This cake is the perfect summer cake. Full of wonderful British strawberries, bursting with flavour, in a feather-light layer of vanilla infused mousse, topping a smooth pistachio layer with a hint of orange, ending with a crunch from the ‘white chocolate’ strawberries and cream Qnola base. Our sherbet-like Baobab powder adds a citrus hit and really helps to lift up the fresh strawberry flavour – not to mention the extra goodness it brings to each mouthful: vitamin C, fibre and a good dose of antioxidants.
Ingredients:
Strawberry vanilla mousse:
1 ½ tsp Aduna Baobab Powder
1 x 400ml can coconut milk, 230g set thick cream
140g cashew nuts, soaked in 300ml filtered water with ½ tsp Himalayan pink salt/ sea salt for 3-4 hours
250g strawberries, tops removed
Finely grated zest ½ lemon
25g/ml lemon juice
100g raw runny honey or blonde coconut syrup
¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt
½ vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped out
90g coconut oil, melted
Pistachio orange cream:
70g pistachio nuts, soaked in 150ml filtered water with ¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt/ sea salt for 8 hours
30g cashew nuts, soaked in 100ml filtered water with ¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt/ sea salt for 3-4 hours
80g/ml almond/ cashew/ oat/ rice milk
30g raw runny honey or blonde coconut syrup
50g coconut oil, melted
Finely grated zest ½ orange
‘White chocolate’ strawberries and cream Qnola base:
100g cacao butter
70g cashew butter
40g raw runny honey or blonde coconut syrup
¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt
½ vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped out
Finely grated zest ½ lemon
100g strawberries and cream Qnola/ beetroot Qnola/ quinoa puffs
Method:
The night before, place the can of coconut milk in the fridge for the strawberry vanilla mousse layer and soak the pistachio nuts for the pistachio orange cream layer. The next day, drain and rinse the pistachio nuts and soak the cashew nuts for the strawberry layer and pistachio layer.
Line the base and sides of a 23cm spring form cake tin with baking parchment.
For the base, melt the cacao butter. Put the melted butter in a blender with the rest of the ingredients, except the Qnola, and blend until combined and completely smooth. Pour the ‘white chocolate’ into a bowl and stir in the Qnola, breaking up any large pieces of the freeze-dried strawberries and blackberries. Combine well then pour into the tin to form the base. Spread the mix out evenly and freeze.
For the pistachio layer, drain and rinse the pistachio nuts and the 30g cashew nuts. Remove the skins from the soaked pistachio nuts. You can skip this step but your pistachio layer will be a less vibrant green. Place the activated nuts, plant-based milk and honey in a blender and process until almost smooth. Add the coconut oil and orange zest and continue to blend until completely smooth. Pour the mix out onto the frozen base and return to the freezer to set.
For the strawberry layer, drain and rinse the cashew nuts. Place the strawberries, lemon zest and juice, honey, salt and baobab powder in a blender and blend to make a strawberry juice. Add the cashew nuts and blend again until smooth.
Open the can of coconut milk and remove the top which will have set to a thick cream. Weigh out 230g of the set thick cream. Use the remaining milk for smoothies, porridge or muesli. Whip up the cream with the vanilla seeds using a hand-held whisk or a free-standing mixer with a whisk attachment. Keep on whisking till the cream is firm and light.
Pour the coconut oil into the strawberry cashew mix and blend once more until smooth. Pour out the strawberry mix into the whipped vanilla cream and very lightly whisk everything together. Finish off by folding everything together until just combined and a lovely light pink colour. Pour the mix onto the pistachio layer and freeze for a further 1-2 hours hours. Demould carefully, decorate with extra Qnola, chopped pistachios, fresh strawberries and edible flowers and serve.
Enjoy!
Recipe by Henrietta Inman of Hen's Clean Cakes
Hen's Notes:
- This cake can really be eaten however it has set. Enjoy it straight from the freezer as an ice cream cake (although the base will be quite hard to cut!), let it defrost for an hour and eat it as a semifreddo-parfait, or let it defrost completely in a cool place for about 2-3 hours and enjoy it as a wonderful mousse cake.
- I prefer to use local raw honey in this cake, but if you do not eat honey, blonde coconut syrup is a great replacement.
- Please do not be put off by soaking the nuts. It’s really quick and easy and a very important step in raw cakes, otherwise the smooth cream layers will not be so smooth! Soaking also activates the nuts, getting rid of phytic acid and making their nutrients more readily available, not to mention much easier to digest so kinder to your system. I also think soaking nuts really improves their taste, getting rid of any bitterness to create a sweet and creamy flavour.
- If you cannot find Qnola or puffed quinoa, just make an easy raw cake base with dates or other dried fruits, nuts, seeds, oats, buckwheat groats… whatever you like. Here’s an example of a quick and delicious one: just process the pistachio nuts until small pieces, add the rest of the ingredients, blitz again and spread onto your base - 90g pitted Medjool dates, ¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt, ¼ vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract, 40g desiccated coconut, 40g pistachio nuts, 50g sunflower seeds and 40g coconut oil, melted.
