Pancake cake !

This was inspired by Jamie Oliver! I was watching his show and he made a pancake cake (I found it on his site here) and it looked so good there was no way I was not going to re-create it! It's such a cool idea, right?!
I planned on making whipped coconut cream to add to the layers butttt that didn't work out. Coconut yoghurt woud actually be really good instead of cream.
I made spelt & buckwheat pancakes, and layered them with chocolate ganache and crushed hazelnuts, with raspberries on top!

Pancakes (makes 10-12 large pancakes)
1 1/2 cups spelt flour
1 cup buckwheat flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 tablespoons oil
2 cups soy/ almond/ rice milk, mixed with 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup maple syrup

Mix the apple cider vinegar with the milk and set aside for a couple of minutes to curdle.
Mix together all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk together wet ingredients.
Add wet to dry and mix with a spoon until just combined (don't over-mix pancake batter or they'll be rubbery instead of fluffy).
Let the batter rest for 10 minutes.
Scoop the batter into a pan on medium heat and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side.
(I used a 1/3 cup meauring cup to scoop the batter into the pan, and that made fairly large pancakes)

Ganache
(I actually don't have an exact recipe because I just melted some chocolate with almond milk and a bit of maple syrup until in was smooth and shiney. But's heres an estimate based on this recipe from the PPK)
1 cup vegan chocolate chips
1 cup almond milk
3 tablespoons of maple syrup

Heat the milk in a saucepan until just boiled, then stir in the chocolate and maple syrup until smooth.

You'll also need: 1 cup lightly toasted & crushed hazelnuts (or any other nuts you like), and fresh berries for serving.

To assemble the cake, spread some ganache over a pancake with a sprinkle of hazelnuts, then repeat with all the layers until you have the height you want. (Mine had 7 layers). Then spread ganache over the whole thing, top and sides. Then press the remaining nuts around the sides and top with berries.

You could really use anything you like for the layers, coconut yoghurt (or whipped coconut cream if you can make it properly, unlike me haha), caramel sauce, nuts, berries, grated chocolate, whatever!
It will be amazing! :)

Chocolate candy cane cookies (gluten-free)

Even though Christmas is all over for another year, I thought I'd share this recipe because these cookies were deeelicious! And you could always leave out the candy canes and add in some peppermint oil to make them choc peppermint cookies for anytime of the year ;)
This recipe is adapted from the Babycakes cookbook.

Gluten free double chocolate cookies (makes about 24)
1 cup coconut or canola oil
1 1/4 cup organic raw sugar
1/3 cup well mashed sweet potato (or applesauce, but I think the sweet potato worked really well in these)
1 tsp salt
2 tbls vanilla extract
A few drops of peppermint oil (optional)
1/4 cup flax meal
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill all purpose gluten free four
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 cup vegan chocolate chips

200 grams vegan white chocolate (or you can use dark chocolate)
Crushed candy canes (if you're in Australia, Coles' homebrand candy canes are vegan)

Preheat oven to 160C and line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
Whisk together the oil, sugar, sweet potato, salt, vanilla & peppermint if using. Whisk really well until everything is fully emulsified and the oil doesn't separate. It will take a few minutes and will look really thick.
In another bowl whisk together the cocoa, flour, baking soda and xanthan gum.
Mix the flax into the wet ingredients, then stir through the flour mix. Mix in the chocolate chips.
Scoop balls of dough onto the baking trays leaving a few centimetres between each cookie. Flatten slightly with your hand to help them spread.
Bake for 14 minutes rotating the tray halfway through.

Once cookies are cool, melt the white chocolate with a teaspoon of coconut oil in a teacup, or something that you can dip a cookie into. Dip one half of each cookie into the chocolate and place on a tray, or you could use a spoon or piping bag to drizzle the chocolate over the cookies Sprinkle with crushed candy canes and let them set.