RAW Chocolate Raspberry Cake

I tried out this recipe for a RAW Chocolate Raspberry Cake a couple of weeks ago. It came from a cookbook I got at the library, Ani's Raw Food Desserts, which was really great because the recipes used really simple ingredients and rarely required more than a blender or food processor to make. This cake used walnuts and dates as well as cocoa and carob for the "cake" and the cake icing was avocado based! Again, I love avocados, and I'll eat them in just about any way, but despite having a creamy avocado-like texture, the taste was rich and chocolate-y! Actually, the whole thing was a bit rich, but Russell and I suffered and ate it anyways! If I made it again, I would try a combo of nuts, maybe cashews and walnuts? And I would blend things up a bit finer for a less chunky texture. Soaking the dates (that's where the cake's sweetness comes from) before pureeing would help with the texture too. Yumm, Chocolate and Raspberries!

It's that baking time of year. . .

I got a bit of a baking urge over the holiday time. One weekend we made chocolate chip cookies (not from scratch, actually). They were quite delicious though regardless!















And another weekend I made pumpkin cranberry bread. We had a beautiful huge pumpkin that someone gave us and I was trying to find ways to use it all. We already had made pumpkin soup, so I found a new bread recipe to try. I made it with gluten-free flours (because I like to experiment) and all of my substitutions are in bold, below). Although it turned out a little moister than I'd like, Russell said it was really great when sliced and toasted. I'd also like to work on a way to use less brown sugar, though the bread did not taste too sweet, I'd prefer another kind of sweetener. I adapted an exisiting recipe to make this one:


Vegan Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour ***SUB: Bob’s Redmill G-F Biscuit and Baking mix, which has baking pwdr. and baking soda, so omit these in the recipe if using G-F mix

2 cups packed dark brown sugar

1 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cups pumpkin puree

1/2 cup vegetable oil *** SUB: equal parts coconut oil and applesauce

1/3 cup coconut milk

1/3 cup flaked coconut

1/2 cup chopped walnuts ***used 1/2 c. dried cranberries in place of nuts.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour loaf pan.

2. Spread walnuts in a single layer on an ungreased baking sheet. Toast in the preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Set aside to cool.

3. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda and powder (if using), salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Add the pumpkin puree, oil, and coconut milk, and mix until all of the flour is absorbed. Fold in the flaked coconut and toasted walnuts or cranberries. Pour into prepared pan.

4. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes in the preheated oven or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven, and cover loaves tightly with foil. Allow to steam for 10 minutes. Remove foil, and turn out onto a cooling rack. Tent loosely with the foil, and allow to cool completely.