A beautifully fruity, vibrant raw cake. This vegan take on a no bake cheesecake is packed full of flavour with the most stunningly smooth and creamy texture. If you can’t, or choose not to eat dairy, that doesn’t mean your life needs to be ‘cheesecake’ free. This would make a gorgeous Valentines dessert or an easy but delicious cake to whip up for any special occasion.

Nuts tend to feature as the main component in so many dairy free desserts, but do not fear if you’re about that ‘nut free’ life. I have some epic nut free raw cake recipes coming your way very, very soon.

Recipe: Raspberry and pomegranate raw cake (serves 8-10)

Ingredients for the base:

1 1/2 cup of oats

1/3 cup desiccated coconut

3 tablespoons coconut oil

2 tablespoons peanut butter

3 tablespoons maple syrup - or liquid sweetener of your choice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Method:

Add all of the base ingredients to a food processor and blitz until combined.

Press firmly into a lined, loose bottom or spring form cake tin (I used an 8inch tin) until it is evenly distributed.

Pop into the freezer while you make the filling.

Raw cake ingredients:

2 cups cashew nuts (soaked for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight)

3/4 cup of cacao butter (I use choc chick )

1 can of full fat coconut milk (refrigerated. Use the set part only)

3-6 tablespoons of natural sweetener (preferably light in colour e.g maple syrup or agave)

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract

Zest of half an orange

Zest of half an unwaxed lemon

Juice of 1 lemon

2 punnets of raspberries (approx 2 cups or 300g)

1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds.

Optional: 2 tablespoons beetroot powder (not essential, but helps to give a beautiful vibrant pink colour)

Method:

Blitz the raspberries and pomegranate in a high speed blender until completely smooth. Pour into a pan with 1 tablespoon of maple syrup and 1/3 cup of water. Stir and bring to the boil then gently simmer for 5 - 10 minutes or until the liquid has slightly reduced, it’s lost a little tartness and a beautifully jammy flavour is starting to come through. Then leave to one side.

Next, melt the cacao butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water or melt gently in a microwave then set aside to cool a little.

Drain and rinse the cashews, then add to a high speed blender or food processor. Blend until you get a beautifully smooth consistency, stopping and scraping down the sides as often as necessary. Add the cacao butter, 3 tablespoons of the maple syrup, vanilla, orange and lemon zest/juice, coconut milk and the raspberry mixture and blend again. Taste, adjust flavour and add more sweetener if required (about 3tbsp of maple syrup is sweet enough for me, but add as much as you like) and add the beetroot powder if you are using it. Give it one last blend to make sure everything is completely combined then pour the cheesecake mix over the base and leave to set in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Serve as it is, or have fun decorating in whatever way you like. I use a dairy free white chocolate, coconut and fresh berries.

This cake will keep in the fridge for up to a week and in the freezer for up to two months.