nježno pomiješati sastojke da bi biskvit bio mekan i sočan.

Da ne duljim, evo i recept.

Kolač možete radiiti i u običnom kalupu za tortu: 22 do max 26cm

[recipe-foody]Vrijeme pripreme: 20 min + 35 min za pečenje

Količina: 10 šnita

Suhi sastojci:

1 šalica heljdinog brašna (ja sam samljela heljdu u mlincu za kavu)

1 šalica rižinog brašna

2/3 šalice mljevenih badema

1 žlica chia sjemenki

1/2 žličice himalajske soli

1 žličica sode bikarbone

2 žličice praška za pecivo bez aluminija (bilo koji bio)

vanilija

naribana korica većeg nešpricanog limuna

Mokri sastojci:

1 šalica zobenog ili bademovog mlijeka + 2 žličice jabučnog octa

2 žlice lana (sameljete ga i pomiješate sa 6 žlica vode)

2 žlice soka od limuna

2 žlice soka od naranče

1/2 šalice maslinovog ulja

1/2 šalice agavinog ili javorovog sirupa

1 manja naribana jabuka

Tučeno vrhnje i maline ili jagode za ukrašavanje

Postupak:

1. Upalite pećnicu na 180 stupnjeva.

2. Stavite sve suhe sastojke u zdjelu (najbolje je prosijati brašna). Sameljite lan i pomiješajte s vodom. 3.Pomiješajte mlijeko i ocat pa ostavite da odstoji.

4. Pomiješajte ulje, sirup i limunov i narančin sok

5. U suhe sastojke prvo uspite lan s vodom (flax egg) pa mješavinu ulja i sirupa. Pažljivo promiješajte.

6. Zatim dodajte mlijeko i dalje pažljivo miješajte. I na kraju dodajte jabuku.Bolje da i ostane poneka grudica nego da “premiješate” smjesu jer bi onda kolač mogao biti žilav.

7. Smjesa treba biti gusta ali ne tako da se ne može izliti iz posude. Ako treba dodajte još par žlica mlijeka.

8. Prebacite smjesu u kalup. Pekla sam ga za u kalupu za tortu od 22 cm, 35min. Ako koristite veći, trebat će kraće.

9. Kolač je gotov kad zabodete čačkalicu i izadje čista (samo s mrvicama). 

10. Možete kolač prerezati i premazati vrhnhem i staviti bobice, ili samo ukrasiti po vrhu.11. Ako želite da vam dulje traje, radije servirajte šlag i bobice sastrane.[/recipe-foody]