April No-bake Cakes

The making of carrot cake - photos Teodora Totorean

April is a festive month in our household as we celebrate my husband's birthday and name day (George), Easter as well as my birthday - not always in this order 😊. This month I wanted to continue with my low-calorie no-bake cakes knowing that my husband enjoys them too. The kiwi cheesecake was a lucky failure as the top layer was supposed to be a mixture of fresh kiwi, sweetener and gelatine but as I was trying to prepare it, I hated the smell of the gelatine so I decided to use kiwi jam instead and it tasted divine! What I like is that as I become more experienced with these kinds of cakes, I can play with quantities and ingredients, making my own versions, according to my taste and to what I have in my ingredients stash. So here are this month's cakes; feel free to try them and share.

Photo by Teodora Totorean

Easter weekend - Kiwi cheesecake

Base

-1 cup mixed nuts

-1/2 cup dates
- mix them in a food processor  

Cream

-300 g low-fat mascarpone cheese

- desiccated coconut to taste

- agave syrup
- mix them well and add it to the first layer

Top

- organic kiwi jam to spread on top

- fresh kiwi and lime to ornate
- put the cake in the fridge for a few hours or overnight
- see the original recipe here

Photo by Teodora Totorean

For my husband's birthday - raw brownie

Ingredients

- 1 1/2 cashew nuts soaked in water for approx 3 hours

- 2 tbsp coconut butter

- agave sweetener to taste

- 4 tbsp cocoa powder

Preparation

- mix them all in the food processor at high speed until smooth

- put the mixture into a container and sprinkle with crushed hazelnuts

- put it in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight

- cut it in uneven chunks  

- see the original recipe here

Photo by Teodora Totorean

St. George's weekend - Carrot cake

- 1 cup dates and dried mulberry soaked in water
- 1 cup roasted cashew 
- 1/4 cup chopped carrot
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 2-3 squares white chocolate

- mix the ingredients in a food processor, roll the resulted dough into small balls and put them in the refrigerator

- melt some white chocolate (I used half of a 150g cooking chocolate) and add 2 tbs coconut butter then drizzle the carrot cake balls

- see the original recipe here.

Photo by Teodora Totorean

My birthday - Chocolate biscuit cake

-400g crushed low-fat biscuits
-150g coconut butter (you can use any butter)
-300g milk (almond milk for vegan)
-4 tbsp cocoa
-a handful of diced dates (or 6 tbsp of sugar)
-almond/vanilla or rum extract

Method

-mix the milk, butter sugar and cocoa and let is boil
-pour the syrup over the crushed biscuits
-put the mixture into a container and put it in the fridge until set
-cut it to your preference into squares, slices or chunky bits as in my photo
-you can be as creative as you want and come up with your own version