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As River Song says….
For the last year or so, everyone has talked up a storm about Game of Thrones. I didn’t get all the hubbub, my heart belonged to Dexter and Breaking Bad(as well as Doctor Who, duh). I had no time to dedicate to another show, plus, that would have been cheating. Additionally we just honestly don’t watch that much TV… I mean, we don’t even have a DVR and live, for the most part, on basic cable… like savages. But, hey, let’s not get judgmental, we do have internet.
So after the required moratorium for Breaking Bad and Dexter (may the seven
Gods rest their souls), we decided it was time to break into a new obsession. We started to catch up from Season 1 of Game of Thrones. Holy moly. We were sucked in, big time. It killed me waiting for the weekends to watch the show because the hubs works at night. But over a short few weeks, we were all caught up and totally and utterly obsessed with the show.
If you have spent any time following this blog over the last year or so, you would know that I get a little nutty when it comes to parties. I can never truly wrap my brain around planning one until I have a theme and once I have the theme, I am off and running. Last year for the hubby’s birthday, I dedicated his cake to The Walking Dead, specifically the Governor’s living room… with the wall of zombie head fish tanks. It was pretty great, lights and everything. This year, of course, I would move into our latest obsession- Game of Thrones!
Is…is…that a pigeon bone in ma throat??!
It would be easy to make a Game of Thrones cake- there is so much to work with! So like I do whenever I plan a cake, I hit the interwebs. I like to look at all the cakes of a particular theme that have already been done to get ideas, but mostly to make a really original cake. When I had the bakery, this was always the hardest and most fun part of the process. Because we weren’t having a ton of people over, I decided on a small cake. I also didn’t have all the time in the world to work on it especially without him finding out about it. So I settled on a cake with Daenerys’ dragon eggs (pre-Drogo bonfire) many a sword and none-other than our dearly departed King Joffrey’s crown.
The Bevis and Butthead shirt really sets it off.
At the party, we set up a table fit for a king and donned the guest of honor with a kings cloak from freshly slaughtered cheetah (or maybe it was the left over Halloween fabrics), a crown and scepter from the finest materials (Guinness packaging… don’t judge on the gluten, it’s his one gluten vice that has yet to be slain) and a sword gifted to him by his good friend made of the finest of Valerian Steel. (yeah, yeah, it was not Valarian, probably steel though). When we lit the candles on the cake it blazed so fiercely The Hound would have been cringing.
Everyone enjoyed the party and the cake! Ah… I know what you’re thinking… what ABOUT the cake? Well, several days prior to the party, I told the hubs I had been doing one of those Facebook quizzes titled “If you were a cake, what cake would you be?” I said, the quiz said I am Strawberry Shortcake, but I really don’t see it. I asked him what cake he thought I would be, he immediately said Red Velvet. Sure, I’ll take it. Then I asked him what cake he would be and he said German Chocolate! Hmm, I didn’t expect that but ran with it. Maybe I should know by now what my husband’s favorite cake is… but I didn’t so this was a convoluted way to figure it out.
I set off making a German Chocolate cake and really wanted it to be paleo even though I knew that the fondant work would not be. (ie refined sugar and colorings) I made a chocolate cake with only dates sweetening it and did a date mash with the toasted pecans and coconut for the filling. It was great and no one was the wiser that it was NOT a junk filled cake. It was a delicious Paleo German Chocolate cake!
So it may have not been as epic as The Red Wedding, thankfully no one was poisoned and we weren’t picking pigeon pieces out of the cake- but it was pretty great and I think the hubby was happy.
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
- 3 large eggs
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 20 dates (soaked in warm water for 20-30 mins)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tablespoon instant espresso
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 10 dates
- 1 1/2 cups filtered water
- ¾ cup desiccated coconut
- ¾ cup chopped pecans
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake pan by greasing with coconut oil, set aside.
- 2. In a large bowl, sift together almond flour, coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt.
- 3. Heat water to boil over medium-high heat in a small saucepan. Add instant espresso and remove from heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.
- 4. In the bowl of a food processor add dates and coconut oil. Process until the dates are smooth. Add the water espresso mix, vanilla extract and coconut oil and process to blend together.
- 5. Add the eggs and pulse 4-5 times just to combine. Do not over process the eggs!
- 6. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix together until completely combined.
- 7. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched.
- 8. Remove from oven and cool.
- 9. While cake bakes, add the dates and water to a sauce pan. Bring the dates to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- 10. Add the simmered dates to the bowl of a food processor with the water. Process until the dates are the consistency of baby food (stage 1... no chunks!)
- 11. Return the mixture to the sauce pan and heat to a simmer. Add the vanilla extract and sea salt.
- 12. In a separate pan over medium-high heat, add the pecan pieces and coconut. Paying close attention, toss the coconut and pecans until both are just lightly toasted. Remove from heat and the pan so it does not continue to toast.
- 13. Add the coconut and pecans to the simmering date blend.
- 14. Simmer the dates until thick. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
- 15. When cooled filling can be used to fill or ice the cake.
- 16. Enjoy!
- The filling recipe is enough to fill the cake and add some to the top of the cake. To have a little more or to coat the sides, double to recipe for the filling.
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