Chocolate Cake w/ Almond Butter Cream Cheese Icing

Happy Birthday tooo meeee :) <3 April 11, 1987 is my day, and I am 24 years old!! :D

A big thank you to all who are going vegan for a day in honour of my birthday!! Much love to you all :) <3

It has been 4 years since I had a birthday cake. Before going vegan, my parents always made sure I had one to celebrate with, but when I went vegan, we didn't have any bakeries around that made vegan cakes. And now that there is one... I discovered that it costs $60 to have a vegan cake made :| no matter how badly I wanted cake, I wasn't paying that much for one... especially when I can make it myself ;)

I knew I wanted the cake itself to be chocolate, gluten-free, sugar-free/ low-sugar, and fat-free. Preferably, I also wanted it to be moist.
I unfortunately hadn't realized that I was out of gluten-free flour, so I subbed barley flour. However, because of the xantham gum and banana, in this recipe (which help to bind), gluten-free flour can easily be used.
This cake turned out to be dense and moist (though adding a second banana would have made it even more moist), and didn't crumble at all. The banana in it adds a subtly sweet taste :)

...now as for the icing! It was a little more fat- and sugar-laden than the cake itself, but hey...balance ;) I got the original recipe from VegWeb, swapping out only the peanut butter for almond butter. Deeeelish!! Everyone looooved this cake! And yes, I was the only vegan out of 11 people who tasted it. This cake, it impressed. And what do you think about my piping job?? hehe, first time piping and I don't think I did too badly ;)

P.S. VegWeb pretty much saved my life when I went vegan! It's a great community of members, with tons of recipes containing photos and reviews. Still one of my favourite resources :)

So what are you waiting for? Get your oven mitts on and get a cake happening ;)

From my kitchen to yours <3

For the Cake:
Ingredients:
2 cups barley flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp xantham gum
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
pinch sea salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 cups almond mylk, plain/unsweetened
1 large ripe banana, peeled and mashed
1 tbs vanilla

Directions:
1) Mix together first seven ingredients until well-combined. Make a well and add in remaining ingredients.
2) Use electric beater to beat the batter well.
3) Pour prepared batter into cake pan and bake @ 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.
4) Let stand for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before icing.

For the icing: 
Ingredients: 4 oz Tofutti 'Better than Cream Cheese'

1/2 cup creamy almond butter
6 tbs Earth Balance margarine, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tbs vanilla extract

Directions:
1) Using an electric mixer, cream together all ingredients until smooth. Spread evenly on cake or pipe it. Keep refrigerated until consumption.

peace, love, cake & icing <3
Char, xo