Epic yet humble

In between performing, as a joker, jester, clown at woodford folk festival and sleeping I worked away on a raw cheesecake creation. I hitched into town for ingredients and soaked and ground everything in the mortar and pestle in Tash's kitchen. It took days, and there was a point when almost on the line of ready but it needed berries. It needed fresh fruity squish and so I hitched into town again especially to acquire the special finishing touch of raspberries and put in the fridge for the final setting. After performing and partying I arrived home at 2am to indulge in the pure delight of my raspberry cheesecake, it was so good, so what I needed on so many levels. And up to that point the complete highlight of my week.
Not only was it delicious but I could also feel it revitalizing my vital energy. Thankyou universe for this cake. I devoured so much of it and then the sensible and sharing part of me (luckily) stepped in and saved many tiny slices for all the wonderful people around me to try and delight in.
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crust
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pecans
dates
lime juice
salt
raw cacao powder
carob powder
few spoons of coconut water
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cream
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really raw cashews soaked 24 hours and then skins peeled off
ground in mortar and pestle with
lime juice, fresh vanilla seeds, salt
and 1/3 cup coconut butter
flesh from 1 and 1/2 young Thai coconuts
and 1/2 cup coconut water
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lush topping
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1 heaped tsp agar agar boiled in a cup of water for 5 minutes
450g of frozen raspberries (half mixed in and squished into agar solution andthen some whole on top)

Found this super special tart in the freezer

I made this a couple of weeks ago but haven't foundan ocassion to eat it. It felt too special to eat alone. I cut it in half and took some over to Phoebe's house. I'm sure sure how well the agar jelly will defrost.
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almond apricot agar jelly topped with fresh cherries on a pepita, cashew and date crust

Slapstick photo of a delicious dinner

Zucchini noodles with parsnip and sundried tomato pesto
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handcut zucchini noodles
freshly shelled peas
olive oil
pink salt and lemon juice
marinated for an hour
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in blender blend into a pesto
handful of soaked sun dried tomatoes
handful of really raw cashews
olive oil
2 parsnips
1/2 an avocado
spring onion
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mix through noodles, topped with a few loving earth dehydrated red olives

Fondue is serious

We went to Cocoloco for vegan cashew cheese fondue. It was quite incredible but richly serious. Noah took this photo at the end of dinner of the empty cashew gelato glasses.

Heidi's raw mango cheesecake

I helped out at the last class in Heidi's Conscious Nutrition series - raw vegan deserts. My job was to plate up a million slices of raw vegan mango cheesecake with fresh strawberries, raw chocolate avocado mousse and fresh mango lime sauce. I had 18 plates balancing on makeshift kitchen benches. It was fun, I enjoyed it, the desert was delicious. And the best thing, well one super amazing thing was Heidi gave me the demo cheesecake she made in the class while I was out the back preparing. I think a tea party is in order! An early birthday celebration and whatever else we would like to celebrate...come eat cake!

Really raw cashews

I just bought a packet of really truly raw cashews. They taste nothing like I would have expected. They are incredible. Creamy sweet and more dense and nutritious tasting... Wow, the loving earth ones are from the island of Flores in Indonesia. Fair trade, organic and still have the highly nutritious outer skin or testa on the nut. What we once thought of a 'raw cashew' has actually been boiled or steamed in order to remove the shell and inside skin, which of course destroys the enzymes. They are obviously more expensive but so worth it, these cashews have been shelled by hand!

Raw pecan datetree cake

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Cream

1 cup of raw cashews (soaked for 3 hours) ground in mortar and pestle until creamy

1/2 a banana

1-2 tbs coconut oil

lemon juice

pink salt

amazing fresh local honey

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The Crust

2 cups of Pecans (australian, chemical free)

2 and 1/2 medjool dates
squeeze of blood orange juice

small handful of whole cacao beans, smashed in mortar and pestle
2 tbs desiccated coconut

1 and 1/2 tbs Coconut oil

himalayan salt

cinnamon
2 tbs of sunflower seeds, ground

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Karl made the date palm out of strips of fresh banana

White chocolate strawberry cheesecake

Here it is! Everything all together - base, cream filling, raw choc drizzle and fresh strawberries.
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We enjoyed the cheesecake with a simple banana and coconut cream sorbet (2 frozen bananas, 1/4 can of organic coconut cream and tiny bit of agave). It was really delicious, a great balance of texture, flavour and freshness.

Noah wrote up a list of the key ingredients, see below.

Strawberry cashew cream

Another of my little brothers, Llewy joined our cheesecake making team, and with him brought a high level of genius and attention to detail. Llewy made the cashew, cacao butter and strawberry cream filling. It was his idea to add the strawberries and when we tasted it we all decided that it didnt need chocolate as it was already super delicious. When Llewy was putting the cream on top of the base, he shook the pan vigorously, and initially I was like hey slow down and chill out dude until I realised that his method created an ultra smooth and even layer of cream. 

Cream filling

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1 and 1/2 cups of organic cashews soaked for 2 hours
5 or so strawberries
a few tablespoons of dark agave syrup
approx 4 tbs of melted raw organic cold pressed cacao butter
tiny bit of pink salt
blended together until beautifully smooth
spread on top of base (and put into freezer)

Ground zero

 

the base

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1 and 1/2 cups of activated biodynamic almonds (soaked overnight and sundried)

1/2 cup organic brazil nuts

approx 6 dried apricots and 2 or 3 handfuls of raisons, chopped and soaked for 6 hours

1 - 2 tablespoons of coconut oil

a tiny bit of salt and a little cinnamon
press into a spring form pan and freeze

 

Bowls of soaking dried apricots and raisons 

activated almonds, and soaking cashews

Inspiration

Gathering inspirations from all over the place to make my mum's birthday cake. Here are a few of the most delicious sounding recipes that I found on the net
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Blackforest Chocolate Cheesecake
Raw Orange Chocolate "Cheesecake"
Concorde Grape Cheesecake with Fig and Grape Puree
Raw Chocolate Avocado Pie

Ive decided to go down the path of cashew nut cream filling using cacao butter. Noah and I went to the health food shop and bought some organic cashews and chatted to the lovely man working there about eating raw and the high food miles of ridiculous superfoods, he gave both of us a taste of his homemade flax crackers (which Noah loved) and some more inspiration for our cheesecake adventure.

When we got home from the school pick up/ organic shop mission I showed Noah some of the recipes I had shortlisted, he was totally pumped to get right into it and start making a really delicious wonder cake for our mumma. He put his apron on and we went for it.
Noah requested that we make the Purple cheesecake for his birthday in February (and got me to write it in my diary so I dont forget).