Sangria Cake, a Tailored Birthday Cake

Predominantly, birthday cakes tend to be a chocolate/vanilla, or both sort of an affair. People tend to sit on one side of that fence, though a few of us straddle it happily. When it comes to flavors, I for one, am all for duplicity, or even triplicity. Why stop at two when you can melodiously have three? Last year, when told a friend of mine was having a birthday, I wanted to tailor the cake specifically to what I knew about her. This fun culinary experiment happily founded Hungryface's bakery with, the Tea Cake. So when my sister in-law's birthday rolled around, I compiled a list of applicable themes, but one stuck out. Sangria cake. It's a tasty beverage, it's got fruit, why the heck not?
 Well, for one thing, the final product looks akin to something you'd find in the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean; a sleeping leviathan laying in wait for an errant diver to come within range. Though in this case, you devour it, before it devours you.

Steel yourself for this one, and your bravery will be rewarded. If people are deterred, you'll simply have more for yourself. Suckers.
Taking some of my aforementioned Crispy Green bounty, I used a combination of freeze dried fruits, and an inexpensive Spanish red and went to work.

Sleeping Leviathan/Sangria Cake

1.5 cups Flour

1/2 cup  Almond meal

1 tsp Salt

1Tablspoon Baking powder 

1/2 tsp Baking soda

3/4 cup Coconut oil (melted)

1 and 1/4 cup Sugar

1 cup Red wine

1/2 cup Coconut milk

2 tsp Vanilla

Freeze dried fruit (Peaches, strawberries, pear, apple- whichever you like)

Preheat your oven to 350°F 

Combine your flour, almond meal, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl.  

In a large mixing bowl, add your sugar, melted coconut oil, wine, vanilla, and coconut milk, and stir until well combined.

Add your flour mixture to the wet mixture in batches.

When just combined, stir in your freeze dried fruit.

Pour into a 9 inch cake pan that's been greased or lined, and bake for 30-40 minutes; or until an inserted toothpick comes out mostly clean.

The results are dark and mysterious, punctuated by bright, now chewy fruits.

To ease my guests and the birthday girl into this delight, I whipped up a simple glaze of powdered sugar and extra wine.

There! Perfectly presentable!