Recipe: Lumberjack cake

Recently for some reason, I was really craving a lumberjack cake. Now, I don't know where I learnt about it, or even what kicked off this intense need, but I knew that I needed to make it. Problem was, I had no idea what a lumberjack cake was, or even if I could veganise it! I think I just heard the name somewhere and thought it sounded delicious! A quick google showed me that yes, it looked tasty and a vegan version was definitely possible. Added bonus, I even had the ingredients to hand. It's like it was meant to be...

Now readers, you know that I'm not one to follow recipes exactly, so I just needed someone to give me a general idea about what to do and I'd be off. I found that here. So without further ado, here's my lumberjack cake recipe, inspired by Vegan in Melbourne.

Ingredients

• 2 apples (peeled and chopped)
• 1 cup of dried dates (chopped)
• 1 teaspoon bicarb
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup nuttelex 
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/4 cup apple puree (or egg replacer of your choice - you may need to adjust liquids)
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 2 cups of self-raising flour (or plain flour and baking powder mix equivalent)

For the topping:

• Equal amounts (I used 1/4 cup) of: almond milk, maple syrup, coconut, nuttelex

Method

1. In a bowl, put chopped dates, apples and bicarb. Pour boiling water over the top and leave to soak for 10 minutes. 
2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
3. In another bowl, combine nuttelex, coconut oil, apple puree, vanilla and sugar. 
4. When apples have soaked for 10 mins add to sugar mixture, add flour and mix gently to combine. Note that the mixture is very sloppy right now. 
5. Put into cake tin and bake 45 minutes.
6. At 45 minutes, combine the topping ingredients. Microwave them gently if you need to melt the nuttelex down a bit. Pour straight over the top of the cake and bake a further 20 minutes.

I only have silicon bakeware so I sat it on another tray for stability when moving in and out of the oven

This cake is moist, delicious and even better the next day when the flavours have had a chance to develop. Yum! Keeps for about a week, if it lasts that long...

Full of apple and date goodness!

Have you done any baking lately?