Blender Birthday Cake- vegan

This was the only bit left by the time I came to take the pictures!

You can see the lovely open texture and softness of this cake.

Last Wednesday (20th) was my birthday, and my husband took the opportunity to rekindle his love of baking- he made this cake to celebrate. I have to concede it's the lightest cake I've ever eaten! Not only that, but the presentation was excellent too- the cake was a good size and depth, and the top perfectly flat to take the frosting. The cake itself is sweet, plain and airy, the filling is strawberry jam and the frosting is a delicious sweetened chocolate cashew cream. Fill and frost this cake any way you like, but take it from me, the jam/ cashew cream combo is a winner! Although he didn't write the recipe down as he worked, my husband later told me the amounts and methods he'd used. This cake looks like it might just oust my standard any-occasion recipe and become our new family favourite. (The next step will be how to make it gluten free...)

A blender, food processor, hand blender or balloon whisk is needed for this recipe. These amounts make a sizeable 2-layer 10-12" cake- not that it will last long ; )
500g white self-raising flour
250g golden caster sugar
350ml soya milk
150ml cold pressed rapeseed (canola) oil
50ml coconut oil (no need to melt if you're using a food processor)
40ml water
6-8 level tsps (yes, really!) baking powder

Filling and frosting:
strawberry jam
50ml date syrup
50g golden caster/ icing sugar
100g cashews -if you are making this cake by hand, they will need to be ready ground.
about 100ml water
6 tsps (approx) cocoa powder

• Blitz the oils, the 40ml of water and 1/2 a tab of the flour (taken from the 500g) in your food processor.
• Add the sugar and continue blending until you get a paste.
• In a large bowl, mix the flour and the baking powder together.
• Cream in the oil/ sugar mixture.
• Beat in the soya milk.
• Put the mixture into 2 dampened silicone cake moulds/ oiled and floured cake tins and bake for 20-25 mins in an oven preheated to 170C.
• When the cakes are cooled, sandwich them together with a generous slathering of strawberry jam.
• To make the frosting, you'll need you food processor/ grinder again: grind the cashews to a fine powder, and gradually drizzle in the water to achieve a creamy consistency. Continue to blend, adding the sugar and date syrup. Finally, mix with enough cocoa powder (about 6tsps) to make a thick, spreadable paste.

Please note: This recipe has only been made this one time- it has not been re-tested yet, so please excuse any mistakes in my write-up and let is know via the comments. Thanks :)