While this sweet little 3 year old was expecting a baby brother for her birthday, he was gracious enough to leave 13th January especially to her and arrived a couple of days later.

It was the first year Lake truly looked forward to her birthday, learned about making a wish, picked her own outfit (and matched it with a hair ribbon) and even ordered her very own cake flavour…

She specifically asked for ‘Money & Peanut Butter’.

Money is Chocolate 😜because when she was 1 and 1/2, I let her try a dairy free chocolate coin and because ‘money’ was much easier to say than ‘chocolate’, that’s what it’s been ever since 🤣.

The cake is gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free and baked, the icing is a raw, dairy free, refined sugar free ganache type.

The icing remains moist, shiny and creamy for days. The cake itself is super soft, a little crumbly and fudgey. It is equally indulgent to feed an adult as it is healthy'ish to feed a child of mine :)

Lake's Money & Peanut Butter Cake

For the cake

225g Brown rice flour or another Gluten free flour

320g Coconut palm sugar

250ml Hot water (1 cup)

130g Peanut butter

90g Extra virgin coconut oil, melted

50g Cacao powder

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp Himalayan salt

For the icing

40g Peanut butter

40g Hot water

80g Maple syrup

65g Extra virgin coconut oil, melted

2 Tbsp Cacao powder

1/3 tsp Himalayan salt

METHOD

-You will  need a 20cm/8in round springform cake tine or a standard rectangular loaf pan which you will line with tin foil.

-Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/350°F/gas mark 4.

-Place a baking sheet under your cake tin if using a springform round tin (note it needs to be a good leakproof one as the batter is runny) or line the entire rectangular loaf pan with tin foil.

-Mix the sugar and hot water in a food processor or a blender, add the remaining ingredients and blend again till smooth. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes. Do check at the 30 minute mark to see if the cake is done and the knife comes out clean. This cake is fudgy so it’s better a little wet than too dry, don’t over-do it and remove from the oven to cool.

-Once the cake has completely cooled down in its tin, remove it and start on the icing. I bake the cake the day before to make sure it is entirely cooled but you can speed up this step by holding it in a fridge for an hour after cooling a little on a wire rack.

-Place all the icing ingredients into a blender and blend till smooth. Pour generously all over the middle of the cake, then using the back of a spoon carefully spread the icing to the edges to let it drip a little off the top. Do this last step slowly and space out the drips no closer than an inch apart.