RAW SACHERTORTE

You may have noticed that I’ve been completely ignoring Muffin Sunday for two entire weeks. I know I’m being very ungrateful towards muffins, but the truth is, I have two very embraceable reasons for this lack of muffin-making. The first is, I got myself a blender! Haha. Sorry. But I did. So I had to make something using it this week. Period. The second is, this is Sachertorte! The most delicious cake on the face of the earth, in my very valuable opinion. We used to get this from the bakery every year for my dad’s birthday and I think it’s been at least two or three years since the last time I was home for one (sadness creeping in). How can you not miss this chocolaty and jammy moist deliciousness. Anyway, I thought, it’s (British) Father’s Day today so it makes a bit of sense to make Sachertorte. It’s like I’m at home for my dad’s birthday, except I’m not at home and it’s not my dad’s birthday. Ha. Anyway, let me get to the blender part. As I bought myself a blender (I need to stop this, I know), I can now grind almonds and cashews and all sorts of stuff, which makes it so much easier to make raw desserts. So I thought I’d make my own version of Sacher: vegan, gluten-free and 100% raw. And also kind of 100% blended. I don’t want to give too much away but I had a quarter of this cake in one go whilst taking pictures of it, it’s that good (camera covered in chocolate). I’m considering to start selling it under the label “I can’t believe it’s not Sacher”. I’ll let you know how it goes.

RAW SACHERTORTE

with raw chocolate cream

Cake layers and filling adapted from Eat Different

200g (2 cups) almonds

250g (2 ½ cups) cashews

200g (1 ½ cups) dried figs

½ teaspoon salt

200g (2 ¼ cups) cacao powder

Filling:

130g (1 cup) dried apricots

Juice of half an orange

125ml (1/2 cup) water

Chocolate cream:

100g (1 cup) cashews

150g (1 cup) dried figs

20g (1/4 cup) cacao powder

60ml (1/4 cup) coconut oil

180ml (3/4 cup) water

Lightly grease a 22cm/9” cake tin and set aside. Soak the apricots for the filling in water for 30 minutes and in the meantime start making the cake base. Blitz almonds and cashews in a blender then add the figs and salt, then again gradually add the cacao powder until everything is well combined and sticks together in a dough. Divide the mixture in half and place the first half in the cake tin, pressing down evenly and very firmly to form the first layer of the cake. Place the tin in the fridge whilst you make the jam filling. Drain the apricots and put them in the blender with the orange juice and water, and blitz until everything is well combined and has a jam-like texture. Pour the mixture evenly over the first layer of the cake, then transfer to the freezer and leave to set for at least an hour. After an hour, take out and place the other half of the cake mixture on top of the jam layer, again pressing it down firmly. Put back in the freezer for another hour. In the meantime, prepare the cream: first blitz the cashews until finely ground, then add the figs, cacao powder, coconut oil and water and keep going until you have a very creamy and fluffy mixture. Just before serving, spread the cream on the cake and decorate with dried apricots if you like. Optional: Slice it, taste it and eat it with your hands over the sink shouting, “I can’t believe this is made of figs” between a mouthful and the other.