Naraya Cooking Health Recipe

RAW VEGAN CARROT CAKE with CREAMY CASHEW LEMON FROSTING 

Cashew lemon frosting:
1 1/2 cups cashews
Juice from 1 lemon 
2 tablespoons liquid coconut oil
2 tablespoons coconut nectar 
1 teaspoon vanilla powder
Water, as needed 

Carrot cake:
3 large carrots, peeled and chopped into small chunks 
1 1/2 cups oats 
2 cups dates
1/2 cup dried coconut 
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 

To make the frosting: blend all ingredients in your high speed blender until smooth, adding water as needed. Taste it - mmm. Put in the fridge. 

To make the cake: process the oats into flour in your food processor then throw the rest of the ingredients in the food processor and process until it all begins to stick together. 

Assembly: press half the cake mixture into a small spring form pan (mine is about 4 inches). Gently take this out and put on a plate, then put in the freezer until it's solid. Do the same to the remaining half of the cake mixture. Spread about 1/3 of the frosting onto the top of one of the cake layers. Put it in the freezer until the layer of frosting is hard. Place on the other cake layer and frost the entire thing, I let it set in the fridge overnight. 

Most recipes ask for carrot pulp (after putting carrots through a juicer) but I just shredded a couple carrots and used them whole. This way you can keep the flavourful juices in the cake. Having said that - carrot juice is freaking delicious. Dang. Now I want carrot juice. Wait a minute - perhaps other raw carrot cake recipes ask for the pulp alone because it gives the recipe makers an excuse to drink a bunch of the juice. Clever...


carrot cake with cashew cream cheese frosting, pistachios & walnuts:

Cashew frosting:
2 cups cashews, preferably soaked for a couple hours
1-2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons liquid coconut oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
Water, as needed 

Cake:
2 large carrots, peeled
1 1/2 cups oat flour or buckwheat flour
1 cup dates
1 cup dried pineapple (or more dates)
1/2 cup dried coconut 
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

To make the frosting: blend all ingredients in your high speed blender until smooth, adding as little water as possible. Taste it - mmm. Put in a bowl and set aside. 

To make the cake: cut the carrots into small chunks. Then throw all the ingredients (including the carrots) in your food processor and pulse until it's all in really small pieces and sticks together. 

Assembly: Press half the cake mix into the bottom of an adjustable spring-form pan, mine was about 6 inches. Then spread on about 1/3 of the frosting. Put it in the freezer until the layer of frosting is hard. Then press on the rest of the cake mix. I let it set in the fridge overnight, then frosted the whole thing, but you can do it right away if you want. Take it out of the pan and use the remaining frosting, cover with whatever garnishes you like. Enjoy!

I fashioned this recipe after something called a Dobos torte. A reader asked me to make a raw version of it just as I was brainstorming what to make next... (fate or coincidence?) Whatever your beliefs, I think this turned out pretty yumtastically.
Yes, I do invent words.


Luckily most of you won't know what a Dobos torte is so I'm off the hook for not recreating it that well. It's supposed to be a vanilla sponge cake, thinly layered with chocolate buttercream and topped with hard caramel slices. I didn't make enough layers because (a) this cake doesn't need that many layers to make it filling and satisfying; I didn't want to make each slice a challenge to eat because it was too much and (b) I just didn't make enough cake or frosting. I'M NOT PERFECT, OKAY.


I chose to make maca slices on top because I couldn't think of anything to make a raw HARD caramel from. Date caramel is out-of-this-freaking-universe-delicious but it's not the right consistency for this. So maca powder blended with coconut oil, which turns solid here at room temperature (thanks, chilly Northern climates) did the trick and looks fairly decent, in my own subjective opinion. What say you?

If you'd like to use avocado instead of cashews, go ahead. I would have done that but my avocados chose to go rotten without telling me. What jerks. Just because they're sexy, beautiful and everyone loves them - they think they can do whatever they want. (Okay but actually I was just oblivious and let them go bad. Shut up.)

sorry in advance: i haven't posted in awhile, this isn't raw, and the pictures are bad. BUT ANYWAY...

i hope your dad enjoyed his day! mine did. it was sunny here for most of the day, some friend's visited, greg made a great breakfast, we bought a new barbeque and grilled veggies, and i made him a cake.

oh... and he got to eat meat -.- hmph! seriously though, if this was 2 years ago... the fact that my dad eating meat on father's day was a big deal and a treat for him would be pretty much unbelievable. i'm so happy we've come this far. i'm very proud of my family.

anyways - cake.


two of my dad's fave things are marzipan and chocolate (two others are beer and BMW motorcycles). so i made him a chocolate cake with marzipan and chocolate frosting. it's baked, but i used organic whole wheat flour and raw sugar. yay!


it was... very good. if you love cake - make this! :) i used a recipe that was already on the blog.

Today is my brother's girlfriend's birthday. He planned out a whole lovely evening for her, which included a decadent, healthy chocolate cake for two that he asked me to make for them.


I'm not gonna lie - I tasted it while I was making it to make sure it was good. It is SO good. You should make this... soon. I made up the recipe as I was going so I have written it here as close to what I did as possible. In any case you will end up with a double chocolate vegan cake made with love so it can't be a bad thing.

It's safe to say I won my bro some brownie points tonight... or cake points. Happy Birthday, Marcella!


Today I stayed home from school because I didn't feel well in the morning. I really don't know what's up lately. I basically never get sick since I've been vegan and yet in the past two months I've now gotten TWO colds. Hmph.

Ah well, it gave me some much needed time to get my thoughts together for a paper in my history of sexuality course. Fascinating stuff! I love history (we need to know our past in order to understand our present, and predict our future). When you think about it, sexuality is a fundamental factor in everything humans do.

What are all organisms all about? Food and sex. Respectively, they keep us alive and allow us to pass along our genes to continue the survival and evolution of our species. Pretty simple rules for a very complicated world. Ultimately, all we need to look at to understand human behaviour are the driving forces of food and sex. This is why I think my history of sexuality course is so interesting and important. Sorry... I got a little off topic. Back to mini birthday cakes. 


It's super moist and super chocolatey so be prepared for bliss. You'll have left over cake and icing.

Wow. I slept for about 15 hours. I am a sleep-o-holic anyway, but I could have easily slept more. The only reason I actually got up was to say hi to my friends who came over, and give them some of these:


They're Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Maple Whiskey Vanilla Frosting. Everyone is saying they're delicious so I advise you to make them TODAY. It is Saint Patrick's Day =)

Obviously I didn't eat any today, but I did have one yesterday and can tell you they're awesome. Super moist,  chocolaty with just a HINT of excellent beer. Guinness is a family favourite here.


I've seen this recipe a lot for St. Pattie's, but never a vegan one. So here ya go! Enjoy.

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Whiskey Frosting: makes about 20 cupcakes 


Cupcakes:
1 bottle of Guinness Extra Stout (other kinds are NOT vegan)
2 sticks vegan butter
3/4 cup cocoa 
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups raw sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp instant coffee powder
1 tsp salt
2 Tb ground flax mixed with 4 Tb water 
1/2 cup vegan yogurt (or use non-dairy milk)


Frosting:
1/2 package tofu
1/2 cup vegan butter
1/2 cup raw powdered sugar
1 cup non-dairy milk
Vanilla seeds from 1 pod
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup agave/honey/maple syrup (if desired)
1/4 cup whiskey 


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift all dry ingredients together, set aside. Melt butter and beer together, then stir in the rest of the wet ingredients. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together until just combined and pour into cupcakes molds, or a cupcake pan lined with papers/vegetable oil. Bake for about 20 minutes. 


While they're baking, make the frosting: blend all ingredients together in blender until smooth and thick. I fiddled with mine a lot and so ended up with a lot extra. If your frosting is too thick - add more whiskey, non-dairy milk, or liquid sweetener. If it's too thick, add more powdered sugar, tofu or vegan butter. Keep in fridge until the cupcakes are ready to decorate. 


Pipe the frosting onto each cupcake and decorate with green sparkles for St. Pattie's! =)


Now, you probably care a lot more about Chocolate Beer Cupcakes than hearing about my water fast; but I'll talk more anyway. Today is good so far, it's the first day so nothing much happens in terms of detox. I feel a bit hungry but not uncomfortably so. I've dranken a quart of water, I'll probably drink another before I go to sleep. Actually, now that I'm typing this, I realize I'm thirsty!
-

These are totally delicious! Everyone in my family agrees, even Greg (my big brother) who has the pickiest palate of all. If you want to make a cute, sweet and tasty dessert for a party, or for no reason at all - make these!


As with most raw desserts, they're mostly nuts, seeds and dates... hur-RAW!
I made them specifically to post on the blog, actually. I feel bad because lately I've just been eating tons of salad, and a bit of fruit... wonderful for me, but not that exciting for you. We all know what a banana looks like, and how amazing salad is.

So I hope you like them! I like things sweet, so feel free to take out some of the agave in the frosting. And with all raw recipes, you can pretty much do/change whatever you want and they'll still turn out great.
The recipe does make a little extra frosting... but I'm sure this won't be a problem for you =)