Happy Birthday Gaither!

I love baking/decorating cakes, probably more than I enjoy eating them. My friend Gaither was back from college so we decided to have a mini celebration. She's just as into delicious and interesting food as I am, so I wanted to create a spectacular and interesting cake.





I used the Banana Split cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for the bottom layer of the cake. If you have that book (and if you don't, you're life is incomplete) this recipe is absolutely amazing, definitely one of my favorites. It's bursting with banana flavor but it's so moist and light, and swirled with chocolate pieces and raspberry jam.
The bottom layer is the Chocolate Raspberry Blackout cake from Vegan With a Vengeance (another absolutely essential book). This is another incredibly moist cake that has such a dark chocolately flavor, none of that cloying sweetness business going on here. The raspberry flavor is definitely there but it's not overpowering.





The cake is covered with chocolate ganache, made from Lindt 70% cocoa bars. It's very important to use decent chocolate if you can find it. My favorite chocolate to use is Scharffenberger Chocolate, which is pretty pricey but worth it. Also, make sure you use fresh chocolate because it does dry out after a while. A good way to tell is that when you break it, it makes a snapping sound.





The Filling is a caramel buttercream recipe that I created and is included below. It has a nice caramel flavor and a great fluffy velvety texture. This recipe would be great with a coconut, chocolate, banana etc. cake


Caramel Buttercream

1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/3 c. soymilk or soy creamer
1/4 c. Earth Balance

1/4 c. Earth Balance, softened
1/4 c. Vegetable Shortening (look for non-hydrogenated, like the Earth Balance brand), softened
1 1/2 - 2 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
splash of soymilk

For the Caramel: Put the brown sugar, 1/3 c. soymilk and 1/4 c. Earth Balance into a heavy small/medium sized sauce pan over medium heat. Stir while the Earth Balance melts and the brown sugar dissolves, bring the mixture to a low boil. Let the mixture boil for a few minutes, reducing the heat if necessary. Once the mixture is slightly thickened, remove from heat and let it cool in the fridge completely (I let mine cool over night).

For the Buttercream: Put 1/4 c. Earth Balance and 1/4 c. shortening into a large mixing bowling. Whip them until fluffy and add the cooled caramel, making sure to thoroughly mix them together. Add the powdered sugar 1/2 c. at a time, thoroughly blending after each addition. Add the vanilla and enough soymilk (probably just a T or 2) so that the frosting is light and fluffy (if it's really thick and hard to spread, add about a T. of soymilk).