Chocolate Cheesecake

I've made this cake for 2 dance parties, and people can't believe that it's gluten free and dairy free. It always goes! It isn't at all healthy though! Ingredients: - 190g nuttelex - 1/4 cup raw cacao - 1 cup castor sugar - 2 eggs - 1 cup gluten free plain flour - 1 tub of soy cream cheese, between 250-300g. (I use the Kingland brand, because it has a mild flavour. It's appalling on bread with avocado (Tofutti is better there) but great in cheesecakes!) - 4 tablespoons castor sugar - 2 eggs Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Place the nuttelex, raw cacao, castor sugar, eggs, and gf flour in a bowl and mix until combined. Pour into a loaf tin. In your blender, mix together the cream cheese, remaining sugar, and eggs, until smooth. Pour the cheese mixture over the chocolate mixture. If you want to, swirl bits of the chocolate base up to create patterns in the cheese part. Bake for 45-50 minutes, and cool in the tin.

PS - The base is extra good uncooked, as you can no doubt tell!

Chocolate Mousse

Chocolate mousse is one of my favourite things on the planet. One of the things I was saddest about when I had to give up dairy was that I wouldn't be able to have chocolate mousse anymore (the other was cheese pizza). The good news - you can STILL HAVE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE! Oh yes, you CAN! Ingredients: - 2 avocados - 1/4 cup raw cacao powder - Honey, argave syrup or maple syrup or other liquid sweetener to taste Put the ingredients in the blender. Blend. Taste to see if you have enough sweetener. (It's better to start off with less and add in more.) This creates a rich and creamy mousse that you would never imagine is extremely healthy and allergen free. If you want, you can add in other ingredients to make a flavoured mousse - berries, cacao nibs, nuts, etc. But most of the time, who wants to?

Orange and Almond Cake

Ingredients:
- 2 navel oranges
- 220g caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 6 large eggs
- 250g almond flour

Boil the whole oranges for 2 hours.  Don't skimp on this step, because less than 100% boiled oranges equals bitter oranges, equals a bitter cake.  And who wants that?

Blend the oranges into a pulp, then let them cool.

Seperate the eggs.  Mix the yolks with the sugar, baking powder, almond meal, and pulp.  Whisk the egg whites, and when they form soft peaks, slowly fold into the mix.

Pour into your chosen tin (approx 22 cm round tin), and bake for between 45-60 minutes at 180 degrees (160 if you have a fan forced oven)

Let the cake cool in the pan.

My verdict:
This cake was easy to make, but it took FOREVER!  Over 4 hours, though most of it wasn't active cooking time.  But the thing is, when I want cake, I want it pretty quick.  That's half the joy of baking, as far as I'm concerned.

So while it was delicious, it not high on my list of cakes to make again.

Vanilla and Honey Chia Pudding with Banana

This is one of the easiest desserts to whip up - and the good news is that its so healthy that you can eat it for breakfast!

Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
- Rice milk (or other 'milk' of your choice - coconut milk is great too)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla protein powder (I use Vital Protein, it's made from peas)
- Honey to taste
- 1 banana, chopped
- Cinnamon and nutmeg, as desired


Put the chia seeds in a large bowl, and cover to about twice their depth with your milk. Stir, and allow to thicken for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the protein powder, and stir through. Sweeten with a little honey.  You may need more milk, as chia seeds suck up a lot of liquid.

If you want the cinnamon or nutmeg, add them and stir through.  Top with the chopped banana, then drizzle again with honey to taste.

Eat and enjoy!

A note on chia seeds - these are awesome - high in protein, high in calcium, iron, and other minerals.

Cashew Banana Ice-Cream

Who doesn't like ice-cream? If you answered 'Me' then I'm sorry, we can't be friends.

Actually, if you don't like ice-cream, I'm not sorry.

However, if you are not allowed dairy or gluten, this does rather limit your ice-cream options. Which sucks.

To the rescue tomes raw desserts! in this case, raw cashew banana ice-cream!

This is INCREDIBLY easy.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup cashews
- 1 banana
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- Honey, argave syrup or maple syrup to taste (I used maple syrup)

First, soak 1 cup of cashews for 2 hours or
more. I put them on to soak efore leaving the house for work, and had them all ready for
when I came home.

Drain them, and they're all ready to use!

Once again, this is a super easy blender recipe. Put the cashews in the blender, and blend. Depending on your blender, it may take a while. 

Add the coconut oil and the banana, the your sweetener to taste. (Yay for tasting!)

Put your blend in a freezer safe container and freeze. Take it out and stir every 1/2 hour or so so that it doesn't freeze rock hard. However, if it does, all you need to do is put it in the microwave for 10 seconds.