Raw Chocolate caramel hazelnut tort (orange and peppermint)

Oh My Goodness, this is the best raw cake we have made. Even the hubby likes it!!! We only zested two oranges, and that was plenty of orange flavor. This yielded about half of the zest needed for the recipe.
For Christmas, we made this with crushed dye free candy canes and peppermint gluten free cookies (i know the sugar) and replace the orange extract and juice with peppermint extract and tea.

I also wonder if a date paste would work instead of the maple syrup, or even splitting it.
The recipe can be found here
http://www.rawmazing.com/orange-chocolate-hazelnut-tort-with-hazelnut-caramel-topping/