Short and straight to the point. There's a new Vanilla Chocolate "Plain Jane" cake in the hood and she's the perfect kids' 'boring' cake.
"And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul" - John Muir
Kid's love familiar (for some boring reason), they're drawn to the simplest flavors or a safe flavor combinations (like chocolate, vanilla... and when they feel like living on the edge - they might even try a strawberry).
It's against our religion to create a cr@ppy flavor cake just to please the kids, instead we made something as close to their innocent taste buds as possible, without breaking our ethos.
The best things are created accidentally... we usually pause the world everyday at 4pm to have our afternoon snack, and that crazy day we had our Mini Chocolate Kiss (muffin) with a vanilla frosting - leftovers from our Vegan Vanilla Cake. And we went straight to heaven.
We thought these two flavors are wow enough (for us) and boring enough for the kids (even the fussiest ones) and we paired them together nicely in our Plain Jane Chocolate & Vanilla (nothing else added) cake.
We love Plain Jane's soft cacao sponges, delicately sweet vanilla frosting, and her simplicity. She's like a Chameleon - capable of shifting her outside looks depending on the party situation.
We created three party moodboards how we see our Plain Jane and how she's able to transform.
And only for the bravest ones, there's a recipe below to create your own Plain Jane from scratch.
"Stay Wild Ocean Child"
"Aloha. It means hello, goodbye and I love you."
Greetings From The Tropics.
We're never going to leave without giving you something. If you want to create your own Plain Jane at home, here's how. Use our recipe below for a 3 layer 15 cm cake, or keep it simple and make it in a single 20cm layer. Either way, this cake will be enough to generously feed 15 kids, alternatively you can half the recipe - just make sure you adjust the cake pan size accordingly.
As always, please use kitchen SCALES to weigh all the ingredients accurately.
- 350g almond flour - 35g tapioca - 140g coconut sugar - 5 eggs - 180g coconut or regular yoghurt - 1 tsp sea salt - 1 tsp bi-carb soda - 1tsp lemon juice - Cacao Powder - 3 tablespoons - Vanilla - 1 tablespoon
1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees. Line three 15cm cake pans or one 20cm cake pan with baking paper and grease the sides with coconut oil or butter.
2. In a bowl, mix the flours, salt and cacao powder. In another whisking bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt, coconut sugar and vanilla. This is best done with a stand mixer, and you want to mix it for approx. 5+ minutes, to get the batter light and fluffy. Once the batter becomes fluffy, add the dry ingredients to the wet, gently stirring until a batter forms. In a small cup/glass mix bi-carb soda and lemon juice. Add to the batter, making sure it’s fully incorporated.
3. Pour the batter in the prepared pans/pan and bake for 25 minutes for smaller 15cm pans or 35 minutes (if you're using one 20 cm pan) at 175 degrees, then turn off the oven and leave it in for another 5 minutes. Take the pan out and leave it to cool at room temperature for 30 min, before inverting the cake onto a rack and allow to completely cool before wrapping it in the frosting (recipe below).
- 150g Australian macadamia nuts, macadamia butter or cashews (if you like the cashews - we don't, but it will still work)
- 1 can refrigerated coconut cream (solid part only) - free of gums and thickener
- Bush honey or any liquid sweetener, raw granulated sugar will also work - 60g
- pinch sea salt
- Coconut oil (or butter if you tolerate dairy) - 2 tablespoons
- Vanilla - 2 teaspoons
- Lemon Juice - 2 teaspoons
Scoop the solid coconut cream from the top of the chilled can and pour into your blender, add the rest of the frosting ingredients. Blend on medium to high speed until smooth (you might need to scrape the sides a couple of times). Tip – leave some macadamia bits for an added texture.
For a quicker version, and effortless look of your cake, place your cooled cake sponge on a cake stand or serving plate and gently pour the frosting over your single layer sponge (this won't work if you're making multiple layer cake) and place in the freezer for 15-20 min - we want the frosting to stop dripping. After 15-20 min just refrigerate the cake for a couple of hours.
For a fluffier frosting version and if you have more time, refrigerate the frosting for minimum 5 hours, and once solid, whip it with an electric mixer until fluffy and voluminous. Place one cake layer on a plate and frost delicately, repeat with the other two layers. You can leave the sides half naked or you can gently frost the sides, and place the cake back in the fridge for at least an hour.
No one asked, but we'll tell you anyway. There's all together 200g of sweetener in this cake (base + frosting). This can be reduced even further over time...a tip - if you reduce the sweetener by 10g every time you bake something, your taste buds will slowly reset and you will start to feel more. Promise, we tried. This way you're actively working on improving your and your kids health, just saying (and saving $ on sugar).
Moving on, when you divide 200/15 slices, that's 13g of sugar per slice/person. Needles to say it's sweet and tasty enough without making you feel sick, also your kids' blood sugar will stay balanced throughout the day (no sugar crushes, sugar tantrums etc).
When baking, always look at the total amount of sweetener and how many portions you're getting out of it...
As always, let us know about your Plain Jane and message us if you have any questions.
Love from our Plain Jane x