Good day from Steamboat, Colorado! After months of self work and all sorts of sojourns in the jungles and high altitude paradises of Central America, Delicananda travel fever has brought me to the land of plenty. I am so grateful to have found a wonderful place in Steamboat Springs to take my cooking and baking adventures further and finally get to spend long hours in the kitchen again. And even though Steamboat has an insane amount of wonderful outdoor activities to offer, I've found myself stuck in the kitchen more often than not. I've just missed cooking and baking so much that all else comes second. But I have managed to get my butt to some yoga classes and hikes, and even some wonderful 4th of July camping and river shenanigans. So all hope of making me into a river rat isn't lost. But you wanted some yummies, I hear? Let's get on with it!
Combing through the backlog of stuff I've made in the first couple of days, I chose to start the sharing with these cutesy little things. I wanted to ease my way back into the wonderful land of raw treats with a recipe that wasn't too demanding or didn't require a ridiculous amount of equipment or fancy ingredients. And what with gobbling up all blueberries I could get my hands on after being deprived of my favourite berry for so long, this lovely recipe from one of my favourite blogs Comfy belly was an almost self-evident way to get the raw ball rolling again, so to say.
I halved the recipe and made some modifications, and used a loaf pan to make the cake. You could use a springform, or whatever suits your fancy. I chose to cut the deliciousness into small bite size pieces, but you could make bars, or use cookie cutters to make little hearts or unicorns or whatever your heart desires. The choices are endless :)
The base was a tad too sweet for my liking, but everyone else seemed to think it was wonderful. So, if your sweet tooth isn't as sweet, you could get away with less maple syrup. I also added a middle layer of lightly salted and roasted seeds for extra crunch and a tad of saltiness, which I always love and adore in my sweets. I made cashew yoghurt at the same time with the cake, so the amount of cashews called for in this recipe is the soaked amount, and since I sadly still haven't figured out how much cashews expand when soaked, I can't really tell how much dry cashews you should use. But that's the wonderful thing about raw baking: you're not going to have a disaster in your hands even if you use a slightly different amount of ingredients. Something I really appreciate especially after my first few attempts at regular baking in high altitude that turned out... well, interesting ;). Trial and error, eh?
Blueberry raw cheesecake
Base1 c almond meal
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cacao powder
3 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
Middle layer
roasted and lightly salted pumpkin and sunflower seeds
Cake layer
1,3 c soaked cashews
0,4 dl (a bit over a half of 1/3 cup :D) coconut oil, melted
0,4 dl lime juice
dash of salt
2,5 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Topping
fresh blueberries
Mix all base ingredients in a bowl. Adjust sweetness if necessary. Pat the dough into a pan of choice.
Sprinkle seeds on top.
Blend all cake layer ingredients until smooth. Spread onto the base.
Sprinkle blueberries on top and press lightly into the cake mass.
Freeze until set (4-ish hours), cut up and gobble up!
