Vegan Roasted walnut cake with banana buttercream and cocoa coconut whip

I love the roasted walnuts. It has a similar taste than carrot cake, it is so delicious.
If you want to save some time, you can make a double portion of banana buttercream and ice it instead of the coconut whip. It is perfect for a birthday if it is well decorated.

Ingredients for 8 servings:
CAKE BATTER (FOR 3 x 7-8” LAYERS) /4x baking pans from Amazon £10.95
2 cup ground walnut meal/flour 240g Walnuts 1kg from Amazon £9.99
1.5 cup / 300 ml aquafaba (from 2-3 can of chickpeas)
250g all-purpose flour
2 TSP / 7g baking powder
1 sachet / 5g cream of tartar /50g from Amazon £1.99
1 TSP / 2.5g cinnamon
0.5 cup / 70g icing sugar
2 TSP vanilla extract
4 TBSP / 45g vegetable oil
BANANA BUTTERCREAM FILLING
3 TBSP / 125g vegan butter or margarine
1 banana pureed
1 1/4 cup / 180g icing sugar
1 TSP vanilla extract
COCOA COCONUT WHIP
2 3/4 C coconut cream (about 2 cans coconut cream refrigerated for at least 3 days and the separated water from the bottom is discarded)
3/4 cup / 100g confectioners sugar
4 TBSP / 60g cocoa powder
3 TSP vanilla extract
3-5 TBSP coconut flour to thicken up the coconut whip

Instructions:
1, Preheat the oven to 150 C
2, Place the walnuts onto a baking sheet in an even layer, then bake for 15-20 minutes and let it cool.
3, Place the cold roasted walnuts into a food processor and blend into a fine meal.
4, Change oven temperature to preheat to 220 C
5, Prepare 3 (7-8-inch) cake pans by greasing them with vegan butter. Cut out 3 circles of baking paper to the bottom of the baking pans. Place these into the bottom of each pan, flattening it out to the edges with your fingers and grease the paper too.
6, Beat the chilled aquafaba for about 2 minutes. Add cream of tartar and continue beating until it gets thick. You can make it without cream of tartar, but it will take about 20 minutes to beat with the mixer and the texture will not last as long so you will get better results with cream of tartar and it will be faster to beat to the right consistency.
7, Measure the aquafaba into a glass bowl. Place it in the fridge or freezer to chill.
8, Add in vanilla extract and continue beating for another minute or so while you drizzle in the vegetable oil and icing sugar. You’ll notice the meringue get thicker and shiny. It will have quadrupled in volume.
9, Add the walnut meal/flour to a mixing bowl with all-purpose flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Stir to combine.
10, Fold the dry ingredients into the meringue gently with a wide spatula until just combined. Do not over mix.
11, Divide the batter between the cake pans and spread out in an even layer to the edges with a spatula. Shake it side to side and tap it gently onto the counter to ensure it’s even.
12, Place it to a very hot 220 C oven and turn it down to 180 C immediately when the cake pans are in. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 180 C or until a toothpick comes out clean.
13, Once baked remove the cake pans onto wire racks to cool. Place a wire rack on top of one cake pan and flip it over gently tapping it if necessary to remove the cake. Remove the parchment paper on top and allow cakes to cool completely before icing and assembling.
14, For the buttercream filling, combine all of the ingredients except the icing sugar.
15, Then beat the vegan butter until smooth with a hand mixer or in a blender. Add the icing sugar into the mixture in small portions.
16, Place one cake layer on your cake platter or serving dish top down. Then take half of the buttercream and spread it out to the edges in an even layer with an icing spatula. Add another cake layer top side up and ice another layer on top. Then add your third cake layer top side down.
17, Refrigerate the cake while you prepare the coconut whip.
18, To make the coconut whip you need to use only the thick cream from cans of coconut cream or full-fat coconut milk. It’s best if you can refrigerate the cans for at least 3 days.
19, Scoop out the thick cream without any liquid getting into the mix and place it all in a cold glass mixing bowl. Whip it for a few minutes with a hand mixer until smooth and fluffy. Then add the cocoa powder, icing sugar, and vanilla extract and continue to beat together until smooth and well combined. If the consistency is not thick enough add some coconut flour to thicken it up I needed to add 5 TBSP of coconut flour.
20, You’ll use all of this coconut whip to frost a thick layer all around the cake. You can clean the edges of your cake platter with a damp cloth once you’re done frosting the cake.
21, Decorate it as you wish.
Keep the cake refrigerated.