Funfetti Birthday Cake with Vanilla Bean Cashew Cream Frosting
/It’s Monday.
Let’s eat cake.
Actually, this cake was devoured yesterday for a little belated birthday celebration with friends. We headed to City Park Jazz—Chris’s excellent idea—fully stocked with wine, cheese, crackers, dips, veggies, chips, and this cake. Oh, and the coolest friends this girl could ask for.
I wish I had a photo of us hauling everything into the park. I also wish I had a photo of how we packed this cake on the bottom of a large storage bin with all of the snacks on top. Thanks to my very engineer-brained husband it worked perfectly. He put the cake on the bottom of the bin on a plate. Then he cut the top half off of a case-sized wine box, turned the box open side down over the cake and that was it!! What was the bottom of the box was now above the cake protecting it from getting smashed. We stacked all of the lighter snacks + picnic supplies on top of the cake without a problem.
We also may or may not have arrived via cab so we could enjoy more than 1 glass of wine each.
Sunday Funday at its finest.
So, this cake.
Funfetti cake was my all time favorite birthday cake growing up always covered in vanilla frosting. It’s been ages since I’ve had a vanilla on vanilla cake but this year it needed to happen. And it had to be filled with sprinkles.
This cake is adapted from my triple layer birthday cake and carrotcake recipes. I opted to use almond flour instead of almond meal for two reasons. I wanted the cake a bit lighter in color to really see the funfetti sprinkles. I also wanted to achieve a slightly lighter texture. Almond flour is processed from blanched almonds with the skins removed, as opposed to almond meal which is simply ground raw almonds with the skins.
I also tried using brown rice flour in the mix instead of sweet rice flour. I know sweet rice flour can be difficult to locate so I wanted to test out the results with brown rice flour. I also thought the brown rice flour might help lighten up the cake a bit. It’s still dense and extremely moist, but with a bit more fluff than the past cakes I’ve made.
I think you’re going to love it.
adapted from my: Triple Layer Chocolate Vanilla Birthday Cake inspired by: vanilla bean funfetti cake+ brown butter funfetti cake
Funfetti Birthday Cake with Vanilla Bean Cashew Cream Frosting
gluten-free, dairy free // yields 1, double layer 8-inch cake
for the cake:
- 1 1/4 cup gluten-free oat flour
- 1 cup blanched almond flour, or almond meal
- 3/4 cup brown rice flour
- 1/2 cup muscovado sugar, or pure cane sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1/4 cup agave nectar
- 4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup unrefined coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles/jimmies, plus more for topping
for the frosting:
- 3 cups raw cashew pieces, soaked at least 4 hours or overnight
- 1/3-1/2 cup agave nectar
- 4-6 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla beans, scraped from 2-3 pods
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/8-1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- pinch of salt
Preheat your oven to 350* F. Grease the bottom and sides of 2, 8-inch cake pans with coconut oil. Dust with a light coating of oat or brown rice flour on all sides [hit the sides of the pan while turning to coat evenly]. Turn the pan upside and knock to release excess flour.
In a large bowl combine the oat flour, almond flour, brown rice flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir well to combine.
In another bowl whisk the eggs together. Then whisk in the applesauce, milk, agave, and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Whisk in the coconut oil then pour into the dry ingredients. Stir or whisk the mixture until just combined [when you no longer see dry flour]. Fold in the sprinkles.
Pour the mixture evenly into the 2 pans then place in the center of the oven and bake for 22-27 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out nearly clean [not sticky, not dry]. Let cool for 20 minutes then carefully turn the cakes out and allow to fully cool on a wire rack.
While baking, rinse and drain the soaked cashews. Place in your blender with 1/3 cup agave, 1/4 cup milk, the vanilla beans, vanilla extract, 1/8 teaspoon almond extract, and pinch of salt. Blend starting on low working to high and using a tamper to keep things moving. Blend and scrape the sides until fully creamy. About 1-2 minutes. You want the frosting to stay as thick as possible, so add extra milk very slowly. Taste and add more agave as needed. Place in a container and refrigerate until fully chilled. It will thicken a bit as it chills.
Once the cake has completely cooled frost as desired. Serve within 2-3 hours after frosting or keep chilled and take out 30min or so before serving.
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Notes: I’m sure white rice flour can sub in for brown rice. I used blanched almond flour [processed with no skins] but almond meal should work fine. Be cautious when adding the almond extract. A little goes a long way. The almond extract is optional but I feel it really helps to mellow out the cashew flavor and help bring out the vanilla notes.
If only the ants didn’t get to the last slice!
Ashley
