Ever fallen in love at first cake? It certainly happened to us when we first set eyes Hen’s Clean Cakes blog: a clean eating dreamworld of beautifully crafted desserts, made by Suffolk-based pastry chef Henrietta Inman. After working for a range of award-winning kitchens, Henrietta set up her own patisserie, which specialises in healthy and flavoursome desserts – meaning that all her treats are gluten, dairy and refined sugar-free and made using unrefined, seasonal and local ingredients. And gorgeous looking they are too!
We love a spot of baking come Sunday afternoon and Summer is one of our favourite times to whip up something with the plentiful supply of seasonal berries so who better to ask fro some inspiration. This delicious cake uses one of our breakfasts of choice by Qnola as a base (you can read our interview with founder Danielle Copperman here). As strawberries are at their best this time of the year, this is one to try right away. Dig in! If you fancy yourself a spot of clean baking, check out her blog for more recipes.
Strawberries and Cream Dream Cake
This cake is the perfect summer cake. Full of wonderful British strawberries bursting with flavour in a feather-light layer of vanilla infused mousse, topping a smooth pistachio layer with a hint of orange and ending with a crunch from the ‘white chocolate’ strawberries and cream Qnola base. It really is dreamy!
Ingredients
For the strawberry vanilla mousse:
- 1 x 400ml can coconut milk, 230g set thick cream
- 140g cashew nuts, soaked in 300ml filtered water with ½ tsp Himalayan pink salt/ sea salt for 3-4 hours
- 250g strawberries, tops removed
- Finely grated zest ½ lemon
- 25g/ml lemon juice
- 100g raw runny honey
- ¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt
- 1 ½ tsp baobab powder, see note below
- ½ vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped out
- 90g coconut oil, melted
For the pistachio orange cream:
- 70g pistachio nuts, soaked in 150ml filtered water with ¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt/ sea salt for 8 hours
- 30g cashew nuts, soaked in 100ml filtered water with ¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt/ sea salt for 3-4 hours
- 80g/ml almond/ cashew/ oat/ rice milk
- 30g raw runny honey
- 50g coconut oil, melted
- Finely grated zest ½ orange
For the ‘white chocolate’ strawberries and cream Qnola base:
- 100g cacao butter
- 70g cashew butter
- 40g raw runny honey
- ¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt
- ½ vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped out
- Finely grated zest ½ lemon
- 100g strawberries and cream Qnola/ Beetroot Qnola/ Quinoa puffs
Method
- The night before, place the can of coconut milk in the fridge for the strawberry vanilla mousse layer and soak the pistachio nuts for the pistachio orange cream layer. The next day, drain and rinse the pistachio nuts and soak the cashew nuts for the strawberry layer and pistachio layer.
- Line the base and sides of a 23cm spring form cake tin with baking parchment.
- For the base, melt the cacao butter. Put the melted butter in a blender with the rest of the ingredients, except the Qnola, and blend until combined and completely smooth. Pour the ‘white chocolate’ into a bowl and stir in the Qnola, breaking up any large pieces of the freeze-dried strawberries and blackberries. Combine well then pour into the tin to form the base. Spread the mix out evenly and freeze.
- For the pistachio layer, drain and rinse the pistachio nuts and the 30g cashew nuts. Remove the skins from the soaked pistachio nuts. You can skip this step but your pistachio layer will be a less vibrant green. Place the activated nuts, plant-based milk and honey in a blender and process until almost smooth. Add the coconut oil and orange zest and continue to blend until completely smooth. Pour the mix out onto the frozen base and return to the freezer to set.
- For the strawberry layer, drain and rinse the cashew nuts. Place the strawberries, lemon zest and juice, honey, salt and baobab powder in a blender and blend to make a strawberry juice. Add the cashew nuts and blend again until smooth.
- Open the can of coconut milk and remove the top which will have set to a thick cream. Weigh out 230g of the set thick cream. Use the remaining milk for smoothies, porridge or muesli. Whip up the cream with the vanilla seeds using a hand-held whisk or a free-standing mixer with a whisk attachment. Keep on whisking till the cream is firm and light.
- Pour the coconut oil into the strawberry cashew mix and blend once more until smooth. Pour out the strawberry mix into the whipped vanilla cream and fold everything together lightly until just combined to a lovely light pink colour. Pour the mix onto the pistachio layer and freeze for a further 1-2 hours hours. Demould carefully, decorate with extra Qnola, chopped pistachios, fresh strawberries and edible flowers and serve. Enjoy!
- This cake can really be eaten however it has set. Enjoy it straight from the freezer as an ice cream cake (although the base will be quite hard to cut!), let it defrost for an hour and eat it as a semifreddo-parfait, or let it defrost completely in a cool place for about 2-3 hours and enjoy it as a wonderful mousse cake. I think it tastes best as a mousse cake, when all the flavours are at room temperature and the Qnola base is just right! Have a go and see how you like to eat your strawberries and cream dream cake!
Notes:
- I prefer to use local raw honey in this cake, but if you do not eat honey, blonde coconut syrup is a great replacement.
- The baobab powder adds a citrus hit and really helps to lift up the strawberry flavour. But add 1 ½ tsp extra lemon juice if you do not have any.
- Please do not be put off by soaking the nuts. It’s really quick and easy and a very important step in raw cakes, otherwise the smooth cream layers will not be so smooth! Soaking also activates the nuts, getting rid of phytic acid and making their nutrients more readily available, not to mention much easier to digest so kinder to your system. I also think soaking nuts really improves their taste, getting rid of any bitterness to create a sweet and creamy flavour.
- If you cannot find Qnola or puffed quinoa, just make an easy raw cake base with dates or other dried fruits, nuts, seeds, oats, buckwheat groats… whatever you like. Here’s an example of a quick and delicious one: just process the pistachio nuts until small pieces, add the rest of the ingredients, blitz again and spread onto your base- 90g pitted Medjool dates, ¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt, ¼ vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract, 40g desiccated coconut, 40g pistachio nuts, 50g sunflower seeds and 40g coconut oil, melted.
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