Pudding

No, not a Dickensian Christmas pudding but my current pudding of choice for celebrations and parties.

This is based on a recipe I found on Rawmazing. It's tremendously rich and calorific, nothing to worry about if it's forming part of a diet that is largely composed of dehydrated grass and green smoothies, but something to be quite wary of if you're intending it to follow a traditionally cooked main course.

My version no longer qualifies for the raw label, I have used ready made biscuits, real sugar and prepared chocolate instead of the original raw ingredients, but that's not a problem for me. Just remember that this cake will serve at least 12 portions and is extremely filling. If you use a slightly larger tin you may need a few more biscuit crumbs but there will still be plenty of topping so you shouldn't need to increase that.



Orange Chocolate Cashew Cheesecake

Serves 12

Crust:
150g digestive biscuits
75g margarine
50g golden syrup
100g dark chocolate (save one square back to grate over for decoration if liked)

Smash up biscuits in bowl with a heavy item like the end of rolling pin. Melt margarine and syrup together and mix into the biscuit crumbs. Press mixture into the bottom of a greased 18cm (7 inch) loose bottomed pan. Melt the chocolate, about 30 seconds in the microwave or over a hot water bath. Spread over crumb base. Place in refrigerator to set.

Filling:
2 big Oranges (make sure you have very good unwaxed oranges)
75g caster sugar (or to taste)
300g Cashews (soaked in plain water for at least 3 hours then
drained)
150g Virgin Coconut Oil (from health food shops. This sets hard at room temperature so sit the jar in some warm water if it's too solid to get out of the jar)

Grate the zest from the oranges. The zest is important to the flavour. I left it out of this cake because I could only get waxed oranges but the flavour was lacking. The zest also puts some nice orange speckles through the mixture. Be careful to only get the orange part as the pith (the white) is bitter. Squeeze the juice out of all the oranges.

Place cashews, sugar, coconut oil, zest and orange juice in a food processor and process until very smooth. Pour over crust, smooth and bang down a bit to settle and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. Grate a bit more chocolate over to decorate at serving time. Keeps well, covered in the refrigerator, for a couple of days if necessary.

We served this with the Brown Brother's Orange Muscat and Flora dessert wine which went splendidly.