Raw Chocolate Cake

I previously mentioned this treat a few weeks ago in an edition of What Katie Wants to Eat (WWKE, which should return once I have seen more things to show you).  This chocolate cake is completely raw and does not need to be cooked in an oven.  It’s a cake full of fruity, nutty and chocolately goodness, from the recipe of Laura-Jane the Rawtarian, that is perfect for small birthday parties!  I thought I might make this for my brother's birthday this weekend, but when I'd have made it this afternoon, I'll be preparing to go to and then participating in a 24 hour show between this evening and tomorrow, so I intend to make it when I can after that - by the way, nobody in my family is a vegan, I just think it'll be fun and easy to make!

 

Ingredients (makes 10 servings)

1 ½ cups walnuts

1 ½ cups pecans

1 ½ cups dates

1 ½ cups raisins

1/3 cup raw cocoa powder  

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. In a food processor, process nuts until they are very well blended, so that they look like chunky flour.  Basically, you should just see little chunky bits of nuts.
2. Then, add everything else to the food processor and continue blending.  You’ll probably want to add the ingredients one at a tie otherwise your food processor might get a bit stuck.
3. Keep on processing until your mixture looks like a big ball of dough.  There shouldn’t be big chunks of anything.  You will probably see small flecks of nuts though.  Once you’ve got a giant raw chocolate cake dough ball, you do not need to dehydrate the cake or anything, but just need to decide on the presentation of the cake (i.e. the shape of the cake and icing).
4. Press the dough into the desired shape for whatever you want to make.  For example, take a nice cake plate and press the dough into a cake shape.  Ice the cake, if desired.
5. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to allow the cake to firm up.
6. The cake can be stored in a fridge for up to 5 days.

 

What Katie Wants to Eat - week ending 19/09/14

For me, this week has been Freshers Week at uni, and for Freshers Fayre, I was going in circles around the student union building for the majority of Wednesday and Thursday, trying to recruit people to join the uni's musical theatre society, BUSOM, until we realised that a couple of people were stopping at our stall to sing along to songs from Frozen with us, so then we sang through the whole Little Shop of Horrors soundtrack (which we did for our main show earlier this year) together until Freshers Fayre finished.  I've also eaten a lot of sweets from the stalls at Freshers Fayre because they were free, so there was a lot of sugar involved.  On Thursday evening, I caught up with a couple of old school friends to go bowling (I was 2nd with 96 points, only one point behind the leader) and for dinner at Frankie & Benny's.  Anyway, although there are a lot fewer photo links this week, here's what food goodness has been tickling my tastebuds or made me hungry this week:

1. Chocolate brownies with mint ice cream - this is what I had for dessert at Frankie & Benny's on Thursday evening.  The brownie was soft and gooey, while the ice cream was cool and smooth in comparison to the whipped cream that the dish was also served with.  I might post a recipe I found for gluten-free chocolate brownies and mint ice cream in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for that.
2. Candyfloss - unfortunately, my society's Freshers Fayre stall was around the corner from a free popcorn and candyfloss stall that had been set up by an external business, so every few minutes, we would see people coming past with either bags of popcorn or sticks holding a giant cloud of pink candyfloss.  Having not really had candyfloss myself for a few years, I took the opportunity to get myself a stick of free candyfloss on both days after lunch.  Although it was slightly inconvenient as I was having to keep the sticky candyfloss in one hand away from the society info cards in the other hand as I walked around to recruit people, I'd like more of this pink, fluffy cloud of sweet awesomeness!
3. Raw soft-serve ice cream at The Rawtarian - this recipe is super-easy and only needs frozen bananas, a couple of teaspoons of vanilla extract and a blender.  I think I'll use it to create a vegan-friendly version of the affogato recipe I posted a few weeks ago.
4. Ally's watermelon fruit-bowl is making me jealous.  Like strawberries and blueberries, I don't think watermelon will be sticking around here much longer this year in the UK, and will be flying south (to Australia, in fact) to wish Ally a very happy summer indeed.  Also, do we have Finn Cold Press juices here?  They look tasty.

So that's all for this week.  I'll be back next week with more food and possible post-Freshers Fayre news!