Enchanted Woodland Log Cake (Gluten Free and Vegan!)

Versión en español

For her fifth birthday, "la peque" chose an Enchanted Woodland theme, and of course, I had to bake a cake to match. I immediately thought of making a log cake but instead of decorating it in the typical Christmas style, I could use flowers, leaves, woodland creatures, etc.

As the base for the cake, I used a modified version of the "never-fail gluten free chocolate cake" recipe from The Gluten Free Vegan (see here) which I had tried once before. I didn't have the exact ingredients so I had to tinker a bit with the recipe, and so far I can attest that it has lived up to its name and has always given me a delicious cake that everyone loved, even people not used to eating gluten free. I really recommend it!

To add a contrasting flavor that I find goes very well with this cake, I cut the cake in half after baking and add a layer of raspberry jam. Feel free to try other flavors but I love it with raspberry.

At first, I was planing to cover the cake with chocolate icing and use a fork to simulate the bark, but after baking the cake turns very dark, and using loaf pans, the top forms grooves and cracks that really look like the bark of a tree so I ended up using the icing only on the sides of the cake and to decorate the surface of the cake stand.

Finally, the most fun part was decorating the finished cake with real flowers and leaves, some meringue mushrooms I made and waffle butterflies that I found online which looked amazing. Of course you will immediately say that this means that the cake is not anymore vegan, because the meringue mushrooms are made with egg, and you'd be right. The cake itself is egg-free and vegan, and the mushrooms are only sitting on top and this was enough for our purposes since we don't have egg allergy and we are not actually vegans. I myself have egg hypersensitivity so it is enough for me to take out the meringue mushrooms before eating the cake, but if you have a true egg allergy then you can't use meringue for the mushrooms but you could put real mushrooms instead which would also look great.

Regarding the waffle butterflies, I didn't ask about the ingredients but I would assume that they are most likely not gluten free, so again if you have an extreme gluten intolerance then you shouldn't use them, but for the rest of us it may be enough to just take them out before eating. Instead of edible waffle butterflies, you could use paper butterflies that you buy or even you make yourself.

And of course, the possibilities are limitless and you can have fun with it and add snails, ladybugs, or anything that you fancy!

Unfortunately, with all the birthday party preparation stress, I wasn't able to take step by step pictures, but here is the finished cake:

A different angle:

Detail of the butterflies:

Recipe

Serves 12 people. I doubled the recipe to make two loaf pans so I could use one for the "branches" so the cake in the picture could feed 24 people or more.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 250 grams (1½ cups) organic cane sugar
• 115 grams (½ cup) vegan margarine
  I used Pure olive oil margarine.
• 120 grams (½ cup) unsweetened applesauce
  This is an egg substitute. If avoiding apples, you could use banana or 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds + 3 tablespoons water.
• 200 grams (1½ cups) gluten free flour mix that contains xanthan gum
  I used Doves Farm gluten free brown bread flour (click here to see the ingredients).
• 30 grams (¼ cup) tapioca starch
  This helps with binding since we are not using egg but can be skipped if hard to find.
• 9 grams (2 teaspoons) baking powder
• 120 grams (½ cup) non-dairy milk
  I use unsweetened almond milk.
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 14 grams (2 teaspoons) baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or paste
• 55 grams (½ cup) pure cacao powder
  You could use unsweetened cocoa powder instead.
• 230 grams (1 cup) boiling water
• About 100 grams (1/3 cup) of raspberry or other jam.

For the icing:

• 200 grams (1 2/3 cups) confectioners' sugar
• 55 grams  (½ cup) pure cacao powder
• 80 grams (6 tablespoons) coconut oil, softened
  If you want to avoid the coconut flavor, you can use refined coconut oil but the icing will be more solid and a bit harder to spread.
• 60 grams (¼ cup) non dairy milk, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or paste

These amounts make about 1½ cups of icing, enough to cover the sides of one loaf cake and add some decoration with a pastry bag but if you want to cover all of the cake, or are making two loaves, double the recipe.

You'll also need

• A loaf pan (two if you are doubling the recipe, or you could bake it in two batches). Mine measure 10x20 cm (4x8 inches) and are 6cm (2½ inches) tall
• A stand mixer or Thermomix is helpful if you have one
• Spatula or flat knife to spread the icing 
• Fork to draw the bark
• Optional: a decorating pastry bag with a 0.5 cm star tip
• Cake stand or tray to serve the cake
• Cake decorations: flowers, leafs, mushrooms, paper or waffle butterflies, etc. For the meringue mushrooms, you can find instructions here. Note that I didn't use chocolate to connect the stem and the mushroom cap, I found that they held well enough for my purposes without it.

Instructions

Make the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). 
2. Grease the loaf pan(s) with a bit of margarine.
3. Mix lemon juice into milk, then add baking soda and let it sit 5 minutes.
4. Combine flours and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside.
5. Cream sugar and margarine. Add applesauce and mix.
6. Add the milk mixture alternately with the flour mixture in two or three batches each. Make sure each addition is combined before adding the next.
7. Add cacao powder, salt, and vanilla. Mix well.
8. Fold in boiling water until mixture is smooth.
9. Portion batter into prepared loaf pan(s).
10. Bake in preheated oven for approximately 35-45 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.
11. Let it cool.

Make the icing:

1. Sift sugar and cacao powder together in a medium bowl.
2. Whisk in softened coconut oil, milk, and vanilla until smooth. 
3. Use immediately. If it's too soft and sticky, let it sit a couple of minutes in the fridge but not too long as it quickly hardens.

Assemble and decorate:

1. Take the cake(s) out of the pan(s). Carefully cut in half to form two layers. Because this is a gluten free cake, it is pretty crumbly and it helps having a large sharp knife.
2. Spread the raspberry jam in between and put the layers back on top of each other.
3. Place loaf cake on cake stand or tray. If using a second loaf cake, cut it in two or three pieces at an angle, to make branches, and place on the sides of the center loaf.
4. With the spatula, spread small amounts of the icing down the sides of the cake until all the sides are covered.
5. Use the fork to draw curvy lines in the icing along the sides.
6. Optional: put the rest of the icing in the pastry bag with star tip and use it to cover the cake stand surface in between the branches by making small mounds. This will look like the log is lying on the ground, but it will also make the shape of the log less visible since the icing is the same color as the log.
7. Place flowers, leaves and mushrooms in between the branches, on the cake stand surface, and on top of the cake. Also use the decoration to disguise the junctions between the two loaf pans.
8. Slightly bend the waffle butterflies and using a drop of icing, stick them to the cake and on the mushrooms.

I didn't feel that making this cake was too hard, but the party guests were very impressed and the children loved the cake. And I had lots of fun in the process too. Happy baking to you!