Let them eat cake!

We admit, sometimes there is nothing more delicious than having a little piece of cake. Ah… but it isn’t as naughty as it sounds, because the cakes we are talking about this week are healthy raw cheesecakes!

The art of creating the perfect raw cheesecake starts with building a solid foundation.

Ingredients

• ½ cup cashews
• ½ cup almonds
• ½ cup pecans
• 10-12 pitted dates (soak to make soft)
• ½ cup shredded coconut
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• ¼ cup raw cacao powder
• ½ tsp rock salt

Preparation

1. Blend cashews, almonds, pecans and salt until finely chopped
2. Add dates and cacao powder and blend well
3. Add remaining ingredients: shredded coconut and vanilla extract
4. Press into bottom of pan

Our 5 favourite raw cheesecake fillings

1. ‘Pomegranate Cheesecake with Clementine Gelato’ from The Raw Chef
2. 'Raw Orange Chocolate "Cheese" Cake Revisited' from Rawmazin
3. ‘Pear-Ginger Cheesecake’ from Both Halves
4. ‘Raw PB & J Swirl Cheesecake’ & ‘Raw Blackberry Lemon Lavender Cheesecake’ from Fragrant Vanilla Cake

Tips

• Feel the mixture, it should stick together when you pinch it. If it doesn’t, add more dates
• Test taste the mixture for sweetness, add a dash of vanilla extract if needed
• If your blender blade isn't very sharp, blend the nuts and salt first before adding the other ingredients
• Now that you have the foundation for your raw cheesecake, play around with the endless opportunities for raw fillings

Do your summer drinks need a detox?

This week, we bring you some super tasty recipes from the very lovely Claire Obeid, a Sydney-based yoga teacher, holistic health coach and blogger at the equally lovely Saha Space.

All you need is a big old ice tea jug (Claire recommends one from T2), some basic ingredients and a willing guinea pig to test them on.

1) Ginger, lemon, mint and raw honey

• Grate a thumb sized amount of ginger into a 2ltr pot
• Boil up water for 15 minutes
• Add in 1 tbsp of raw honey (you can use rice syrup or any other healthy/natural sweetener)
• Once cooled pour into jug
• Serve with a slice of lemon, mint sprigs and ice cubes

2) Rose, cinnamon and apple

• Boil up a 2ltr pot of water with cinnamon bark sticks (not the quills for cooking but actual bark)
• In jug add in slices of fresh apple and rose bud tea (T2!)
• Pour in boiled cinnamon tea
• Serve chilled with a dash of cinnamon powder

3) Green tea, mint and lemon

• Boil water
• In jug add green tea, lemon slices and fresh mint
• Pour water in, cool and chill

4) Pomegranate and fresh lime 

• Pomegranate concentrate from the health food shop is the best option
• Add to 2ltrs of hot water + add fresh juice from 2 limes
• Pour into jug and chill
• Add in fresh lime slices (and pomegranate seeds if you can find them) to serve on ice

For Claire’s full blog entry (and other posts), check out the Saha Space.

Get your superberry on

From the common strawberry, to the slightly more upmarket blueberry, all the way to the exotic and luxurious acai, we just can’t get enough of berries.

So what’s all the fuss about? Well for starters they’re deeelicious. They ward off infection and keep your immune system revving with bucketloads of vitamin C. As for the antioxidants in berries, they keep you looking beautiful by declaring war against ageing free radicals. Even better, these berries keep you thinking young – they ‘clean up’ your brain by removing toxins, boosting your memory and preventing mental decline.

Here are a few of our more luxurious faves:

acai \ this little amazonian is the king of berries. Royal purple and packed full of vitamins, minerals, omegas and more than sixteen antioxidants, the acai berry even helps shrink your waistline.

goji \ other wise known as the ‘wolfberry’, this red superfood was hailed as the fruit of longevity in Tibet and China. The goji berry contains 500 times more vitamin C than oranges!

noni \ this little berry has made its way from the Pacific islands packed full of antioxidants. Also knows as the ‘Indian mulberry’, the noni is rich in lignans, polyphenols and polysaccharides.

pomegranate \ this giant Persian berry is loaded with anthocyanins and polyphenols. Rumour has it pomegranate contains three times more antioxidants than green tea!

black cherry \ the last of our superberries is a powerful source of anti-inflammatory anthocyanins and sleep-promoting melatonin. It’s also nature’s richest source of vitamin C.

So get your berry on. They really are super, we think so anyway.