Blackberry Shortcake (gluten-free&vegan)

Manjela HaverlandCake, RecipesLeave a Comment

This is an awesome cake. It has everything a cake needs to have. Fluffy dough, yummy cream and berries. Blackberries in this case. I love blackberries and I feel they are highly underrated. Maybe because they're not as easy to come by as for example strawberries or blueberries. Anyway there are far too little blackberry cake recipes out there for my taste. But don't despair I am just about to change that.

Blackberry Shortcake

Before that let's talk about another key ingredient for this cake: Coconut whipped cream. If you read any of my post so far you probably know that I used to loved everything dairy until I was diagnosed with being intolerant to milk protein. Cream and cheese were the things I missed the most. Until one day I read about coconut whipped cream. This got me very excited and I used the next possibility straight away to try it out. And well I failed miserably. It separated in a weird way and got clumpy, then I put it on a hot (!) cookie and it melted instantly and I just had a huge mess on my plate.

So to spare you this kind of unpleasant experience with coconut whipped cream and gonna give you a quick guide on hot to coconut whipped cream:

  1. Choose a proper coconut milk. This means it has to be full fat. There is NO way around it. And to be honest there are other moments to count calories than when you are having coconut whipped cream. Honestly! Also try to find one with as much coconut as possible and as little additives as possible. Usually everything with more than 80 percent coconut works quite nicely. You can also use coconut cream.

  2. You have to chill that coconut milk in the fridge overnight. YOU HAVE TO! If you are a spontaneous baker or you simply forget everything or you just live in the now and can't be bothered by what you might or might not be doing tomorrow a couple of hours in the freezer also works. But please don't forget it there.

  3. Your baked goods have to be fully cooled. I know you want that stuff and you want it now! I am like this. I hate hate hate the fact that baked goods have to cool and I get super impatient. But unfortunately with coconut whipped cream you got to find your inner Buddha and wait. Coconut whipped cream is super thermo sensitiv and it will melt if you#re baked goods are too warm...

Blackberry Shortcake

But if you follow these simple rules you are in for a real treat. Coconut whipped cream is such a blessing. I love it on cake, fruit jelly, short bread, ice cream, fruit, just whatever you would do with regular cream. It's so good.

Enough tips for now though: let's share a recipe! This cake works with all sorts of berries. My favourite are strawberries or blackberries but feel free to follow your gut on this one. Enjoy!

Serves : 8                   Prep time: 30 min              Baking time: 40 min

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 cup plain soy or coconut yoghurt

4 Tbsp fresh lemon juice 

75 ml coconut oil (melted)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

finely grated zest of 2 lemons

3/4 cup coconut sugar

2/3 cup ground almonds

2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

for the coconut whipped cream:

1 can full fat coconut milkrefrigerated overnight

1 Tbspicing (powdered) sugar (or more to taste)

1tspvanilla extract

For the fruit:

1 1/2 cups blackerries

1 cup blueberries

1-2 tbsp maple syrup

1-2 tbsp water

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F. Grease a deep 20cm/ 8inch round cake tin.

  2. Whisk together the yogurt, lemon juice, coconut oil, almond extract, lemon zest and coconut sugar in a large bowl. Stir in the ground almonds.

  3. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder; add to the wet ingredients and gently fold through.

  4. Working quickly, transfer the batter  to the prepared cake tin, spread it level and pop in the oven. Bake for about 40 minutes, until firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

  5. Leave to cool in the tin for about 20 minutes then carefully turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

  6. Wash the blackberries and leave them on a towel to dry. Wash blueberries, put them in a small saucepan add water and maple syrup. Bring them to boil and let them cook on low heat until they from a blueberry sauce.

  7. To make the coconut whipped cream, remove the chilled coconut milk from the fridge without tipping or shaking it and remove the lid. Scrape out the top, thickened cream and discard the liquid (or reserve for use in smoothies).

  8. Place the coconut cream in a chilled bowl and beat with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla extract and  icing sugar and beat for about another minute. Taste and add more sugar as needed. Keep in the fridge if not using right away.

  9. Spread  coconut whipped cream over the cake, top with the blackberries and some blueberry juice. Store any leftovers in the fridge.

Blackberry Shortcake

If you tried this, please let me now how you liked it in the comment section down below and if you want to get notified about more recipes like this, a subscription is just three clicks away.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *