Vegan Banana Bread Cake

Our amazing vegan cake has been designed by Juliet Sear, one of the UK’s leading cakeologists. Create your own version with this recipe for the top tier, which is made up of four layers and makes a generous 16 servings. Suitable for Vegans Difficulty rating Medium Makes 16 servings Cook time 45 minutes

Ingredients

Cake

Based on a Buckwheat Flour Banana Bread recipe created by Joanna Stankiewicz To create tier 1 (tier 1 is made up of 4 x 6 inch layers) Dry ingredients:

• 520g buckwheat flour *
• 600g almond flour *
• 4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon *
• 2 tsp sweet mixed spices *
• 8 tbsp coconut sugar *
• Pinch of sea salt *
• 4 handfuls of pecans sliced *

Wet ingredients:

• 12 bananas
• 4 tbsp apple cider vinegar *
• 480 ml of coconut milk *
• 4 tbsp agave syrup *
• 1.25 cups coconut oil *
• 4 tsp almond butter *

Frosting

This creates enough to add a thin layer between each cake and to coat the outside twice. Plus it leaves enough for any decoration.

• 400g dairy free spread
• 1kg icing sugar
• 2 tsp of vanilla paste or seeds from one vanilla pod *

Chocolate Dripping & Shard

• 250g melted dark dairy-free chocolate *

Decor

• 250g marzipan
• Dr Oetker gold shimmer spray
• Autumnal food colouring (brown, green & yellow)
• Handful of chopped hazelnuts *

* Ingredients available at Holland & Barrett Add all to basket

Method

To make the cake

Step 1. Add mixed wet ingredients to dry ingredients and combine. Step 2. Line a 4 x 6-inch tins with baking paper and pour in the mixture. Step 3. Place all 4 tins in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes at 180°c in a pre-heated oven or until a knife comes out clean when poked into the cake. If the top looks like it might be getting a little too dark then cover with tin foil. Allow it to cool before assembling. NOTE: If you do not have multiple tins then repeat steps 2 & 3 three more times to create 4 layers.

Frosting

Step 1: Beat together the frosting on slow until all the powder has mixed in then beat fast until light and fluffy. Save around 200g should you wish to use the frosting for decoration. Step 2: Use the remaining frosting to layer the cakes together. Frost over the whole cake in a thin layer (few mm’s thick) and chill for an hour. Step 3: Then go over again with another layer of frosting to give a nice neat finish. With the reserved 200g, colour with green food colouring for any wording you wish to pipe on the cake.

Chocolate Dripping & Shard

Drizzle over the top and allow drips to fall down the sides of the tiers. Top tip: use a piping bag to make the drips neater. To create the chocolate shard at the top, smooth melted chocolate onto a baking sheet until chilled and then cut desired shape.

Decor

Step 1: Acorns Take the marzipan and mould into teardrop shapes, the size of a large acorn. Roll out a little bit of marzipan, using icing sugar to prevent sticking, and use a round cutter to make the acorn top. Place onto the top half of the acorn and use a little tool, such as a toothpick or modelling tool, to make the detail on the top. Then add a little stalk by rolling a little more marzipan. Leave to dry then spray with gold shimmer spray. Attach to the cake with a little bit of frosting, if required. Step 2: Leaves For the leaves, add the food colouring to the remaining marzipan in any autumnal shades you wish. Knead until the colour is an even shade throughout the marzipan. If you have leaf plunger cutters, roll out the marzipan thinly with a little icing sugar to prevent sticking and use leaf cutters to cut out and make the veining details. If you want to add more detail you can also use a colouring dust to brush over the veins to create darker veins to make them look more realistic. If you do not have leaf cutters you can simply roll out and use a sharp knife to make various leaf shapes and use the top of the knife to create the veins. Attach with a little bit of frosting, if required. Step 3: Hazelnut crumbs Sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts on the top of the cake and along the bottom edges. Love this? Then check out our other delicious vegan recipes Shop Vegan Baking Juliet Sear regularly appears on TV, in magazines, vlogs, blogs, social media campaigns and radio. Over the years she has made edible creations for thousands of people, including many celebrities such as Sir Ian McKellen, Bryan Adams, Prince Harry and Kate Moss. She’s a regular presenter on ITV’s This Morning show and, for the second year running, she has designed and created the edible animated characters for Channel 4’s Great British Bake Off advertising campaigns.  She also works with major International brands such as the BBC, Cadbury, Dr Oteker, Kitchen Aid and Marc Jacobs and was previously the UK Ambassador for Cake Boss.