I forget to mention that it is ‘cheese’ cake. There isn’t any real ‘cheese’ in it except cashews which tasted surprisingly like cheese once it is mixed with other raw ingredients.
This is why it is always exciting for me to make this ‘cheese’ cake that has that cream cheese taste minus the animal fats. As much as possible, I am trying to steer clear from dairy products.
I have written this recipe in a step by step basis with pictures documenting the whole process so that it is easy for anyone to follow.
Ready to go?
Here’s the list of ingredients used:
Walnuts (1/4 cup)
Hemp seeds ( 1 tablespoon)
Coconut butter (2 tablespoons)
Pitted Dates (1 cup)
Strawberries (about 6 to 8 medium sized ones)
Blueberries (1 punnet)
3 Passionfruit
3 frozen bananas
Raw cashews ( soaked overnight in water) (1/2 cup)
Tools:
Cake pan ( 6 x 3 inches)
blender
Turbochopper from Tupperware ( for chopping nuts)
Servings:
4 to 5 persons
Time:
1 hour of preparation with 2 hours of waiting time.
Step1: Crush the walnuts (about 50 grams) into bits. This would be used as the crust for the cake. I am using this Turbo chopper from Tupperware which has a super sharp blade to ground the nuts into smaller chunks.
Step 2: Mix the chopped walnuts with 6 dates which are soaked in water overnight so that it would be soften and mixed easily with nuts and glue all the base ingredients together.
Step 3: Mix it well. Then add some seeds like hemp seeds or more nuts as you wish. I added a tablespoon of hemp seeds for its rather high protein content.
Step 4: Next, I added a tablespook of coconut butter to further gel the base ingredients together and also at the same time, it adds a fragrant nutty flavour to the cake.
This coconut butter was bought from iherb.com and it tasted so heavenly!
Step 5: Mash all the base ingredients up to form this medley of delicious and sweet-looking chunks! You can also use a food processor or a blender to help with you incorporate all the ingredients together.
Step 6: Transfer the base ingredients into a cake pan.
Step 7: Press the nut base firmly into the pan and even it out with the back of the spoon.
The Filling
Step 8: Toss a few fresh strawberries into the blender and purée it.
Step 9: Then add about 2 tablespoons of soaked raw cashew nuts along with 4 pitted dates.
Step 10: Blend it up till you achieve a smooth and creamy consistency.
Step 11: Add about half of the frozen banana which has been cut thinly into coin-sized pieces. Blend it together with the mixture.
Step 12: You will achieve this ice cream-like consistency which is ultra creamy and tasty to eat on its own! Layer is over the nut base then quickly pop it into the freezer for it to solidify slightly before pouring in the next layer of filling.
Step 13: I decided to use passion fruit as my next layer of filling but you can use other fruits like mango if you want. Passion fruit has a sourish taste so it adds a nice offset to the sweet fruity flavour of the strawberries and blueberries (which is the final filling layer). Scoop all the flesh with the seeds and put it in the blender. I used 3 passion fruits.
Step 14: Add 2 tablespoons of soaked raw cashews along with half of a frozen banana. Then, blend everything well. Remove the cake pan from the fridge and pour in the passion fruit filling very carefully to avoid it from seeping into the strawberry filling.
Step 15: To prepare the blueberry layer, add one punnet of blueberries along with 2 tablespoons of soaked cashews and half of a frozen banana and blend everything together.
Step 16: You should achieve a thick and creamy consistency. If the blueberry filling is still too runny, you can blend in more frozen bananas to thicken it up. Pour it into the cake pan to form the final layer of the cheesecake. Pop the cake pan into the freezer and let it sit there for about 2 to 3 hours or until the filling is all set.
Step 17: Dust the top layer with some coconut flakes after the cake has been set. Allow it to sit at room temperature for about 5 to 10 minutes for it to thaw slightly. This raw cheesecake has to be serve slightly frozen, almost like ice cream cake since it doesn’t contain any gelatin.
Step 18: Once it has been slightly defrost, then slice it cleanly with a knife. It should cut through nicely and eat it while it is still cold and firm!
You can serve it with some fruits like cherries.
This is a beautiful raw dessert recipe that doesn’t require the use of any dairy products or cooked foods. Although it consisted mainly of fruits, you should not pile on too much on these raw cakes as it contains nuts which has a certain percentage of fat. And you wouldn’t want to get an overdose of nuts like cashew nuts which are rather high in fat.
