strawberry banana cream cake with mint

You can feel GREAT about eating this cake because it's super healthy and has only simple, wholesome ingredients: fruit and nuts. Plus, it makes a cheerful, stunning dessert for any kind of party. Unless you are hosting a black-themed death metal get-together. Then you may want to consider making something else.

The pink filling is strawberries and bananas and the creamy outside is a blend of cashews, dates and orange. I suppose you could say this was made in anticipation of the eminent summer, because it IS sunny today. But at the same time, there's no reason you can't make this anytime of the year. 

I certainly recommend garnishing this cake with chocolate, berries and mint. When I took it out of the spring form pan I thought it looked rather plain (even though I knew about the surprise on the inside) so I chose to decorate the sides with mint leaves. I had dribbled a few spots of chocolate on parchment paper the day before and they looked very nice alongside the frozen berries. They all add different textures and colours to the presentation. 

This was actually quite easy to make and it didn't take much time, not including freezing. It may appear plain on the outside - unless you decorate with berries, mint and chocolate - but when you cut it open there's that burst of pink! My fave colour. If you have a fear of pink (umm...), just use blueberries instead of strawberries. Problem solved. 

strawberry banana cream cake with mint: 

Pink filling:

3 bananas

2 cups frozen strawberries (or other berries)

1-3 tablespoons coconut oil (optional but it will make it creamier) 

Cream exterior:

2 cups cashews

2 cup dates

1 peeled orange

2 tablespoons melted coconut oil

Water, as needed

To make the pink filling: put the bananas in your blender, followed by the frozen berries and blend until smooth. Spread evenly into a spring form pan, this pan should be slightly smaller than the second one you will use. I have an adjustable one so I simply made it smaller for this layer, then widened it for the second part. If you don't have either of those options, don't worry. The bottom part can be pink and you can just add the cream layer on top. Freeze until solid. 

To make the cream layer: blend all ingredients until smooth, adding as LITTLE water possible, if you need any at all. The less water you use, the creamier it will be. Using a larger-sized spring form pan, place the frozen pink layer inside and then spread the cashew cream layer around the sides and top. Or you can use the same pan and spread it on top. Freeze until solid and then garnish, slice and enjoy! Store in the freezer. 

orange lavender pudding with cashews

This recipe creates a pudding that is creamy, fresh and - let's face it - pretty cute. I love using fruit in desserts because... okay wait do I actually have to explain? This is a raw, vegan blog; obviously I like fruit. It's colourful, naturally sweet, nutritious and generally the all-around perfect food. You can practically live off fruit. The benefits of eating nature's vibrantly coloured candy are too many to count. Just eat a lot of it, okay?

Last night I was scouring the internet looking for some dessert recipes I could turn into raw vegan versions. I didn't actually find a recipe for an orange pudding but somehow it got lodged in my brain and stayed there. So I made it. At 10:00 PM while dancing to lame pop music. Yep. The idea to add lavender came this morning, while I was setting up the pudding for photos. I know I say this about a ton of things like chocolate, dates, bananas, coconut, etc. - but you really can't go wrong with lavender!

The recipe can't get much simpler or more whole-foods: blend some cashews, dates and oranges. Add some coconut oil and put it in the fridge. Sorted (as they say in the UK)! The next morning you have a luscious, sweet citrus infused treat to enjoy at anytime of the day because it's so healthy. Pudding for breakfast? Excellent. Lunch? Good choice. Snack? Go for it. Dinner? Alright, you must really like pudding. You should probably eat something else with dinner. Weirdo.

orange lavender pudding: serves 4

2 peeled oranges
1 cup cashews
1 cup dates
1-2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1 teaspoon dried lavender flowers

Blend all the ingredients until smooth. If it is too thick, add the juice of another orange or two. Scoop into small, single serving dishes (like ramekins) and leave in the fridge overnight. The next day decorate the pudding with orange zest and slices, and more lavender flowers if you like. Get sexy with it. 

vanilla chocolate chunk cheesecake with peanut butter + coconut

This is my new favourite recipe, and you can probably see why. Chocolate, peanut butter, banana, coconut, vanilla - all in one gooey, decadent cheesecake. Just... YES. I made this for my boyfriend as an apology cake and I'm pretty sure it guarantees I am forgiven. Although I may have just jinxed it... Nawwwww. I'm good. Look at this thing. 

Seriously, make this for people who call you mean names for being vegan or eating healthy. They will never mock your diet choices again. It tastes so deliciously dirty. I crammed a piece into my mouth (sans cutlery) while moaning "OH. MY. GOSH." The boyfriend had two slices before it was even dinner time. 

A couple side notes: I sprinkled some date pieces, coconut flakes and cacao nibs throughout the layers for extra texture - I recommend doing this. The dates are chewy, the cacao nibs are crunchy, the coconut flakes are... coconut-y goodness. Also, I decorated the top with some chocolates I had made the day before. You can use my raw chocolate recipe here. 

vanilla chocolate chunk cheesecake with peanut butter + coconut: 

Crust:

1 cup oats (or buckwheat if you want it GF)

1 cup dates

Cheesecake:

2 or more bananas

1/4 cup melted coconut oil

2 cups cashews

1 1/2 cups dates

1/4 cup liquid sweetener, like maple syrup, if desired

Beans from one vanilla pod (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract) 

Water, as needed

1/4 cup cacao or carob powder

Topping:

3 tablespoons raw chocolate

3 tablespoons raw peanut butter (or you can use regular - it's up to you)

To make the crust: process the oats (or buckwheat) and dates until they stick together. Press into the bottom of a spring form pan and put in the fridge. 

To make the cheesecake: blend all ingredients - EXCEPT cacao or carob - until very smooth. Add as little water as possible to keep your cheesecake creamy. If you don't want to add any water, use some liquid sweetener or another banana. Now take out half the batter and put in a bowl. Add the cacao or carob in the remaining batter that is still in your blender and blend until it's incorporated. Now spread the vanilla layer and the chocolate layers on your crust, alternating a few times. Set in the freezer overnight and then drizzle with peanut butter and chocolate the next day. Enjoy! 

layered ice cream cake with chocolate, vanilla & peppermint

First of all - please listen to this exquisite album by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, it's incredibly beautiful and makes me cry.

Secondly - this turned out fabulously, if I do say so myself (and I just did - so there.) I had a dream about this cake a few days ago and have been itching to make it ever since. When it comes down to it - this ice cream cake is mostly bananas. The pink layer comes from beet juice, and the green comes from avocado and peppermint leaves. I recommend using your Vitamix for this (can be bought on amazon or ebay) to make the layers as creamy as possible. 

I must admit - the avocado layer tasted sort of funky on it's own and I was thinking "Hmm... maybe my subconscious failed to consider the weird combination of avocado and mint in an ice cream cake." But it ended up tasting great with all the other delicious flavour pairings. The beet layer is unusually enjoyable. you might be thinking beets are a strange thing to make into ice cream, but the earthy tones of beets along with the sweetness of bananas is outta this world! Letting each thin layer freeze is a tad time-consuming, but it's worth it. 

I love when my dreams come true.

spiced chocolate, cashew vanilla, peppermint-avocado & banana-beet layered ice cream cake

Crust:

1 cup raw flour (I used buckwheat)

1 cup dates or prunes

Chocolate layer:

3 ripe bananas

1/3 cup cacao

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne, to taste

2 tablespoon agave/maple syrup

water, if too thick

Vanilla layer:

1 1/2 cups cashews

3 tablespoons agave/maple syrup

seeds from one vanilla bean

1/3 cup water

juice of one lemon 

Beet layer:

1/2 cup fresh beet juice

2 ripe bananas

1/2 cup pine nuts

1-2 tablespoons agave/maple syrup

2 tablespoons melted coconut oil

Mint layer:

2 cup fresh mint leaves

1 avocado

1/4 cup agave/maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon salt

juice of one lemon

1/4 cup nut milk

2 ripe bananas

Coconut Maple Drizzle:
1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup

To make the crust: process the dates or prunes and flour until it all sticks together somewhat. Press into the bottom of a lined spring form pan and set aside. 

To make each layer: blend the ingredients (in each list) until smooth, then pour each one in a separate bowl. Pour on part of the chocolate mixture quite thin, then let it harden in the freezer. Next, pour on a thin layer of beet mixture, let it freeze. You get the idea. Pour, freeze, pour, freeze. Put them in whatever order you want until you use all the mixtures up! 

To make to drizzle, stir ingredients together until combined then decorate, I also added some lemon zest - why not. Enjoy!

aged nut cheese with herbes de provence

this is REALLY GOOD. maybe the best raw vegan cheese i've ever had. it's so easy (allbeit a bit time consuming) to make yourself and really affordable. please try this! it is incomparable to cheese. who wants the drug-filled mucus of another species when you can eat the delicious probiotics of cashews and grains?

i adapted this recipe from one i saw in vegnews (an all vegan magazine). although the actual hands on time for this is minimal, there's a lot of fermenting - so look at the recipe before you roll up your organic hemp sleeves. wanna get sexy while ya make it? look no further. 

aged chevre with herbes de provence: serves a party 

2 cups raw cashews, soaked for 3-4 hours

1/4 cup rejuvelac (see recipe below)

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons herbes de provence

to make 4 cups of rejuvelac: soak 1 cup whole grains (i used rye) in 2 cups of water for 8-12 hours. drain and repeat, continue to soak until the grains begin sprouting, then drain again. put the grains and 4 cups of new water in a mason jar and cover with a towel. let it sit for 2 days or so, until the liquid turns white. the white liquid is your rejuvelac! strain it. 

to make the cheese: blend cashews, rejuvelac and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt until very smooth. put it in a bowl, covered, and let it sit for 1-2 days until it's thick. then add in the nutritional yeast, lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the herbes de provence. form the cheese into a roll using parchment paper. on another sheet of parchment paper, sprinkle the remaining salt and herbes de provence. transfer the roll onto that and roll it in the herbes and salt so it's covered. let THAT sit for 1-4 days until it's firm. it took one day for me. 

serve with raw or whole grain crackers. this pairs nicely with apples or olives. YUM. 

lemon, lime & coconut cheesecake

you know how much i love cheesecake! i made another one yesterday. it's layers of lemon and lime with coconut. sounds pretty tasty, right? RIGHT.

check out this mix above; it's groovy, sexy and funkalicious. there's three of them and i recommend downloading them all. NOW, back to cheesecake. i really like the flavours of this one, fresh and light but just sweet and dense enough to let you savour it. unfortunately my camera is still missing so i couldn't take the best pictures. you will have to deal with it. bear with me, people.

let it sit in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours, or better still, overnight. it leaves it time to set properly and gain some extra flavour. it was way better today than last night when i gave it to my family for dessert. it was still darn good though. the stripe of green is a cute addition i think, but you don't have to add it if you just wanna eat the cake ASAP... i understand completely.

lemon, lime & coconut cheesecake: serves about 12

crust:
1 cup walnuts
1 cup almonds
1 heaping cup prunes or dates

lemon layer:
3 cups cashews
1 cup coconut milk
juice of 2 lemons
1 banana (optional)
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons coconut oi

lime layer:
1 avocado
juice of 2 limes
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/8 cup coconut milk (use as little as possible anyway)
1/4 cup coconut flakes 

for the crust, blend all the ingredients in your food processor until it starts clumping together and you can press it into shapes. press into the bottom of a springform pan lined with plastic wrap. put in fridge.

to make the lemon layer, blend all ingredients together in your blender until creamy smooth. YUM. pour half of it onto your crust - set aside the remaining half - put back in fridge. 

to make the lime layer, blend all ingredients until smooth in your food processor or blender. pour all of this onto the first layer on the crust, then pour on the remaining lemon layer from earlier. let it sit in the fridge for a few hours (overnight is better). i put coconut flakes on top of mine to add some texture. YEAH, BABY.

lavender ice cream with dark chocolate

Luscious, light, and lovely. That's what this ice cream is.

Oh my goodness. It's better than any ice cream I've ever made; and guess what. It's full of raw whole foods that will bring you closer to excellent health. There's not much else to say about it. I suggest you make it ASAP, and enjoy the wonders our planet full of plants has to offer. 

No stealing the milk of another species here! Nor is there any disease-causing refined sugar, or freaky-deaky preservatives and stabilizers. Just some coconut, cashews, chocolate and lavender!

Before I made my lavender cheesecake, and now this ice cream, I didn't think I'd dig the taste of lavender in my food. 

I was wrong.

It's divine! I've grown up with the smell of lavender emanating through the garden and home. My aunt is also a lavender NUT, so whenever we visit each other you can bet there will be lavender gifts involved. 

I also use lavender oil to calm my nerves, keep my skin clear, scent my baths, and put me to sleep! It's a wonderful flower with endless uses. One of which being flavour! I want YOU to experiment with lavender in your food. Seriously. You won't regret it. 

It brings out this dimension in desserts I didn't know existed. Light, summery, delicate notes that remind you of the sun, wicker chairs, and busy bees traveling from flower to flower in the afternoon light. 

Okay so I said there wasn't much else to say and then wrote a paragraph... my bad. 

Bottom line: make this ice cream! 

(By the way I'm just using my basic raw ice cream recipe and adding a few things.)

lavender ice cream with dark chocolate: makes 3-6 servings

2 cups soaked raw cashews 

Coconut meat from 2 young Thai coconuts (1-2 cups)

1 cup of water

1 cup agave/honey/maple syrup

Seeds from vanilla bean

2 Tb vanilla extract 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup plus 1 T or so of coconut oil, melted

3 teaspoons dried lavender

1 bar dark chocolate, roughly chopped (optional)

Blend all ingredients except coconut oil and chocolate in your blender (Vita-Mix works best!) until smooth and creamy. Add in the coconut oil and blend until the chocolate chunks are the size you want, and the oil is mixed in. 

Try it now... Yeah. I know. 

Feel free to add some lemon to this - I bet it would taste heavenly.

Now try to resist eating it all before it's frozen: if you have an ice cream maker use that. 

If not, stick it in the freezer and stir it every 30 or 60 minutes until it's solid.

lavender & lemon "cheesecake"

Oh my. This is raw, vegan, and absolutely divine.

I know the flavours are rather summery, and yet it's January. But I thought "what the heck"... I doubt anyone will complain.I highly suggest you make this as soon as possible, and feel your world come alive. This is actually my first raw cheesecake, and I now know it will become one of my stand-by special desserts. It's delightful, truly. 

It's wonderful how first you get that taste of lemon, fresh and light; then right after, you begin to taste the subtle lavender coming through and are surprised by how much you like it!

Who could have imagined a handful of raw, whole foods could create such a beautiful and elegant dish? Well I'm not gonna lie... I could easily imagine it. But that's only because I'm so in love with raw desserts (and food).

Share this delicate and lovely cheesecake with your loved ones; and enjoy the tastes, textures, and simple happiness they all bring.

Lavender & Lemon Cheesecake: makes 1 cheesecake 

Crust:

1/2 cup dates

1 1/2 cups nuts (I used soaked walnuts and almonds)

Surround the inside of a cake pan with wax paper or plastic wrap. Process dates and nuts together until you get a rough, sticky mixture that you can pat down with your hands into the bottom of the cake pan. Do so. Set in fridge.

Cheesecake:

3 cups cashews (preferably soaked for 3-4 hours)

3/4 cup lemon juice

2/3 cup honey/agave/maple syrup

3/4 cup melted coconut oil

1 teaspoon salt

1-3 teaspoons dried lavender  (depends on how much you like lavender; I used 3)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract/seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod

Blend all ingredients together until smooth and creamy. It will taste... glorious. I'm not kidding, angels may start singing. Pour onto crust in cake pan and set in the freezer or fridge until it has the hardness you want (probably 3-5 hours or overnight). Take out of cake pan holding the wax paper or plastic wrap and put on your favourite plate. Slice and enjoy.

raw fudge cupcakes with vanilla bean frosting

These are totally delicious! Everyone in my family agrees, even Greg (my big brother) who has the pickiest palate of all. If you want to make a cute, sweet and tasty dessert for a party, or for no reason at all - make these!

I'm basically saying whatever your situation: go make these. now. 

As with most raw desserts, they're mostly nuts, seeds and dates... hur-RAW!
I made them specifically to post on the blog, actually. I feel bad because lately I've just been eating tons of salad, and a bit of fruit... wonderful for me, but not that exciting for you. We all know what a banana looks like, and how amazing salad is.

So I hope you like them! I like things sweet, so feel free to take out some of the agave in the frosting. And with all raw recipes, you can pretty much do/change whatever you want and they'll still turn out great.
The recipe does make a little extra frosting... but I'm sure this won't be a problem for you =)

Raw Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla-Cashew Frosting: makes about 15-20, with extra frosting

frosting:

1 cup raw cashews

2-4 Tb agave 

Seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod

1 t vanilla extract

Pinch sea salt

2 Tb melted coconut oil 

Water, only if needed

cupcakes:

1 cup raw nuts (ex. walnuts, almonds, pecans, etc.)

1/2 cup dates

2 Tb agave

1 t vanilla extract

Pinch sea salt

1/2 t cinnamon
4 Tb cacao 

1/4 cup coconut flakes

1/4 cup hemp seeds

To make frosting: blend raw cashews into cashew butter in a high-speed blender (Vita-Mix). Make sure to keep pushing the cashews down so they get blended and you don't burn out your motor.  It doesn't need to be super creamy, but make sure it's past the floury stage. It'll probably be really thick.

Then mix the cashew butter and all other ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Put in piping bag and set in fridge. 

To make cupcakes: Pulse nuts in food processor until very fine, add dates until they're broken down. Then add all other ingredients and pulse until it sticks together, but doesn't stick to your hand (rough dough). Use a cookie cutter to form the "dough" into shapes; I just used a circle. Pipe frosting onto the top of the cupcakes and refrigerate for a bit if you want. Then enjoy!

This is a crowd-pleaser for sure. It's fun when you get to tell people they're healthy.