Recently, we have all been feeling a little unsettled, missing our usual routines, seeing friends, family, loved ones. One way I manage to stay upbeat and focused is to get busy in the kitchen, creating something useful and edible brings me back to my centre. As it was my dear friend and next door neighbour’s birthday, I decided to surprise her with a colourful cake. Made all the more fun as we could sit in our adjoining gardens sharing a piece and chatting.
During the warmer months, It’s nice to indulge in a dessert made with citrus and berries. Heavier baked cakes somehow don’t feel right when its warm, (we are so grateful in the UK to have had such amazing weather, it has boosted morale to no end). My friend is a beautiful, smiley person who shares my love of gardening and the colours in nature. I was determined to make an edible rainbow and here’s how I achieved it:
Rainbow Cake
IngredientsBase200g (1 cup) medjool dates 10g (1.5 tbsp.) desiccated coconut 1 tsp. sea salt 40g (⅓ cup) Sun Potion Anandamide Rainbow layers500g (3⅓ cups) Cashews (soaked) 220g (1 cup) Coconut oil (and an extra tbs for the frozen berry layer) Juice of 1 lemon 150g (1 cup) Rice syrup/2 tbsp. raw honey (sweeten to taste) 40g (~5 tbsp.) Goji berries 2 tsp. Sun Potion White Dragon Matcha 2 tsp. blueberry powder 4 tbsp. frozen raspberries |
MethodIn a food processor place:Medjool dates 1/2 of your desiccated coconut 1 tsp. Sea salt Mix until you have a dough. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the other half (50g) of desiccated coconut (this adds texture and achieves desired consistency to create your base). Place the mixture into a 6’ spring-form cake tin (mine is 2.4’ deep) press down and smooth over with the back of a spoon or spatula to get an even surface, cover with a bees-wrap or clean cloth and place in the fridge to firm up. Take your pre-soaked cashews (soak for 2-4 hours in filtered or spring water with a pinch of salt) and rinse well. I used 500g of organic cashews, you could also use macadamia nuts. Place them in a high powered blender with 1 cup coconut oil and the juice of 1 lemon plus some of the rind, add to this your sweetener. As the base is quite sweet, we can keep the cake itself less so. It’s good to use a sweetener that won’t affect the colours too much, I have found raw honey or rice syrup works well. Just add to taste. I used 2 tbsp. raw honey. Blend until smooth. Now divide your mixture into 5 separate bowls. You want it to be as equal as possible so you get even layers, but it doesn’t have to be super precise. It should work out approx. 150g for each bowl. Now blend 20g (~2.5 tbsp.) goji berries with one bowl of mixture to create a beautiful sunshine yellow. Use the blender again for your next bowl adding 2 tbsp. frozen raspberries to create pink. Blend your third bowl with 2 tbsp. of either frozen raspberries or strawberries, 20g goji berries and an extra tbsp. coconut oil to achieve a deep coral colour. Add 2 tsp. Sun Potion White Dragon Matcha to the 4th bowl and stir in to achieve your jade green. To the final bowl of mixture I stirred in 2 tsp. wild blueberry powder. You could also blend up fresh or frozen blueberries to achieve purple. Smooth each layer onto your cake in any order you like. Top with edible flowers or berries and enjoy! |
Photos by Launette
