Like many families in America, one of our favorite indulgent treats was that special time of year when the Girl Scouts came around selling Girl Scout Cookies and there was one cookie in particular that we just had to have: Thin Mints. There was something about Thin Mints that once you opened the box and started eating them you just had to continue until the box was gone. But alas Thin Mints are loaded with junk ingredients so I have conjured up this decadent rendition of Thin Mint flavor in a heavenly plant based cake! This cake is vegan, refined sugar & oil free, and gluten-free and made in three layers so it is like eating three Thin Mint cookies all at once.
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Ingredients
Cake
1 cup almond meal/flour
2 heaping cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup black cocoa powder (or regular cocoa powder)
1 1/2 cup pitted dates
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
3 cups soy milk or plant milk of your choice
Frosting
2 cups cashews (soaked for 2 hours)
1 cup soy milk or plant based milk of your choice
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon black cocoa powder or regular cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 cup pitted dates
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Grind oats lightly in a blender into a flour.(over grinding will prevent cake from baking through)
- Add the oat flour, almond flour, baking soda, baking powder and cocoa powders into a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.
- Blend the dates, vanilla extract, peppermint extract and soy milk in a blender until there are no more date chunks.
- Pour the mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well.
- Pour the mixture equally into 3 - 9 inch round cake pans that have been lightly oiled. No need for oiling if you are using silicone baking pans.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cakes are firm.
- Blend the frosting ingredients in a blender until smooth.
- Once cakes have baked let them cool completely on a baking rack.
- Once cooled, place the first cake on a cake stand or plate.
- Scoop out about 1 cup of the frosting and frost the top of that cake.
- Place the second cake on top of the first.
- Frost the top of this cake just like the first.
- Place the third cake on top of the second cake and frost the entire cake.
- Will keep in the fridge for up to a week.
21 comments
Hi, did you use dried or fresh dates. If you used fresh, would I be able to substitute in dried? Thank you, it looks delicious
They are dried
Jill, LOVE what you are creating. THANK YOU. I have only two 9″ pie pans. Do think that will still work? Just a thicker cake & longer cooking?
You are exactly right. If you just have the two pans, I would cook for at least 5 extra minutes and check them to see if they need more time than that.
I did two glass pie pans for 25 minutes and they turned out perfectly!
Thank you for the recipe! Do you think it would work to substitute a different flour for the almond for those of us who are doing low fat? And do you think pb2 could substitute the cashews for the frosting?
I think rice flour would work as a substitute for the almond flour and I would try silky tofu for replacing the cashews in the frosting. I think the PB2 would flavor would conflict with the mint flavor.
Looking forward to trying this! I bought the almond flour today just for this cake! I may try both types of frosting…the original with cashew and the alternate with tofu 😉
Can i use date paste instead of whole dates? And if so, how much should i use of the paste? Thanks!
I haven’t tried it but my guess would be 1 cup and then you might have to reduce the amount of soy milk to 2 1/2 cups.
OH MY WORD!!!! When I 1st read this I knew I needed to MAKE IT!!!
I was shopping with a friend & couldn’t make it for our Shabbat gathering..
SO… my favorite hubby baked it FOR ME!!!
It turned out CRAZY GOOD!!!
We had only 2 pans so we cooked it longer. Otherwise followed the recipe to a T!
Jill, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for sharing recipes like this with us!!!
Where do I VOTE???? This deserves FIVE STARS!!!!!! 🙂
Oh.. another thing… 🙂
This is CRAZY GOOD!!!!!!!! whew…
especially adding the
“Coconut Mint Chocolate Chip Not-Ice Cream” beside it!!!!!
(our go-to frozen mint infused coconut milk in ice cube trays, frozen banana, coconut cream, maple syrup, salt, fresh mint)
Please share your mint ‘ice cream’ recipe! It sounds soo good!
5 star!
I’m almost thinking I’ll add a wee bit more peppermint flavoring next time, but other than that, this is A HIT!! I made this in a 9″ x 13″ and instead of the full frosting amount, I made 3/4 the amount called for. Worked well, with some leftover to enjoy! 😉
I would like to make this cake for my birthday but I don´t have almond flour.
I was wondering if I can use ground almonds instead?
In another post you mentioned that you can substitute the almond flour with rice flour.
Rice ground up in a flour mill or the high speed blender would that be ok?
Ground almonds, ground really fine works better because it adds a bit of needed fat to make the cake moist and rich. You can use rice flour but the cake will be more dry.
This cake was delicious and without the oil and refined sugars, I don’t feel guilty going back for seconds!
I just made it and needed to add more milk like maybe a cup. I wonder if my heaping cups of oats was to have that happen as my mic was very thick. I used a food processor not vita mix as I wanted it to be easier to come out. Do you think possibly that could be or have you made this all with food processor too?
I haven’t made it in a food processor before. It could be a bit too much oats like you said.