Tag Archives: orange

Almond Orange Chocolate Cake

7 March 2014

14 Comments

This is one of the easiest cake recipes ever! It’s delicious and super healthy – how often do you find that in a cake?

It’s gluten-free and fat- free – but you would never know.

The recipe is from a friend of mine who is allergic to gluten and she is a master in creating the very best of recipes. This one is originally an orange cake, and it’s so good that I have made it a million times, but one day I thought, hmm chocolate…….in this? I mean, dark bitter chocolate, oranges and almonds……it could only be good and it was.

Orange Chocolate Almond Cake

Orange Chocolate Almond Cake

Almond Orange Chocolate  Cake

4 organic oranges

6 organic free range eggs

150g raw sugar

250g raw almonds

150g good dark chocolate

1 large teaspoon baking powder

1 vanilla pod

sea salt

Boiled Oranges

Boiled Oranges

You boil the oranges in water for 2 hours, allow them to cool. Melt the chocolate and allow it to cool slightly.  In the blender, blend the almonds into flour, then add the sugar, roughly chop the oranges and take out the pips, then put it, including the peel (no pips) into the blender along with the rest of the ingredients – blend into a dough.

Good Chocolate

Good Chocolate

Raw Almonds

Raw Almonds

Vanilla pod

Vanilla pod

Put the dough into a very well greased cake tin and cook in the oven for about 35 min at 360F

Still too hot to cut

Still too hot to cut

Serve the cake with some stewed berries or some orange sauce.

Served with stewed berries

Served with stewed berries

Let’s face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; It does for me. Audrey Hepburn 

I agree 🙂

Hope you have a fabulous weekend wherever you are!

Freshly Squeezed Pomegranate Orange Juice

29 November 2012

24 Comments

This time of year we need to nourish our bodies and boost the immune system. This is  a hectic time of year with lots of stress and when the body is stressed it is much more prone to catch any little bug going.

What better way to boost the immune system, than juicing some fresh pomegranate and some fresh oranges and make a truly delicious and potent drink served on ice?

I could feel every cell in my entire body wriggle with joy, while drinking it 🙂

This is a real health bomb, as pomegranate is so full of goodness and is known to lower cholesterol, high blood pressure, excellent for the skin, as well as being packed with vitamin C – so along with the oranges, this is really a health booster!

The pomegranate can be a little tricky to seed but once you get the hang of it it is quite easy. Don’t do the job wearing your best clothes as it’s really juicy and the juices will escape everywhere even if you are careful. For this serving, I used one big pomegranate and 10 oranges for 4 good sized glasses of juice.

Prepare the pomegranate by taking out the seeds, put them into the juicer and then juice the oranges – serve the drink on ice – Enjoy!

Read more about the health benefits of pomegranate here

VVP- Carrot cake with cranberries and orange, vanilla cream icing, served with orange sauce

1 November 2012

41 Comments

Welcome to the famous, amazing, wonderful and incredible – the Virtual Vegan Potluck!

This is it – the day I have been looking forward to for weeks has finally arrived! The Virtual Vegan Potluck is a gathering of more than 100 enthused bloggers, from all over the world, sharing their creative vegan recipes. Maybe you have already been working your way around the virtual vegan potluck – if so, I hope you have enjoyed some wonderful food – appetizers, soups, breads, starters, mains, drinks, and now desserts!  I am so happy I signed up to make dessert! Because….

“Dessert is probably the most important stage of the meal,

since it will be the last thing your guests will

remember before they pass out all over the table” – William Powel

I love Vegan desserts and in particular Raw food  desserts make my heart beat. Apart from being sinfully delicious, they are nutritious and packed full of goodness! So go for it – eat, indulge, enjoy and be healthier for every bite.

One of my old time favorites – is carrot cake with creme cheese icing!

I have created an almost raw food version of this old time favorite, and I can’t wait to share it with you!

So lets get to it!

Carrot Cake with cranberries topped with an orange, vanilla cream icing, served with orange sauce

3 cups of grated carrots

1 1/2 cup cooked quinoa

2 oranges

1 cup of walnuts

1 cup of oats

10 -12 dates Mojol

2-4 spoons agave

1 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

In a bowl, add the grated carrots and the cooked sprouted quinoa, grate the rind of the oranges, and then add the juice of the oranges. In a blender, blend the walnuts and the oats till it becomes flour-like, and add to the carrots. Add the spices to the bowl and stir well. In a blender put the ingredients from the bowl and add the pitted dates, blend smooth – I needed to do it in two batches. Put it back in the bowl and add the agave and the cranberries.

Put it into a pie pan

Make the  Orange, Vanilla cream icing

2 cups of cashews ( that have been soaked for 2-4 hrs or overnight in the fridge)

1 orange

4 spoons of Agave

1 vanilla pod

Drain the soaked cashews and put them in the blender, add the juice of one freshly squeezed orange, add the agave and scrape out the vanilla bean. Put it in and blend into a smooth cream. Spread it on top of the cake and decorate with walnuts.

Serve with Orange Sauce

1 Orange

2 spoons of Agave

Squeeze the juice of the orange and add agave to make the sauce.

Sorry I had to take a bite and another one and one more …………………. and then tomorrow I will have leftovers for breakfast!

This is my contribution. Thank you for coming to the Virtual Potluck – I am thrilled you came!!

But before I let you go – lets raise our glasses and make a big heartfelt toast to the Virtual Potluck people! – The Virtual Vegan Potluck was initiated and arranged by one of my favorite virtual friends and bloggers, Annie at anunrefinedvegan!

She birthed this idea and made it possible – thank you Annie!! Thank you also to 3 more beautiful virtual friends and bloggers, Somer from Vedged Out  , Lidia from Veganbloggersunite and Jason from Jason and the Veganauts for helping make this event possible. Lots of work went into this – thank you guys you are amazing!!!

… and so the party continues the show goes on and on and on – click forward or backward as you please by clicking the “go forward” – “go back”  images below.

Enjoy and have fun

 

Kale, beet salad with peaches, cranberries, creamy goat cheese and orange, honey dressing

4 September 2012

18 Comments

September is one of my favorite months. It’s the month where we bask in the lasts days of summer, dwell on them like we trying to make them last forever, soaking up the sunshine, treasuring the fruits and berries. I really don’t want it to end – on the other hand what is better than a crisp, fresh autumn day with a clear blue sky and the trees turning orange?

This salad is a real September treat and it is easy to make. It tastes wonderful and is full of intense flavor combinations – sweet, salty, sour and zesty. Make sure you eat it wearing a big bib or even better your bathing suit – the juices go everywhere!

Kale,beet salad with peaches, cranberries, creamy goats cheese and orange, honey dressing

A big bunch of red kale

one bunch of beets – 5-6 beets ( keep the tops and use them later for juicing or in smoothies)

one handful of pumpkin seeds

goat cheese

one handful of dried cranberries

olive oil

one peach

dressing

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

juice of one orange

2 tbsp honey

sea salt

1 clove of garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

Wash and rinse the kale, remove the stems and cut the kale finely. Add it in to a bowl and drizzle a bit of olive oil on top, and then “massage” the kale to tenderise it. Peel the beets and either grate them or run them through the food processor. Add to the kale. Add a handful of dried cranberries  and a handful of pumpkin seeds.

In a small bowl add the balsamic vinegar, the orange juice, olive oil, honey, sea salt and freshly squeezed garlic. Mix it all well and add it to the salad, mixing well. Arrange the salad in a dish or on plates, Cut slices of peach and arrange it on top of the salad, add a bit of crumbled creamy goats cheese on the top and a few more pumpkin seeds.

Enjoy!

This salad can of course be eaten without the goats cheese for a vegan version, like this.