Almond Cake with Tangy Citrus and Raspberry

1 March 2013

The weekend is just around the corner, but before I head out in the world, I just want to share this extremely delicious cake with you. It is guaranteed the worlds easiest cake to make and is incredibly moist with intense flavors.

My friend who is allergic to gluten made this for me a while ago and I have been craving another bite of it ever since! Luckily she gave me the recipe and permission to share it with you.

I remember my mom making an orange cake with orange glaze and zest on top when I was little which was absolutely divine, and I decided to enhance the flavors even more by adding this to the cake – sweet memories!

Almond Cake

Almond Cake

4-5 organic clementines, sweet lime, lemons or oranges – I used 3 Meyer lemons and 2 oranges

6 eggs

150 g raw sugar

250g of freshly ground almonds

1 large teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 vanilla pod

a pinch of salt

Oranges and Meyer lemons

Boil the fruit 1 -2 hours till they are completely soft. Let them cool, cut into quarters and remove the pips.

Finely grind the almonds in the blender. Add the citrus (including the skin), the sugar, the eggs, half the vanilla and scrape out the beans, a pinch of salt, baking powder – blend it all till it’s smooth. Pour into a greased spring form and bake in a 375F preheated oven for about 35 min till it feels firm in the center, cover with foil if you can tell it is getting too brown towards the end.

Ready for the orange glaze

Orange glaze

1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange

70 g raw sugar

Freshly grated orange zest

In a small saucepan, cook the fresh juice and the sugar slowly till it reduces into an intense and flavorful glaze, add the freshly grated zest.

Pour over the cake and serve on its own or with a raspberry sauce.

–Last summer I went out and picked raspberries – the biggest and most beautiful raspberries I have ever seen and I filled my freezer with them–

The sauce is made with some frozen berries and some raw sugar, just gently simmered on the stove.

Enjoy

Gluten-free, butter-free and you would never even know!

Happy weekend!

Delicious plums – in 3 different ways

19 September 2012

16 Comments

Plums are gorgeous, don’t you think? – I love the color and the taste of this fruit that tells me that fall is around the corner.

I went out yesterday and picked every single plum on the tree in the garden and made delicious raw jam, raw vanilla macadamia nut plum cheese cake and a cool plum almond nut milkshake.

Here are the recipes:

But before I get started I would like to thank two very special ladies! One is Somer, who just started a very cool new blog called Vedgedout – she was part of another very, very cool blog called goodcleanfood. One day I was reading a post from goodcleanfood by Somer, about making vegan cheese – I made a comment, and won a packet of Pectin!! A couple of weeks later I received a little package from Somer in the post. What a wonderful surprise!

Please check out both goodcleanfood and vedgedout – heartfelt thank you for the Pectin, Somer! I feel very spoiled!

The next heartfelt thank you, goes to another amazing woman who has transformed her life and healed herself from disease through a plant-based diet. Plant- Based Diet Adventures, thank you so much for nominating me for both the Kreativ Blogger Award and One Lovely Blog Award! Again, I feel very very spoiled, thank you!!

Also, you may like to check out plant-based diet adventures

And now to the 3 recipes. I’ll start with Plum Marmalade

Plum Marmalade

4 cups of plums

1 pk of Pectin

3/4 cup raw sugar or 1/2 cup of honey

Juice of 2 lemons

Crush the plums in the food processor. Mix well with sugar/honey and lemon juice. The package of Pectin contains 2 packages, one with pectin and another with calcium. Dissolve the content of calcium in one cup of water. Add 4 teaspoons of pectin to the plums, sugar and lemon juice and process for a couple of minutes till the pectin is dissolved. The recipe says add 4-12 teaspoons of calcium water while running the processor, I added 8 teaspoons, one at the time, till the marmalade thickened.

Enjoy – I enjoyed a homemade cracker with plum marmalade and a cup of tea!

I now have one jar in fridge – and I doubt if it will last long, the rest went in the freezer and will not be taken out until a very grey , rainy and cold winter day.

Cool Plum Almond Milkshake

The perfect after school snack

1 cup of crushed plums

Juice of one lemon

3 dates

1/2 cup of almonds

2 cups of water

crushed ice

Add everything to the blender and blend into a smooth cool and lovely milkshake. (If you do not have a high speed blender, soak the almonds and the dates for a couple of hours to soften them)

And now to the Vanilla Plum Macadamia Cheesecake a la raw food, so no eggs, no sugar, no butter, no cream cheese – still good? Oh yes and sinless!

Vanilla Plum Cheesecake

For the base:

1 cup of raw almonds

The grated rind of one lemon

2 tablespoons of agave sirup

6 dates

pinch of sea salt

In the processor blend all the ingredients well. Add into small pie forms and press the crust together. Leave them in the freezer while you make the “cheese” filling.

Filling

one cup of macadamia nuts

one vanilla bean

one big scoop of coconut butter

4 spoons of agave sirup

pinch of sea salt

1/4 cup water

Soak the macadamia nuts to make them soft – add them to the blender along with the vanilla bean, the coconut butter, the agave, the pinch of salt and the water – blend into a creamy and delicious “cheesecake” filling. Add on top of the crust and put them back in the freezer till you need them. Then take them out 5 min before you serve them and arrange a big spoonful of the plum marmalade on top and enjoy!

Cool and creamy raspberry shake

8 July 2012

6 Comments

Sunshine, freckles and bare feet – summer in the backyard and life is good!

Time for ice cream and cool…………….. milkshakes!

This ‘milk’shake is a healthy one – but beware, it is addictive! It tastes so good, it’s cool, sweet and creamy – It’s summer and hey, it’s good for you! So, who cares?

Cool and creamy raspberry shake:

300 g fresh raspberries

8 -10 dates all depending on how sweet you like it

2 cups of raw cashew nuts

1/2 vanilla pod

3 cups of water

ice cubes

Soak the cashews and the dates in water for a couple of hours. Add the soaked nuts and dates to the blender, add fresh raspberries, scrape out the vanilla bean and add it along with 3 cups of filtered cold water and a good handful of ice. Blend in to a smooth drink.

Enjoy!

Orange vanilla brownie

18 June 2012

5 Comments

Yesterday, my kitchen was full of happy teenagers who had gathered to make a cake. I LOVE a busy kitchen, humming with life, conversation and good food.

Earlier, my daughter and her friends had been out shopping for the things to make the cake. And, as you know how I am an advocate for authentic honest food, well I admit, I was challenged! Out of the shopping bags came Orio biscuits, jello and chocolate cake mix – the only real ingredient for the cake were eggs! Sorry, I don’t mean to be a bore, but really – we have been fooled to believe that using cake mix is easier and cheaper than making the real thing – from scratch – and that’s just not right!

The cake was mixed and went into the oven, while music, chatter and laughter filled the kitchen.

When the cake was ready, they tasted it – still hot from the oven. They were digging into it with their forks and I overheard: “Hmm, it tastes kinda gross, don’t you think’?

Taking my cue, I offered to give a cake course during the summer! The response was loud and in unison: ” Yes, please, that would be so cool! ”

Here’s a recipe that is quicker and just as easy to make – and it tastes good!

Orange vanilla brownie

You will need;

2 eggs

175 g cane sugar

3/4 cup butter

100 g of good dark chocolate – I use the 70-85% coco kind.

90 g flour

1 vanilla pod

1 organic orange

a small pinch of salt

1 handful of freshly chopped walnuts or pecans ( As I had run out of these – I just left them out, but it does taste good with nuts in it.)

In a bowl, whisk the eggs and the sugar, break open the vanilla pod and scrape out the bean, add it to the eggs and sugar and whisk some more. Melt the butter and the chocolate slowly over a water bath.

Add the melted chocolate and butter to the eggs and sugar, while whisking. Grate the rind of an organic orange, add it to the mixture and squeeze in the juice of 1/2 the orange . Fold in the flour and the chopped nuts.

Add the batter to a greased pie tin and bake for 25-30 min at 350F

Serve with a coulis of raspberry or fresh berries.

Scrumptious Sinless Cake

25 March 2012

12 Comments

Where I live in beautiful British Columbia there is a very famous and very very sinful cake called a “Nanaimo Bar” – it is rich with sugar, loads of butter, eggs ect – creamy, coconutty, sweet and I love it. I have created a healthy version of it that is just as creamy and the taste is heavenly. You would never know – it tastes just as sinful as the real Nanaimo bar, but it has no butter, no white sugar, no flour, no cream, no eggs!!

This version is made only with the healthiest ingredients so it is a cake that is actually good for you and it can satisfy the sweetest tooth. The kids love it and it feels great to serve something like this to the kids knowing it is not full of bad things.

Made of 3 layers.

1. layer: 1 cup (2 1/2 dl) of walnuts, 1 cup (2 1/2 dl) of dried coconut flakes, 8 pitted dates, 2 tbs agave sirup, 80g of melted dark good chocolate ( 80%)

Blend it all and press it into a cake tin like this

2.layer: 1 1/2 cup of raw unsalted cashew nuts -( soak them in water for 4 hrs or even better over night in the fridge) 4-5 table spoons of agave syrup, beans from half a vanilla pod. 1/3 cup of coconut oil melted, 1/3 cup of coconut butter. Blend it all together to a smooth cream.

Once the coconut/cashew cream has been blended into a smooth cream add it as a 2nd layer to the cake like this

3. layer: 1/2 cup of coconut oil. 100 grams of good dark chocolate, 3 table spoons of agave syrup, beans from half a vanilla pod -melt over low heat in a water bath and mix. Let it cool slightly and pour it over the cashew/ coconut cream. Put it in the deep freeze for a couple of hours before serving. I leave the cake in the freezer and take it out 1/2 -1 hr before serving.

Anne Sture Tucker

Balanced Living

Tag Archives: Vanilla