Sunday-cashew-fruitcake

As a self-confessed square I have to admit that coffee and cake are a must on a Sunday afternoon, happily served on the inherited porcelain from the granny-in-law. Since I don't have to feed a family of five but only my loverboy and myself, some cakes turn into an "eating-challenge"... On Sunday we're still looking forward to gorge on 1-2 pieces with the afternoon coffee and then another one in the evening. On Monday another piece at work - although it's beginning to get old - but the cake is not finished yet and has to be eaten.

The solution for a lot of occasions, as well as this one: rock n' raw, baby! Since you don't need the oven for a raw food cake it's easy to just create a tiny cake for two without eco-remorse and without having to eat the leftovers until the middle of the following week. This nuttily cashew-fruit-tarte is actually pretty easy to make, but requires a little handling time. The stated amount fills out a 22 cm-aperture-cake pan and is enough for two chowhounds, but with a little goodwill you can also feed another two visitors.

For the cake bottom we need:
80 grams of almonds
80 grams of walnuts
60 grams of dates
1 tablespoon cacao
1 larger pinch of cinnamon

(Ok, during my visit to the U.S.this spring I noticed that no one seems to use scales for measuring ingredients...but hey, I had to deal with this "cup-thingie" while staying in Los Angeles, so now it's up to you to figure out the grams and litres. Bam!)

Let the nuts and dates soak in water for about 1-2 hours. Then wash them briefly, add the cacao and cinnamon and put it all in a food processor. The result will be a crunchy paste. I use the chipper knife option. Prepare the springform pan either with plastic wrap on the inside or simply grease it with coconut oil. Spread coconut flakes all over it and cover the bottom with the paste. Cover the rim as well if you wish to, but if you prefer a thicker bottom, eeehrm, well, just let that rim thingy be.

You now park the cake pan in the fridge (a couple of hours) which makes it more juicy - you can also dry it in the sun or a dehydrator, that makes it more compact. I've tried both options and they're nice.

It's best if you prepare all that the night before you want to make the actual cake so that it can cool down or dry overnight.

Stuffing of the cake: Take 250 grams of cashews together with 3-5 dates and let them soak in water. Again, wash it and mix it together with 90 grams of coconut-oil (heat it in water, that makes it liquid), 25 grams of agave nectar and a little bit of vanilla (optional) in the Vitamix until you have some sort of homogeneous cream. Now add this cream to the cake bottom in your pan, spread it out and - who would have thought?! -  park it in the fridge for another couple of hours. Then top it off with fruits (you should use sourish fruits like rasperries or kiwis, otherwise it'll make the cake too rich - but that's just my opinion), cool it again shortly, then cut it into pieces and eat it all up.

In this case it's not a REAL raw fruit tart because I don't use raw cashews. The cashew nutshell contains a toxic oil called "cardol" which is highly acidic and irritating to the skin. To remove the oil the nuts are roasted during the "conventional crop". No real raw food, because it's not been handled below 105 Fahrenheit.

But if you search properly you will find Cashews in raw food quality. Those are washed with water after the crop and then shortly steamed with water vapor. That eliminates the cardol properly but it makes the nuts more expensive of course.
So, strictly speaking, my tart is not a "real" raw food tart but more of unbaked cake. Whatever, I am not a fanatic in this case.