Raw Cake with Walnuts and Macadamias

Cake. Need I say more?

Ok, I’ve made quite a few different raw cakes over the last couple of years, and although I found all of them irresistibly delicious, most were too rich and flavoursome for my kids.

(Oh well, ice cream it is again!)

But this raw cake is different.

I used Ani Phyo’s basic flourless raw cake recipe as the basis for my recipe (from her Raw Food Essentials cookbook), and hit on a winning combination with my first attempt. Score!

Her recipe calls for “3 cups of nuts”, which is a bit vague for my analytical brain’s liking.

(Which nuts, how much of each, is it 50/50 or 40/60, how much is a cup, would pecans taste better than walnuts, etc, etc? Aaargghh!)

Anyway, it just so happened that what I had on hand was walnuts and macadamias.

And as luck would have it, not only did it taste fantastic, but the kids liked it too.

And on top of all that, this raw cake is super simple to make.

This is another of my favourite ‘just chuck it all in the processor’ recipes, so you can have your cake (and eat it too) in less than 15 minutes if you want.

Do you get the impression I like shortcuts? Well, I do.

I love eating vibrantly, but with a business to run and two young kids, I don’t always have the time for fiddle.

So the fancy tin, the freezing and sauces are entirely optional.

Although they do add something amazing to the experience.

(Especially the fancy tin ;) )

So if you can find a smidge more time to add the berry sauce and the cashew cream, it’s well worth it.

And I reckon this raw cake goes pretty well with my vegan ice cream and raw chocolate sauce as well.

But that’s a choice I’ll leave up to you.

Decisions, decisions…

Raw Cake with Walnuts and Macadamias

A quick and delicious raw cake based on dates, walnuts and macadamias, served with raw berry sauce and vegan cashew cream. And my kids love it!

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Category: Dessert

Cuisine: Paleo, Raw, Vegan, Wholefoods

Tags: dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, oil-free, soy-free, sugar-free

Prep time: 2 hours hours

Cook time: 15 minutes minutes

Freezing time: 6 hours hours

Total time: 8 hours hours 14 minutes minutes

Makes: 16 serves

Calories per serve: 260kcal

Author: Nikki, Eating Vibrantly

Ingredients

Cake

• 2 cups walnuts (250g)
• 1 3/4 cups macadamias (250g)
• 1/4 tsp salt or less
• 1 cup medjool dates , pitted (250g)
• 1 tsp vanilla bean powder
• 4 tsp agave nectar (20ml)

Cashew cream (optional)

• 1 cup cashews , soaked 2 hours (140g)
• 6 tsp agave nectar (30ml)
• 1 tsp vanilla bean powder
• 1/3 cup water (80ml)

Berry sauce (optional)

• 1 cup strawberries or your favourite berry, fresh or frozen (165g)
• 1/6 cup agave nectar (40ml or 8 tsp)

Method

Cake

• Process nuts and salts until coarsely chopped.
• Remove pits from dates and add to processor, along with vanilla powder and agave nectar.
• Process until well mixed, and the dates start to bind the nuts together.
• Press into a cake tin or container.
• Freeze for ~6 hours, remove from container, cut into pieces and serve frozen, or leave in the fridge to thaw before serving.
• (Optional) Serve with generous helpings of berry sauce and cashew cream.

Cashew cream (optional)

• Soak cashews for 2 hours.
• Drain cashews and blend with remaining ingredients until completely smooth.

Berry sauce (optional)

• Blend berries and agave until mostly smooth.

Preparation

• Before: Soak cashews (2h) [optional]
• During: 15m
• After: Freeze cake (6h) [optional]
• Need: Food processor, cake tin

Nutrition Information

Serving: 49g (1 slice, without toppings); Calories: 260kcal; Carbohydrates: 16.3g; Protein: 3.9g; Fat: 22.1g; Saturated Fat: 2.8g; Polyunsaturated Fat: 7.6g; Monounsaturated Fat: 10.6g; Sodium: 37.8mg; Potassium: 238mg; Fiber: 3.5g; Sugar: 11.6g; Vitamin A: 50IU; Vitamin C: 0.8mg; Calcium: 40mg; Iron: 1.3mg

 Tips

• You can use any combination of nuts you want, honestly. I just happen to really like this particular combination.
• Process the nuts until they’re well broken down, but still a little chunky, to give the cake a bit of texture. If you prefer a smoother cake, you can keep processing until the nuts are completely broken up.
• Go cautiously with the salt. You can taste the salt with 1/4 tsp, so if you’re not a bit fan of salty you could start with 1/8 tsp and see if it’s enough for your tastebuds. The salt does help to balance out the sweetness and richness of this cake.
• Make sure you spread your dates around when you add them to the processor (rather than as one big lump), to give them the best possible chance of mixing evenly and thoroughly into the nuts.
• Vanilla powder is just ground up dried vanilla beans. You can make your own vanilla powder by air drying vanilla beans for a month or two, and then grinding them finely in a spice or coffee grinder. Or you can save yourself the trouble and buy something like Loving Earth’s Vanilla Powder. You can also just use vanilla extract instead, although that will make the mix a bit wetter.
• The agave nectar helps to make the cake mix bind. You can leave it out, but you may find your mix a bit crumbly. Play with it and see what works.
• Soaking the cashews helps to release the nutrients, but (more importantly) also helps them to blend into a smoother cream sauce.
• The cashew cream will thicken up after sitting in the refrigerator for a few hours.
• You can use any frozen berries you like. I’ve been using frozen mixed berries from my local health food store for convenience, but of course you can freeze your own, and make your own blend.
• I like to blend my berry sauce until it’s mostly smooth, but with a few small frozen chunks still floating around in it.

Take it further

• If you want to make this cake even more nutritious, you could activate the walnuts (soak 8-12 hours, drain, rinse, dehydrate 8-12 hours) before using them. I haven’t tried this yet, because that would require an amount of forward planning that often escapes me.
• You can also activate macadamias, although I would only soak them for a couple of hours before dehydrating them.

Have an awesome day!