crunchy bits

One of Dante’s favorite cakes is a lemon poppyseed cake, and when I stumbled across a raw version on the sunny raw kitchen, I was intrigued. Having found some good-looking jicama at the store the week before the last raw potluck, I decided to take the plunge. Lucia, assisting in the kitchen, kept stealing chunks of jicama to snack on. If you haven’t had it before, I’d describe it as an apple and pear having gotten together with the texture of raw potato. It’s sweet with a firm, pleasant crunch. She likes it best cut into sticks. Lots of raw recipes give this as an alternative to french fries and serve it with a raw ketchup. I don’t know about that, but it’s delicious in its own right.

Many raw desserts are heavy due to to the reliance on nuts and seeds. The beauty of this recipe is that the jicama cuts that density, and if you use the almond pulp, that heaviness is cut even more. We were out all afternoon before the party, so this cake had to sit in the car in a cooler on a hot spring day, and was decorated last minute, not as pretty as I’d have liked. But boy did it deliver in flavor what it lacked in panache! Sweet lemony goodness. Delicious.  (see pics of this cake at sunny raw kitchen or raw freedom community for more aesthetically pleasing versions)

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
Slightly modified version by Anna of TheRawTable.com, as featured in the Purely Delicious magazine of Fall 2007

Cake:

• 2 cups jicama, peeled and cubed
• 1 green apple, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 3 cups dehydrated almond pulp from making milk
• OR 2 cups almonds soaked, dehydrated and finely ground
• 1/4 cup golden flax seeds, finely ground



• 3/4 cup agave nectar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large lemon, juiced
• 2 generous tsp lemon zest
• 2 tbs psyllium husks
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds

1. Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until everything is finely chopped and moving freely.
2. Press one half of the mixture in the bottom of a springform pan, smoothing edges and evening the sides as much as possible.
3. Reserve the rest for later.

Lemon Coconut Frosting

• 2 cups cashews
• 1 1/2 whole lemons (seeds removed)
• 3 or 4 tbs coconut butter
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 3-4 tbs water
• Pinch of sea salt

1. Place all ingredients in high speed blender and process until smooth.
2. Frost bottom layer of cake and allow to freeze for 4-6 hours.
3. Top with remaining cake mixture and gently press, again smoothing edges and evening the sides.
4. Return to freezer for an additional 2 hours.
5. Remove from spring form pan and frost either top or sides or both with remaining frosting. Garnish with extra poppy seeds.

Aside from swapping agave for honey, I followed this recipe precisely. Oh, and I didn’t have a spring form cake pan that would work, so I used a tart pan and did it all in one layer.  My family loved this cake and I would definitely make it again. It was easy enough and can be made ahead of time, which again is a nice bonus. It firmed up nicely, despite the lack of proper refrigeration for hours before serving.

I also used this frosting for Lucia’s birthday cake this past week. She wanted pink frosting, so I added some frozen strawberries to it. It was lovely and if I hadn’t made the frosting at the last minute, it would have set nicely. If you decide to add berries to color or flavor this frosting, you might want to put the berries in a strainer over a bowl for a little while, because the texture was a bit too runny. However, the frosting I didn’t use had set into a nice consistency overnight. Drained or made ahead of time, this frosting is an excellent, nutritious substitution for dairy and white sugar versions. It’s really lemony, but you can definitely adjust that to your taste.

The next time we make this cake, I plan to serve it with a berry sauce — berries whizzed in a blender or food processor with or without a little honey as needed. It would also be delicious with fresh fruit chopped up and drizzled with honey until it releases it’s juices… as the fresh berry and fruit season approaches, I can’t WAIT to explore the possibilities. And this recipe will definitely figure in my plans.

Enjoy!

This entry was posted on Monday, April 26th, 2010 at 3:18 am and is filed under desserts, raw food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.