Raw is More!

Fantastic meal out with the lovely ladies last night. Saf on Curtain Road, the mainly raw, vegan restaurant. Who knew that healthy food could be this good. A literal taste sensation and a visual feast - every dish looked and tasted fantastic.
The unanimous favourite being the Raw Pad Thai, although my raw lasagne was a close second. The accompanying cocktails really were the icing on the cake, so fresh, so delicious, so beautifully decorated, so strong! Still not entirely comfortable with the nut cheese however!
http://www.safrestaurant.co.uk/

So it got us to thinking, maybe it is time to make some of our own raw cakes, this recipe looks delicious, We will, of course be supplementing the goji berrys with fresh cherrys!

Raw Purple Iced Fruit Cake
200g almonds
150g dates
100g dried apricots
150g raisins
150g sultanas
2 teaspoons mixed spice
75g purple corn flour
75g lucuma powder
75g coconut butter
ICING
75g coconut butter
40g lucuma powder

4 level teaspoons purple corn extract
handful goji berries to decorate
1.Put almonds, dates and apricots into a food processor with the S-blade and process until all of the ingredients are broken down and start to form a dough that holds together.
2.Rinse the raisins and sultanas (it will help them stick to the dough), drain and put into a large bowl with the processed almonds, dates and apricots. Mix together until they are spread evenly throughout the dough.
3.Melt the coconut butter in a porringer or bowl over a pan on hot water.
4.Sieve the lucuma powder and mix with the purple corn flour and melted coconut butter, mix together to form a paste.
5.Add the paste to the large bowl of dried fruit/almond mixture and continue mixing until it is all a uniform colour.
6.Press the mixture into little silicon muffin trays - this will make 22-24 little cakes. Alternatively, you could make one or two large cakes in a large silicon cake mould, or even a glass or ceramic one, although you might need to keep it in there and cut slices from it.
7.You can either ice them straight away and refrigerate, or you could dehydrate them for a few hours and then ice and refrigerate. These are great eaten cold from the fridge, at room temperature or even warm without icing straight from the dehydrator!
8.To ice, lightly soften the coconut butter until it is soft but not completely liquid, by gently warming and then beating. Add sieved lucuma powder and purple corn extract (7:1) and mix together.
9.Ice cakes and decorate with goji berries before the icing sets.
10.Once they have set you can remove the cakes from the silicon trays - they pop out easily. It you have used a glass or ceramic dish just keep the cake in there.
11. Store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week.

Check out this and more at www.haverawcakeandeatit.co.uk