Deep Dish Cheesecake with Fresh Berries

I am not always great at making desserts (I guess I shouldn't have started out a full moon/summer solstice post with something negative but I'm keepin it real). I mean, I see a dessert I want to make and I get super zealous and I mess up or put too much of something in and then get mad at myself. But when I concentrate and I enjoy food preparation for the awesome meditation it is, I rock it and I totally rocked this cake. It's creamy, full of healthy fat and very berry-centric. OMG, I just bought a pound of organic blueberries at Trader Joe's and I can't wait to eat them! By the way, strawberry season...right now...so happy!


So, I used to buy a ton of coconut milk and coconut cream and just go to town but then I got worried about all the fat so I took a break. It took me a while, in a totally packed store tonight, to find the coconut cream but finally I saw it right in front of me. This cake is very high in fat because of the cashews and coconut cream and a little walnuts in the crust. But don't panic because I will give you low fat subs. But I feel like if you're going to go all out and make this cake, especially for a BBQ or party, just embrace the fat. Full fat anything is awesome in moderation, totally awesome. It's when you buy low fat or fat free and fill your body with chemicals that gets you in trouble. I'd rather be watching my weight and eat full fat coconut milk then something laced with chemicals or sugar. Just embrace the fat, eat it in moderation, enjoy every bite or sip and just go to town. A plant based diet is so so healthy. Avocados, coconut, nut butters, just eat them. A fatty steak...definitely DON'T eat that!

Think about what you like to make cream out of...bananas, soaked cashews, tofu or super easy coconut cream in a can. I used cashews and coconut cream for the creamy part of this cake but use whatever you have or want to use. Grab your strawberries and blueberries and if you already have a raw crust recipe, grab those ingredients too. I made this cake pretty fast because I just wanted to see how it would turn out and taste-both awesome. Tomorrow I photograph and publish here.

Crust:
8 medjool dates, pitted
1 cup of rolled oats
1/4 cup of walnuts

Creamy cheesecake layer:

6 oz of soaked raw cashews
1 1/2 cans of coconut cream
6 medjool dates, pitted
Juice from 1 lemon

Strawberry cream layer (optional):

1 pint of organic strawberries
7 medjool dates, pitted

Soak your cashews in hot water if you have not soaked them overnight. Put your crust ingredients in your food processor and process until it's a sticky crust. Press into a small round cake pan that locks on the sides. Put your creamy cheesecake layer ingredients in your food processor, make sure all date are pitted and soft. Process well and spread on top of the crust. Put your strawberry layer ingredients in your food process and process until smooth. Spread on top of the cheesecake layer. Top with a bunch of blueberries or any fruit you want. Use more dates if you taste any of the layers and want more sweetness. You can also soak the dates if they are not soft enough so they blend in well.

Notes: Delete the walnuts in the crust to cut down on the fat. Use just coconut cream and dates for the middle layer and eliminate the cashews or use less cashews. Use silken tofu and dates instead of coconut cream and make a tofu mousse for the middle layer. Use a banana, dates and cashews instead of the coconut cream. Use blueberries or blackberries instead of strawberries for the fruit cream layer. Use full fat coconut milk instead of coconut cream, refrigerate the can overnight upside down and then open the can and whip up the cream layer of the milk. Save the milk for something else. You can delete the strawberry cream layer, as you can see from my pics, I made a cheesecake with it and without it.

Freeze the finished cake for an hour and then transfer to the fridge. Keep in the fridge until you are ready to serve, unlock the cake pan and cut. The cake may fall apart a little if it's not set enough so definitely freeze a little bit before serving. It's really really delish. The cheese layer ends up with a cream cheese consistency and the cake is very rich and decadent.

For those celebrating the 4th of July soon, this is an awesome addition to the table especially if you want to show people how delish veganism is. You can use any fruit for this cake but I'm so partial to berries and it's summer so berries would be all I use. I hope you love this cake as much as I do!

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