Here's what I made for my son's birthday last night:  http://www.dadamo.com/typebase4/recipedepictor7x.cgi?1412

DD1 made a syrup of cocoa powder and agave (no idea what proportions) to drizzle over the top of the cake, and then we served that alongside the cake. She also sprinkled some powdered sugar over the top for decoration (the only "avoid" in the whole recipe.) When we make a cake for his party with friends, we'll made a more traditional frosting, probably with butter and powdered sugar. Possibly with white sugar in the cake too, but I won't be eating that one.

I've found that agave syrup tends to have "no sweetness left" when I bake with it. It tastes fine raw, but I had no luck with using it in baking. Until I tried the raw agave. I'm sure I'm losing any nutritional benefits of raw agave by baking with it, but my guess is that since it hasn't been "cooked" yet, it only gets "cooked" once when I bake it, and the final product keeps the sweetness. From now on, I'm only using raw agave in baking, though the other kind is fine in salad dressings.

Can you or your family have vegetable glycerin?  It's very sweet and mixes well when baking with other natural  sweeteners.

I just looked it up. Neutral for all on BTD, and beneficial on my and Leah's SWAMIs. I've never tried it, though I'm sure I could find it in the same stores where I find things like agave and spelt flour.

Ruthie, how was the texture of the cake?  Was it crumbly?  I know you were concerned about that.

It's moist enough that it's not crumbly at all. I think the liquid sweeteners help to hold it together, plus this particular recipe has a lot of eggs in proportion  to the amount of flour.

As a former pastry chef, I have been thinking about a compliant frosting.  Maybe you could make a compliant buttercream using agave syrup instead of the sugar syrup (which is normally made with either sugar and corn syrup or sugar, cream of tartar and water) one usually makes?  Buttercream is sublime, IMHO.  

It's worth a try . . .

I've always made buttercream frosting by combining softened  butter and powdered sugar with a mixer, adding cream (or milk or water or almond milk or whatever) as needed for consistency. How do you make it with liquid sweeteners?

Oh I made a yummy buttercream combining butter, honey and maplesyrup
this weekend it was so good. I just kept beating untill fluffy and good.

We had it with a rather spiced  apple spelt cake.

Quoted from ruthiegirl

I've always made buttercream frosting by combining softened  butter and powdered sugar with a mixer, adding cream (or milk or water or almond milk or whatever) as needed for consistency. How do you make it with liquid sweeteners?

Traditional buttercream is made with a sugar syrup that one cooks on the stove with a candy thermometer.  It tastes nothing like a buttercream made with powdered sugar.  It is velvety and smooth as silk.

Here is the recipe from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum for Classic Buttercream.  This recipe is for a three tier cake.

Classic Buttercream:

12 large egg yolks at room temperature
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of water
2 pounds of unsalted butter, softened, at room temperature

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the yolks until light in color.

Combine the sugar and water in a medium saucepan (preferably nonstick) and heat sitrring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup is boiling.  Stop stirring and boil to the soft-ball stage (238 degrees F).  Immediately transfer to a 2-cup or larger heatproof glass measuring cup.

Beat the syrup into the yolks in a steady stream.  Do not allow the syrup to fall on the beaters or the syrup will spin onto the sides of the bowl.  Start by pouring a small amount of syrup over the yolks with the mixer turned off.  Immediately beat at high speed for 5 seconds.  Stop the mixer and add a larger amount of syrup.  Beat for 5 seconds.  Continue with the remaining syrup.  With the last addition, use a rubber scraper to remove the syrup clinging to the glass measuring cup.  Beat until completely cool.  Makes 3 cups of buttercream.

Gradually beat in the butter, then any of the optional flavorings.

(for chocolate buttercream add 12 ounces of cooled, melted chocoloate, preferably extra bittersweet or bittersweat)

I have made chocolate, rasperberry, strawberry, coffee and lemon as well.

I am thinking you might be able to heat the agave syrup and use it in place of the sugar syrup.  The most difficult process of this buttercream is making the sugar syrup, so using agave syrup would cut out the most difficult part.

Give it a try and see what you think!  You can also cut the recipe in half or quarters, as I assume you may not be making a three-tier cake for DS's kid party.  It is really yummy and nothing like frosting made with confectioners sugar.  

That sounds good.  
I find agave VERY sweet.  I made that pumpkin pie with it and used 1/4 cup mixed with almond milk as a substitute for sweetened condensed milk.  Next time I think I'd cut that in half.  I did use the raw blue agave from WFs.
I only tried the veggie glycerin once and thought that it had an aftertaste.  Maybe I didn't buy a good one?
Jane

So I could blend agave and butter with a mixer,  skip the "add cream or cream substitute" part, and it should turn into frosting?

We didn't do this last night because we made a meat meal (so no butter for dessert) and while I could have used coconut oil, that wouldn't have reallly  been  compliant for anybody but me. I also ran out of time and energy.

Well I have never ever used agave
- but I didn´t add any cream to my honey/maplesyrup mix and it was really fluffy (I just kept beating) I might have added some egg yolks if I had any leftover but I didn´t.

So you used honey, maple syrup, and butter, and no other ingredients?

mmmmmm, honey butter!

Quoted from ruthiegirl

So you used honey, maple syrup, and butter, and no other ingredients?

Yep

I did plan to put a little almond milk in  instead of egg yolkes but I forgot

I don´t know?? but butter can be rather different in texture
This was some organic jersey butter that tend to be softer than the other butter I sometimes get ( from conventional frisians.

I would add the egg yolks instead of the cream, as in the Classic Buttercream recipe.  However, if you want to skip it and try it without the eggs, it sounds like it came out ok without them.  You could always add the eggs if you felt the butter and agave are too sweet.

I don't mind the flavour of glycerin on it's own, but not for baking. I made a cake with it and it had a strong unpleasant after taste. I don't crave or bake many desserts but in the future I will use agave.

wow there is justice after all a cake I can have for my next bday .. hahaha just in time!

I just emailed it to me .. Thanks  great work!!..