3rd Veganniversary

As a vegan, you have to be happy every day that you're alive, because, as everybody knows, it's no way possible to survive at all on a vegan diet. No proteins and such, you know. So, every year that you survive has to be celebrated! Manuel's veganniversary is in January, but we celebrated a bit later. Pictures are not too good, because he was late from the airport and we were terribly hungry ;-)

First: Tofu fish sticks (the german recipe can be found here) with a bit of salad (carrots & apple) and remoulade (vegan mayonnaise I won at the Paris Vegan Day with cucumber and herbs).

Second: Mac & Cheese with alibi green stuff (spinach). Still have sauerkraut left over!

Third: Little layer cake with vanilla pudding and blueberries. The dough I made as in this recipe, the pudding as described here, without the chocolate, but with vanilla soy milk and some extra vanilla. The blueberries I found somewhere in my freezer...

Raw love

The way to a vegan's heart is definitely through her stomach. When we met at a food-and-games evening for the second time, the most wonderful man in the world made a cake - a raw blueberry tart. Suddenly, he seemed to be a very interesting man... and cakes never lie <3

Preparation time: depends on your blender... less than 1 hour, plus 1-2 hours chilling time

Suggested music: Weena Morloch - Girl, for some crazy love ;-)

In general, raw cakes are foolproof. If your dough is too dry, add more dates. If your dough is too wet, add more nuts. It will still taste perfectly good. Don't be afraid to experiment a bit. You will need a good food processor or (hand-held) blender for this tart!

For the dough:

• 2 cups pecans or walnuts, or, if you are lazy, about 200 g ground almonds
• 1 cup dates (about 200 g)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder

For the filling:

• 2 cups cashews (for easier blending, let them soak in water for 1-2 hours)
• 1 3/4 cups blueberries (about 250 g; frozen ones are perfectly ok, but let them thaw a bit)
• 1 1/2 cups dates
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder

Decoration:

• finely grated coconut

What to do:

1. Make the dough: Blend the dates with the nuts and the vanilla. This is tricky, as the dates are very sticky, and a hand-held blender might become pretty hot. Be patient, do it in several batches, free the blender from the sticky dates from time to time. I usually use ground almonds, because I don't have a very good blender for nuts.
2. Press the dough into a round cake pan (you can line the pan with baking paper before). If you have enough dough, form not only the cake bottom, but also the sides, at least a bit.
3. Make the filling: Process all the other ingredients in the blender. This should be easier than the dough, as it is more liquid.
4. Add the filling to the cake pan and decorate the cake with grated coconut. Chill for 1-2 hours in the fridge before serving; the filling will harden during that time due to the coconut oil. Keep in the fridge for storage.