You don’t need an oven to make a great campervan birthday cake!

Hannah’s No-bake Chocolate Campervan Birthday Cake

Serves 6

Ingredients

– 3 cups almond flour
– 1 cup dried figs (pre-soaked and strained)*
– 1 cup dates (stoned, pre-soaked and strained)*
– ¾ cup cacao powder + more for dusting to top
– ¼ cup liquid sweetener of choice**
– Juice of ½ a lemon
– Pinch of salt
– 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
– ¼ tsp cardamom (optional)
– Twist of black pepper
– Fruit to decorate (optional)

Method

Chop the figs and dates very finely until they look pureed (if you happen to have a hand blender use that).

Transfer all ingredients into any suitably shaped and lined container*** and press down firmly and evenly to form the cake into shape.

Place in the fridge for at least 3 hours to let it set and chill or in the freezer for at least 1 hour (freezing it makes it easier to turn out).

Remove from container by turning out onto a plate – carefully, as it can stick to the sides a bit (careful loosening will prevent any cracks appearing in the cake).

Before serving, dust cake with some additional cacao powder and decorate however you like.

*The figs and dates in this recipe need to be very moist so you can chop and blend them easily into the other ingredients. They should be pre-soaked and then strained. You can either place them in a bowl and pour boiling, or very hot, water over them and let them sit for 30 mins, or if you want to keep the recipe totally raw, then just place them in a bowl and cover with water and let them sit for a few hours until they are nice and soft. Make sure you remove any hard stems and stones prior to soaking.

**I used 50/50 Honey and Maple Syrup which won’t meet the standards of strict vegans so you might want to use an alternative to honey if catering for a vegan.

** You can use a 15cm diameter cake tin but any container of a similar diameter will do as it does not need to be oven-proof (a Tupperware container or mixing bowl will do fine). Whatever you use, just make sure you line it well with cooking paper first so that you can remove it easily when ready.

This cake is dead easy to make but if you are not bound by a special diet or don’t have time to make one, getting a stunning birthday cake in France easily achieved. Just head for one of the thousands of incredible patisseries and choose a stunning, sinful and absolutely nothing-free creation.

If you have any great campervan recipes and are happy to share, do please let me have them and I’ll publish them in this blog.