Vegan, Gluten Free Dirt Cake

Becoming thirteen year old requested dirt cake to celebrate his birthday.  In anticipation of a dairy-free, gluten-free meal, I decided to attempt the dirt cake a week early.

If it works, I combined two recipes - the dirt cake recipe I have been using for years (not sure where it came from, but it's pretty standard) and a gf, df dirt cake I found online from Minimalist Baker.

In the end, I decided to use MB's recipe for coconut whipped cream (also pretty standard)  but follow my own recipe for dirt cake.

20 oz bag of crushed GF oreo-like cookies
1/2 stick of Earth Balance margarine (nobody said anything about healthy) - softened
8 oz. Tofutti cream cheese - softened
1 cup powdered sugar plus 3 T
3.5 cups vanilla soy milk
2 - 3.5 oz french vanilla pudding
coconut whipped cream (I used one can.  I might recommend 2 cans)

Put the canned coconut milk in the fridge the night before preparing the dirt cake.  For best results, prepare the dirt cake one day before serving.  Put a glass bowl in the freezer before making the whipped cream.  Mine was only in for 15 minutes or so, and it was still ok.

Cream the margarine, cream cheese, and powdered sugar.
In a different bowl, combine the pudding and soy milk and mix until it starts to thicken. Due to the soy milk, you may not see a whole lot of thickening.  I set it in the fridge for a bit while I made the coconut whipped cream.  

Take the glass bowl from the freezer.  Take out the coconut milk can from the freezer, being careful not to shake it.  Open the can of coconut milk and carefully scoop out the hardened "cream" on top.  Use a hand mixer to whip the coconut cream until it begins to look like whipped cream.  Add 3 T powdered sugar and beat again, about 2-3 minutes, until it's light and airy.  

Mix the coconut whipped cream in with the pudding.  Next, mix the cream cheese mixture.  

Start layering in whatever container you are using to serve - a flower pot, a glass dish, etc.  Start with a layer of crushed cookies.  Then, a layer of the pudding mixture.  Repeat.  My pudding mixture was a bit runny, but if you've had dirt cake - you'll know it's all about the taste.  I think it's runny because of the non-dairy milk in the pudding and the non-dairy cream cheese.  I froze the dirt cake to ensure it would be easy to serve and not dirt soup (which would still taste great, by the way). 

NOTES:  Everyone liked it - well, Isaac didn't try it.  After serving it frozen the first night, we put it in the fridge to see what would happen.  It definitely did not hold firm but was delicious enough and not too runny. However, when I put it in the lunches the following day - it was too runny.  Well, not for teen boys who ate it anyway... but it looked like soupy grossness. #tasteconquerslooks