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!

"any one whose tongue is bored and heart plays loud music that no one else can hear"

Fine and Raw Chocolatier company based in New York

Does raw chocolate get converted into energy faster that regular chocolate?
Foods in their natural raw state contain enzymes. Enzymes control the metabolic process of digesting food into energy. But enzymes are very sensitive to heat and can be lost in food if they are heated at high temperatures. Foods rich in enzymes will metabolize quicker and convert fats to energy faster. As raw chocolate is enzyme rich, the fats are quickly converted into energy to help you dance all night.

A cheezecake outing

Walking past the Green Gourmet in Newtown I remembered Tessa telling me they had raw cheesecake. I popped my head in and was amazed by the choices, so many! I went for a chocolate mint swirl number. It was pretty incredible, an amazing texture definately resembling a real cream cheesy cheesecake. A little on the rich side (for me) and I didn't quite get the mint flavouring but very delicious and inspiring, and I really enjoyed it. All the ingredients were listed too which I love.
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Base: Pecans, dates, coconut, cacao nibs, cacao butter

Filling: Cashews, almond mylk, agave, lemon juice, mint oil, coconut oil, lecithin, cacao powder, Celtic salt. 

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.

Cacao Magic

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We played with making chocolate, the quantities and ratios were a bit out and the chocolate was very strong, none the less delicious.
2 tbs raw cacao butter, melted at low heat
2 tbs raw chocolate cacao powder
1 tsp carob powder
1 tbs of coconut oil
little salt and agave
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we chocolate dipped strawberries to put on top of the cheesecake and then drizzled on more of the melted chocolate, which dried hard by the time the cake was ready to eat.

Raw chocolate coated energy bar

Major discovery, I can choc dip things... Ive figured out how to make raw chocolate and how to chocolate dip my energy bars. It was really easy, pretty much melting at a very low heat some super awesome ingredients and then dipping in my already prepared energy bars. They dried super quickly and were really delicious.
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raw cacao butter
raw cacao powder (raw chocolate)
agave
salt
dried sour cherries
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the energy bars had a LOT of ingredients and whilst they were pretty good they weren't totally amazing, until I came up with the genius idea of choc-dipping them, it's amazing how even a really thin layer of chocolate can change your life. It really complemented the subtle lemon tahini flavour of the bars.


here is a rough inventory of ingredients
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sunflower seed sprouts and buckwheat sprouts (this is the bulk of the recipe, 1 cup of each)
chia seeds (made into a concentrated gel by adding a little water),
brazil nuts, sultanas, raisens, sour cherries
sesame seeds, coconut oil, salt
slippery elm powder
lemon juice and rind, tahini
dry buckwheat and sunflower seeds for texture and to add dryness and form to the bars.
- After mixing all the ingredients together, press down into a flat container and freeze. When frozen dismantle the slice from the container by popping it out and slicing into bars or squares. Alternately you can form into shapes by hand and then freeze.