Berries, berries and berries – I can never have to many berries…can you?

When making cake or dessert there are so many options out there and while many opt for the classic taste of chocolate or caramel, I really love berries and other types of fruits in my desserts and cakes.

I was craving cake – as I do so often *smile* and had some mixed berries. Yummy berries, I thought – and a crumbly base would be nice. I could already imagine the intense color and feel the tangy, sweet and smooth cake in my mouth! That left me with no other option than to hurry to the kitchen and make a raw cake, even though I had many other things to do. Fortunately, raw-cakes do not take much time to prepare, you only need to have patience while it sets in the freezer and waiting for it to defrost so you can cut a nice slice and indulge.

I did not regret that choice as the cake tastes wonderful, with a rich taste of berries not too sweet wonderfully smooth and a lovely crunchy base with walnuts that give a good balance to the berry taste.

The great thing about a raw cake is the healthy fats and the possibility to make the cake without too much sweetener. Some raw cakes are based on a lot of dates, which gives a lovely taste but for some people, battling insulin and blood-sugar issues, it can be too high in carbohydrates. I have made both types of raw cakes but try to focus on more fat and lower amount of sweetener. It actually worked very well with this cake and I urge you to try it out. It is great when having guests as it is quite large and perfect for entertaining, but you could make it just to pamper yourself with a luxury treat – no one will judge you I promise.

Mixed Berries Raw Cake:

24 cm springform, line the base with baking paper and grease the sides with a little melted coconut oil.

Ingredients:

Base:

200 g almonds

200 g walnuts

200 g dates, pitted

30 g melted coconut oil

1 lemon, zest

Pinch of Himalaya salt

Filling:

375 g cashew, soaked in water for some hours/overnight

200 g coconut oil, melted but not hot

400 g mixed berries (I used a mix of: strawberries, raspberries, wild blueberries, black currants and blackberries)

150 g agave nectar

1 lemon, juice

2 tea spoon vanilla powder (or liquid)

Pinch of Himalaya salt

Chocolate glaze:

30 g coconut oil

15 g cocoa

30 g agave nectar

Making the base:

1. Place the walnuts and almonds in a food processor and chop the nuts.
2. Add the dates, coconut oil, lemon zest and salt. Now process until you have a cohesive but quite crumbly mass.
3. Distribute the base into the tin and press down gently. Place in the fridge or freezer to set.

Making the filling:

1. Add cashews, coconut oil, lemon juice, agave, vanilla powder and salt to a high-speed blender and blend until smooth – you might need to stop and scrape the sides down so all gets blended well. Note. If you don’t have a high-speed blender you can use a food processor. My experience is that that texture is smoother in the blender, but the taste is just as wonderful.
2. Add the mixed berries and blend once again.
3. Take out the base and pour the batter over.
4. Smooth the top and tap the base to remove air bubbles.
5. Return the cake to the freezer and let set.

Some hours before serving: remove the cake from the freezer, remove from the pan onto your serving plate. Allow it to thaw in the fridge and decorate.  You can choose to glaze the whole cake, drizzle the glaze around or serve it without any glaze. Decorate with your choice of berries, fruits, nuts and/or chocolate.

Glaze:

1. Gently mix the coconut oil, cacao and agave to form a glaze.
2. Pour the glaze over the cake.
3. Let set in the fridge.