RAW MOCHA CHEESECAKE

At the beginning of 2012, my daughter and I were placed on a gluten-free and dairy-free diet due to allergies. It has opened up a whole new world of cuisine for us through our explorations in finding foods we like to eat which do not contain dairy or gluten (some of our past staples). When my birthday rolled around this year, my family and I were in a conundrum about what kind of a birthday cake we could make. Certainly there are plenty enough gluten-free cake mixes and dairy-free icing mixes out there, but my other criterion was that I wanted to find something we could make that was also sugar-free, since I want to be conscious of our sugar consumption as well.

We were delighted to find this great recipe in Sweet Gratitude: a new world of raw desserts by Matthew Rogers and Tiziana Alipo Tamborra. At first my kids thought a "raw cheesecake" without any cheese would be awful, but in the end, everyone appreciated the great flavour and texture of this cake. As well, my daughter, who helped me make it was amazed at how easy it was to put together. We highly recommend this rich and delicious cake!

Chocolate Almond Crust

1 3/4 cups dry almonds

5 Tbspns cacao powder

3 1/2 oz date paste (weight) = soaked dates

1 tsp liquid vanilla

1/8 tsp salt

Process all ingredients in food processor until well integrated and sticks together when pressed into a ball. I always add a tiny bit of water if it's too dry. Press the crust into the bottom and halfway up the sides of a spring-form cake pan and set aside for filling.

Mocha Filling

3 cups soaked cashews

1 1/4 cups cold espresso (I used grain coffee so it would be kid-friendly)

3/4 cup almond milk

1 cup agave syrup

2 oz cacao powder (weight)

1 Tbsp liquid vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

3 Tbsp lecithin

1 1/4 cups melted coconut butter (low heat - it doesn't take much to melt coconut butter)

Blend all except last 2 ingredients in blender until smooth and creamy. Add lecithin and coconut butter and blend until well integrated. Pour filling into spring-form pan and place in the freezer about 2-4 hours to set (2 hrs for grain coffee, but 4 hrs for espresso - espresso increases setting time substantially). Cheesecake will keep about 4 days covered in the fridge.