{"id":2622,"date":"2012-06-01T22:10:08","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T14:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/?p=2622"},"modified":"2017-12-07T07:36:42","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T23:36:42","slug":"chocolate-cake-raw-and-vegan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/chocolate-cake-raw-and-vegan\/","title":{"rendered":"Chocolate cake (raw\/vegan\/paleo)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Recently I’ve been varying our diet a little (much to G’s dismay) by trying to get a few more veggies and leafy greens into each meal.\u00a0 That includes breakfast and dessert. \u00a0And although my banana, chocolate breakfast shake, including a huge handful of spinach (I know it sounds bad), seemed ridiculous we both agreed it tasted great.<\/p>\n

I’ve taken it a little further and have been exploring the world of raw and vegan food. \u00a0I know people who are dedicated enthusiasts to either or both of these styles of eating and say that they feel more alive, more alert and incredibly satisfied when following their lifestyle choice.\u00a0 However in the past when it came to desserts my recipes have tended to be those of a more traditional style in the sense that they include ingredients like butter, flour, sugar, milk, etc.<\/p>\n

This recipe fits into a completely polarised view of the dessert world. \u00a0Suddenly we have a nut-free, egg-free, dairy and soy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free cake. And I would pay good money for.<\/p>\n

It was inspired by our last Team Cooking Class in South Perth where one of our consultants has made a recipe that had been adapted from the Raw Power website. \u00a0After a little research I changed it (as I do) and what I ended up with something very similar but a little different \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

I hope you enjoy it.<\/p>\n

chocolate cake (raw and vegan) – (recipe adapted by Fiona at Food 4 Thought).<\/span>
\n serves\u00a0one 20 – 22cm cake<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/span>
\nbase<\/em>
\n100g\u00a0pitted dates (soaked in hot water for 20 minutes and drained, if using Medjool dates there is no need to soak them)
\n100g desiccated Coconut
\n20g coconut oil
\nfilling<\/em>
\n100g raw cacao nibs
\n100g coconut oil
\n200g pitted dates (soaked in hot water for 20 minutes and drained, reserve the liquid. If using Medjool dates there is no need to soak them)
\n2 ripe (medium – large) avocado
\n70g maple syrup
\n30g raw cacao powder
\nreserved liquid from soaking dates or water, as required (see tips)
\nto serve, <\/em>chopped pistachios (see tips for nut free)<\/p>\n

Preparation<\/span>
\nFor base,<\/em> place drained dates, coconut and coconut oil into TM bowl and process for\u00a05 seconds<\/strong> on speed 5<\/strong>.\u00a0 Scrap\u00a0around bowl and repeat until desired consistency reached.\u00a0 Remove and press into cake tin with removable base.\u00a0 Refrigerate.<\/p>\n

For filling, <\/em>place cacao ibs into TM bowl and prcoess for\u00a045 seconds<\/strong> on speed 10.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Add coconut oil and dates and\u00a0blend for 10 seconds<\/strong> on speed 6<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Add avocado, agave\u00a0nectar and cacao powder.\u00a0 Blend for 30 seconds<\/strong> on speed 6<\/strong> using the spatula to assist if required.\u00a0 Scrape\u00a0around sides of bowl and add reserved liquid if required (I used approx 60g)\u00a0and blend for\u00a045 seconds<\/strong> on speed 6.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pour this mixture into the base and refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hours.<\/p>\n

Serve, <\/em>topped with chopped pistachios<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

M<\/span>y tips\/alterations:<\/span> *If your coconut oil becomes solid, I find the easiest way to get it out\u00a0is to sit\u00a0the bottle\/jar in a container of hot water a few minutes before you need it.\u00a0 *The reserved date liquid is completely optional.\u00a0 I just found the mixture a little thick without it and by adding it in I got a smoother consistency.\u00a0 *For an even richer “cake” you can add more raw cacao powder.\u00a0 You need to make sure it is raw cacao as some cocoa (spelt differently by the way) powders are heated above 37C during processing.\u00a0 This is one of the reasons I choose to use raw cacao nibs.\u00a0 If you can’t find the nibs use 70-80g cacao powder. \u00a0*To chop the\u00a0pistachios, I just used closed lid and turbo a couple of times until I got the desired texture.\u00a0 * If you leave the pistachios off, this is nut free.\u00a0 *You will find most of these ingredients in the health food store.\u00a0 Some Asian food stores also sell coconut oil.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Cacao nibs (L); Ground Cacao nibs (R)<\/p><\/div>\n

e<\/strong>ase: 9.5\/10.\u00a0<\/strong> The hardest part was getting ingredients that I had never used.\u00a0 But now my pantry is we stocked.
\nprep time: 25mins <\/strong>(20 mins to soak dates, 5 minutes for me to actually do anything).
\ncooking time: 0mins<\/strong>\u00a0(no cooking required) + 3 hours chilling.
\ntotal:\u00a025 minutes <\/strong>+ 3 hours chilling.<\/p>\n

taste: 9\/10.<\/strong> I loved this.\u00a0 It was dense, rich and tasted great.\u00a0 I also found that I was amazingly satisfied with just one piece.\u00a0 It actually took me 5 days to eat the whole thing, and that was sharing it too.\u00a0\u00a07.5\/10 <\/strong>from G.\u00a0 He wasn’t as impressed because he has a prepensity towards lemon cheesecake.\u00a0 And although this looked like cheesecake it didn’t taste like his favourite lemon version.\u00a0 In saying that, he still thought this was pretty good for “what it was”.<\/p>\n

would I make it again:<\/strong> Absolutely\u00a0 <\/strong>In fact, I happen to have a few extra avocados again this week, so I might need to make another one. \":)\"<\/p>\n

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Recently I’ve been varying our diet a little (much to G’s dismay) by trying to get a few more veggies and leafy greens into each meal. That includes breakfast and dessert. And although my banana, chocolate breakfast shake, including a huge handful of spinach (I know it sounds bad), seemed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[78,89,57,81,70,28,50,72,71,35,66,65,67],"tags":[6,17,127,4,139,101,122,141,140,107,136,135,137],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2622"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2638,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622\/revisions\/2638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}