Raw "Cheese" Cakes

The following recipe is for a cheese-less (dairy-free), raw, gluten-free, low glycemic yet quite sweet dessert cake. I must admit, I think this is my favorite dessert I have created thus far. It came out so well that I've been thinking it would be a good idea to do my best to remember what I put into it and the process, type it up and post in online just in case others might be inspired to give it a try. This raw "cheese" cake started when I had my first taste of fresh lacuma (called egg fruit here in Hawaii). It is a kind of sweet, creamy and starchy fruit. It's basically has the texture of new-york style cheese cake. Its firm yet creamy - not frothy or custardy like many others. My first experiences with cheesecake came from my mother. She followed a very basic recipe to make cheesecake new-york style. She kept it simple. Firm sweet cheesecake with a gram cracker crust and a tart sour cream topping. The perfect flavor combination. Fruits, syrups, chocolate or other additions are totally optional and in my opinion - sometimes excessive.  Although I must admit, she did sometimes put canned cherries, blackberries or just recently - pistachios on top - which was sometime a nice touch, but nothing was like the original. While eating cheesecake is always such an amazingly pleasurable experience the one thing that gets me down is the feeling it gives to the body about 10-20 minutes into digestion. Unfortunately, its a pretty dangerous combination of foods - pasteurized dairy, white sugar, flour, etc. When I was a  kid, the ill effects go totally unnoticed, but now days its just not worth the suffering. While the ingredients I use here might not be completely available to most folks, I encourage you to try your own alternatives, experiment and see if you can create a cheesecake that doesn't leave you feeling ill, lethargic or concerned about weight gain. Indulgence doesn't always have to end in guilt! Another thing to consider - while I wish I could say this recipe is as easy as throwing together a package of no-bake cheese cake - its not. It will take some time to follow each step in the process and uses ingredients that could be hard to find unless you live in a tropical climate or near a good health food store.  But don't let that discourage you from making your own version! Keep in mind that the measurements are approximate, so if needed carefully adjust a little as necessary based on your observations and intuition. Makes about 10-12 slices. I sell slices in a cafe for $5 each or a whole cake for $45 - 50 just to give you an idea of how special and valuable this is. Be sure to check the end of this page for alternative ingredient suggestions!

Kitchen supplies and utensils

• High powered quality blender (I used a Vitamix - makes a huge difference)
• Food Processor (blender or food processor work for both uses. I prefer to use a Cuisinart food processor for the crust to use the "pulse" mode. On a Vitamix, the tamper must be used to mix dry foods)
• Standard size spring form cake pan
• Wax or parchment paper
• Fine grater
• Flexible plastic spatula
• Large wide-mouth mason jar or similar vessel
• Refrigerator
• POWER source

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 1/2 cup raw soaked pecans or walnuts
• 1 cup raw whole pitted dates
• 1 tsp nutmeg - preferably whole nutmeg freshly fine-grated
• 1 tsp high grade sea salt (celtic or pink himalayan)

Filling:

• Fresh young coconut meat from 1-2 coconuts (approx. 2 cups blended). Mature coconut will work too, just needs to be blended longer. OR use 1 1/2 cups coconut butter and 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 1/2 cup coconut water
• 6 fresh whole lacuma (egg) fruits, pitted and skinned or 2 cups raw lacuma powder
• 1 cup coconut butter or coconut oil
•  1/4 cup raw honey or vegan options: coconut sugar, date sugar or erythritol
• 1-2 tsp high quality vanilla and/or almond extract or raw vanilla powder
• 1/2 tsp stevia powder or extract
• 1 tsp guar gum (binds fats and water together)
• 1 Tbs Irish moss powder (thickens to create firmness. Can be ommited if cake is frozen - will be more like an ic)

Topping:
This is where the time factor comes in. To accomplish the tartness of sour cream, I made yogurt using fresh coconut meat and water and a kefir starter culture. Prepare this 1-3 days in advance:

• 1 1/2 cup fresh young coconut meat
• 1/2 cup coconut water
• 1-2 tsp kefir or yogurt starter culture
• 1 tsp coconut sugar (optional - feeds the culture fast to speed up the ferment)

After culturing the yogurt for at least 10 hours, add:

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• Zest from 1-2 whole lemons and juice from half a lemon
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp guar gum
• 1/4 tsp orange extract (optional)
• Fresh fruit and/or spearmint leaves on top for presentation (optional)

Instructions

1.  Make the Yogurt

1.  Process the fresh coconut: harvest the water, crack it open and scoop out the meat, loosely blend together until you get about 1 1/2 cups for the topping and 2 cups for the filling (unless you are using coconut butter instead). To make the yogurt you need to use fresh coconut meat, otherwise there may be conventional store-bought coconut yogurts available at natural food stores - though hardly anything like the fresh stuff - will work, try to find plain.
2. Add the sugar and culture to the blender and gradually increase speed until a smooth, creamy texture developed. Use a tamper if needed rather than adding more water. 
3. Pour the mixture into a large wide-mouth mason jar or similar vessel, use a spatula to get anything remaining in the blender. Cover the jar with a lid and turn the lid all the way down, then back off slightly. This will allow any gasses to escape during fermentation. 
4. Place jar in a warm environment (85 - 110 deg. F) such as an oven with the pilot light on, above a hot water heater or in a food dehydrator. Allow to ferment for 10-20 hours. Periodically check to see if it separates like curds and whey. If this happens, it may be too hot or has cultured a bit too long. Its okay - its not ruined. Just mix it back together and place in the refrigerator to cool.

2.  Crust

1. Prepare the spring-form cake pan: cut a piece of wax/parchment paper to fit the bottom of the cake pan. Place the ring in to lock down the paper. Coat the inside of the ring with a bit of coconut oil.
2. Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender and mix on pulse until it creates a crumbly texture. It should hold together if pressed in your fist.
3. Pour the mixture in the cake pan and press down to evenly spread and flatten. This is the crust!

3.  Filling

1.  Set aside guar gum, irish moss and a half the coconut water and add the rest of the ingredients in the blender. Begin to blend, gradually increasing speed, adding water as needed until smooth. Use tamper if needed. While blender is still running on high and pulling mixture from top, add guar gum and irish moss. Allow it to mix for a few seconds. 
2. Pour mixture into cake pan. Smooth and even it out by rocking it in a circular motion while flat on a surface. Use a spatula if needed. Remember the top doesnt need to look perfect because you're going to add the yogurt later.
3. Place the cake in the refridgerator and allow to set up for 4 - 6 hours

4.  Finishing Touches

1. Take out the yogurt from the fridge. Place in blender with additional ingredients and blend while gradually increasing speed until smooth and barely pourable. 
2. Take out the now firm cake from the fridge. Remove the spring form. Pour the yogurt over the top of the cake in an even, circular flow - allow a little bit to pour over the sides if you wish. You can even it out with a spatula if you like.
3. Add any garnishes like fresh fruit, lemon zest, raw honey or fresh spearmint leaves.  Or just keep it simple like Mom used to. You can serve this as it is or if you would like the topping to be a little more firm you can place it back in the fridge for about a half an hour or so before serving. 
4. Slice it up and enjoy! This is a very rich and fatty cake yet easy to digest for most people. Low-glycemic, healthy fats, soaked nuts and cultured coconut come together to make something to indulge in guilt-free. This is a high energy food and makes a great breakfast option as well as dessert.

Raw Chocolate Chip Mint Layercake
For Amy's Birthday

 Alternative Versions

Raw "Pumpkin" Spice "Cheese" Cake

Raw Mamay Sapote Spice Cake

This recipe can be made with many different base ingredients. Instead of using coconuts and fresh eggfruit, try soaked cashews, almonds and/or macadamia nuts. Cashews lend a very creamy texture after soaked and blended - perfect for raw desserts. I have made a raw pie with avocado, cacao butter and spearmint - turned out great with the green color, sprinkled with grated chocolate. Coconut oil is easy to find in stores now and helps smooth out the texture and creates firmness when set in the fridge. Coconut butter, on the other hand, is a bit more expensive and harder to find sometimes. To make coconut butter, simply combine coconut oil

Raw Coconut Cream & Blueberry Cake
For Raku's Birthday

and unsweetened coconut flakes/shreds to the vitamix and blend with the tamper until smooth. The crust can be made with any nut of your preference and if you cant get dates you can use honey, goji or raisins. The yogurt topping can be substituted with anything you can imagine. I've never tried dairy yogurt, but its worth a try. These raw cake recipes are just as, if not more, versatile as any dairy cheesecake. There are so many possibilities. I just recently made a mamay sapote spice version (pictured above) that I enjoyed much more than the lacuma cake. Mamay flavor, texture and color lends itself very well to spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove and
cardamom.

Some Words on Sweetners and Fats
Feel free to experiment with different sweetners. Based on scientific analysis, the most nutritional low-glycemic sweeteners are date and coconut sugars, followed by molasses and raw honey (always buy and eat raw honey which digests much more efficiently and contains live enzymes, b vitamins and life force energy. Heat-processed honey
is dead, much less nutritious and basically the same as corn syrup - in fact some "honey" is actually cut with corn syrup). Most other sugars are empty calories. Agave nectar and brown rice syrup have become popular as a lower glycemic alternatives to white sugar though nutritionally they are both basically the same thing as high fructose corn syrup (empty) and I do not recommend using it for anything. As for zero calorie sweetners, most of them are highly synthetic and toxic. The only exceptions to this are: plain stevia, xylitol and erythritol. Out of these three, my choice is usually stevia - though it tends to have a unique flavor that some people just can't stomach. I have been able to very effectively use stevia in combination with coconut sugar, raw honey or erithritol to mask that unusual after taste that some people do not enjoy. This way you get less glycemic load while still getting the satisfaction of caloric sweetness. Erythritol and xylitol (anything ending with tol) are alcohol sugars. Typically they are hard on digestion (not really food) and can cause diarrhea. Do not use if you have irritable bowl issues.  Erythritol is the better choice because the fermentation process makes it easier on the stomach. The main reason why we love sweet tastes so much is because, naturally, sweet things are high in calories - they are survival foods - and so when we get our hands on them we have a bit of a desire to eat as much as we can to store up the calories and build fat for times when food is scarce. Contrary to popular belief, cholesterol and fat do not make you fat. Excess sugars and starches combined with inertia/inactivity, genetic disposition, imbalanced hormones and inflammation of the organs are the main factors leading to obesity. Excess fats, though, can be quite difficult to digest. Infact, you burn more energy (fat) digesting fats than the amount you absorb eating them. So its best to eat healthy fats like nuts, seeds, fish, avocado, coconut, ect. and healthy sugars both in moderation and according to your needs for energy. In a way, these raw pies and cakes are like raw sprouted trail mixes (fruits and nuts) blended together and formed into a firm sweet treat. So eat a small slice of this delicious raw cake for a energy boosting snack!