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Vitality 4 Life's Raw Vegan Cake Recipes
05,December,2014
Raw vegan cakes are perfect for satisfying even the sweetest of sweet tooth! They can be decadent, rich and wholesome and there is such an amazing variety of things you can add to recipes to make them entirely unique. The best part of making raw vegan cakes is that they can be so incredibly simple and easy to whip up! We have compiled our favourite raw vegan cake recipes for you to enjoy!
Raw vegan cakes are perfect for the whole family to enjoy, with most being completely gluten, lactose and refined sugar free - great for those with food allergies! Being completely raw, they maintain the nutritional content of the raw ingredients and preserve the living nutrients and enzymes. So these sweet treats are actually good for you (it's almost too good to be true!).
There are some standard tools you will need to help you create raw vegan cakes and a high powered blender is the most important of them all. A high powered blender will be able to turn hard raw ingredients into the soft and crumbly textures of cake bases while also being able to mix raw ingredients for the rich, creamy fillings. You will quickly find that without a high powered blender, it is quite tricky to get the same results. A cheesecake/Springform tin is also necessary
Without the need for baking or rising, raw cakes can be adjusted or improvised more easily which allows your inner creativity to flow! While there isn't a right or wrong with making raw vegan cakes, we have a couple of tips which can be used as loose guidelines when creating a raw cake to give the best results.
Tips for making raw cakes:
- The more colourful the better - you can use foods which are naturally colourful to make your raw cakes stand out! Beetroot and turmeric are our favourites.
- Avocado is key for creaminess - avocado is the perfect substitute for cream
- Put time into the topping - the presentation of a raw cake is almost as exciting as eating it. We love to spend the time to add lots of colour and textures to the top of our raw cakes not to mention the wow-factor.
While you may have to make the investment in a couple of pantry staple items, once you have them you are set to whip up raw cake after raw cake. If everything is there ready to go, there's nothing stopping you from throwing a very impressive raw cake together in no time.
Ingredients to keep in the pantry...
- Nuts - nuts usually form the basis of most raw cakes so having a variety stocked at home is essential - cashews, macadamia, brazil etc...
- Dried Fruit - obviously if you can use a food dehydrator to make your own it would be very beneficial, but the key dried fruit keep stocked at home is dates.
- Cacoa powder - for you chocolate lovers out there, you will find this in any raw chocolate dessert.
- Coconut oil & Coconut Butter - use coconut oil and coconut butter as a subsitute for what would normally be vegetable oils or butter
- Agave - agave is better for when flavour isn't required as it is just a sweetener without natural flavour.
Raw Vegan Cake Recipes
Our favourite raw vegan cake recipes....
Raw Beetroot & Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
- 2 cups desiccated coconut
- 2 cups brazil nuts
- 1 cup of cashews (we recommend activating the nuts by soaking overnight if possible)
- 3 beetroots (peeled and chopped into quarters)
- 1 cup of raw cacao powder
- 1/2 cup of raw cacao butter
- 3 tsp psyllium husks
- 1/2 cup of raisins
- 1 cup agave
- 1 tsp tamari
- 4 dates (pitted & chopped)
- 4 tsp lemon juice
Method:
Firstly, make the cake part:
- Blend the brazil nuts using the high setting blend until the nuts have the consistency of crumbs. Pour the blended nuts into a mixing bowl and set aside.
- Place the dates, raisins & agave using the pulse function on the blender, so that they ingredients are mixed through and slightly chopped.
- Combine this mixture with the brazil nuts in a mixing bowl.
- Place the beetroots into the blender and process on a medium speed until the consistency resembles a chunky beetroot dip.
- Once processed, add the beetroots to the mixing bowl, followed by the desiccated coconut, half of the cacao powder and the psyllium husks. Mix and combine.
- Pour your mixture into your springform cake tin and press the mixture into the tin, try to smooth the cake mixture out as evenly as possible , using a spatula or similar to achieve a flat cake surface.
- Set the cake in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
While the cake is setting, you can make the chocolate to go on top of the cake:
- Place the cashew nuts, remaining cacao powder and agave along with the lemon juice and tamari into the blender.
- Use the low setting to mix the ingredients and then gradually add the Cacao Butter whilst blending until the nuts are processed and the mixture is combined.
- Take your cake out of the fridge and spread the Chocolate mixture over the cake evenly. The cake can now be placed in the freezer for 20 minutes to allow the Chocolate to set.
The cake is now ready to decorate. We wanted a Christmas themed cake so decorated with cherries, raspberries and a superfood mix made up of goji berries, cacao nibs, dried cranberries & dried currants but you can use whatever is seasonal and available.
