Christmas is over and therefore it’s only logical to begin planning for St-Patrick’s Day.  Because green food makes me happy.  I make it my mission to enjoy as much green as possible in all guises.  For dessert, many samples of this cake later – I do declare that it fits the bill perfectly.  My partner and family young person aren’t so certain about the colour.  But the texture and the taste pass the test (for the partner – little person isn’t so fond of lime – but that means it left a third slice for me to evaluate…).  If like them, you prefer your food more conventional, then feel free to omit the chlorella which is responsible for the deep green hue.

Yield: 1 Bundt pan full of cake, feeds 10-12 people (or 8 if you’re scarfing down 3 slabs like me)

What you need for the streusel:

• 2/3 cup pumpkin seeds, European preferred
• 3 tablespoons coconut manna
• 2 tablespoons coconut butter
• 4 tablespoons maple sugar (or maple flakes)
• 1/2 teaspoon chlorella powder (optional)

What you need for the cake:

• 1 cup raw cashews (unsoaked)
• 1/2 cup coconut manna
• 3/4 cup oat milk (or water)
• 1/2 cup maple sugar (or maple flakes)
• 1 cup maple syrup
• zest of 3 organic limes
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons lime juice (about 3 limes)
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups whole spelt flour
• 1 cup sorghum flour (or more whole spelt flour)
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1-1/2 teaspoons chlorella powder (optional)

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Oil and lightly flour the Bundt pan using some coconut oil and a bit of pale spelt flour (not on the ingredient list).
2. In a small mini-food processor (or in your big one), pulse together the ingredients for the streusel until crumbly and sticky-ish, don’t take it to butter – so keep an eye on the texture as you go and stop when it looks like crumb topping.  Set aside.  If you’re working in your main (read big) food processor, then rinse it out before moving on.
3. The cake is made completely in the food processor, so it should be able to hold and spin about 6 cups of batter, give or take, without making a mess of things.  Be advised before proceeding.
4. Process together the raw cashews, coconut manna and oat milk (or water) until smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides as required.  It will take a few minutes for the mixture to be truly homogeneous, make sure to get it there prior to adding the sugars.
5. Add the maple sugar and maple syrup and process until smooth and frothy.  Another minute or two.
6. Add the lime juice and water and process until smooth and frothy (yup, again).
7. Add the flours to the work bowl and sprinkle the salt and baking powder overtop it.  Process only until combined, scraping the bowl as required.  Don’t overwork the batter.  Check and see the batter texture, if it seems too thick, you can add a tablespoon or two (or three) more water.  If it seems too runny, then go with a tablespoon or two (or three) more flour.
8. When the batter looks good (come on, you’ve made a cake before, you know how batter looks!), add the lime zest and pulse, just to spread it out through the batter.
9. Now if you want to do the dark green ripple, set aside half the batter in a large measuring cup.  No need to be precise about it, just eyeball about half which will remain white.
10. Add the chlorella powder to the half of the batter remaining in the food processor and process until well combined.  It will seem a bit pale but don’t worry, the colour darkens as it cooks.
11. Now the fun part: getting it all into the pan!  Working quickly (the baking soda is already doing its thing…), pour some white batter from the measuring cup and some green batter from the food processor into the pan.  Use up about half of the batter.  Get the streusel filling and sprinkle about 2/3 of it evenly over the batter in the pan.  Pour the rest of the batters over the streusel in a more or less even layer.  Now sprinkle the last 1/3 of the streusel over the last batter layer.  To integrate it all, insert a butter knife or chopstick vertically in the batter and zig zag it back and forth around the pan once (from middle to exterior and back to the middle, all the way around).  I promise that it takes much longer to explain that than it does to do it.
12. Bake the cake for 55 – 60 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean and the top is puffy, cracked and golden.    
13.  Let the cake cool in the pan 15 or 20 minutes, until it can be handled but still hot.  Invert onto a baking rack to finish cooling.                                                    
14. Slice and serve – with icing or glaze if desired (but you’ll have to Google a recipe for those).