Raw chocolate avocado cake (Quick and no baking!)

For the little girl's birthday, we needed a gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free birthday cake. A tall order indeed, so we ended up making it ourselves. 

It was surprisingly easy to make - it took about 20 minutes. And it tasted good too! It requires no baking and the it makes use of the fact that coconut oil solidifies at temperatures below 25 degrees celsius. 

I adapted the recipe from Life, Gluten free Chocolate Pie with Seed Crust


Easy Raw Chocolate-Avocado Pie Recipe

Crust:


1/2 cup of soaked sunflower seeds 
1/2 cup of soaked pumpkin seeds 
1/2 cup raw granola / raw chocolate granola (optional)
1 1/2 tablespoons of Coconut oil
1 soaked & pitted date (or substitute it with any sweetener)
1 tablespoon of raw honey

Blend in food processor till fully blended.
Pour it into a pie dish and smooth it out to form the base and sides. 

Chocolate filling: 

2 avocados
1 tablespoon of Coconut Manna (optional)
1/2 cup of Coconut oil
1/4 cup of raw Cacao Powder
3 tablespoons of raw Honey / soaked dates

Blend above ingredients until smooth.
Pour into the pie dish over the crust and smooth out the top with a spoon. 

Decorations: 

Sprinkle raw hemp seeds / raw chocolate granola on top of the pie. (optional)

Freeze or refrigerate the pie for at least one hour before serving. The coconut oil will solidify and cause the pie to become firm too.
Remove the outer ring of the pie dish and serve. Enjoy!
(Don't leave the cake out for too long in hot weather or it might turn into mush!)

After several yummy but UGLY pie attempts using metal bowls, I finally bought myself a proper pie dish - with a tempered glass base and a removable silicone outer ring. Serving the cake was a breeze. I simply removed the outer ring to reveal a nicely-shaped cake and it looked pretty served on a round glass base. 


 

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If you're ordering from iherb.com for the first time, remember to key in the discount code NEF914 when you checkout to get US$10 off.

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Beeswax vs Playdough

We love beeswax.

Once or twice a week, after story time (a story without illustrations) we get out the beeswax and start creating elements of the story that the have been stirred up in our imaginations. It could be the animals, flowers, the basket of berries carried by the little girl in the story, eggs, anything!

Beeswax smells wonderful, like honey, it isn't messy, doesn't crumble, can be used over and over again, and unlike playdough, if you mix the colours together, it doesn't turn into a brown lump of ... something that the dog did! It's also non-toxic, and when you finish molding it, it hardens and your creation becomes rigid and you can display it or play with it.

The wax is rigid and it must be warmed up before use. I normally just put the wax in a pot of very warm water and it becomes soft in seconds. 

Beeswax is also a lifesaver during long car journeys or long waits in queues. The children can warm up the wax in their hands to make it pliable.

Top Left: After a homeschool lesson on The Very Hungry Caterpillar, we used beeswax to create models of the lifecycle of the butterfly - little eggs on a leaf, the colourful caterpillar munching the leaf and some fruits, the chrysalis, and finally, the butterfly. 

Bottom Left: Last week, we read about edible fern shoots in the forest, and we made beeswax models of the curly fiddlehead ferns growing by the water's edge, and some other creatures in the pond. Sometimes, we create the characters from the story and reenact the scenes on a mini stage!

I bought the beeswax from Amazon. The Stockmar modeling wax is non-toxic and uses mineral pigments. It may seem pricey but when you consider the fact that it can be re-used over and over again for many years, and doesn't crumble or make a huge mess, it's actually more cost effective than play dough. And did I mention it smells heavenly too... It doesn't leave your hands icky or sticky!



Here are some useful links.





Stockmar Modeling Beeswax - 12 Assorted Sheets
Stockmar Modelling Beeswax - 6 Colors - 100x40 mm
The Amazon link is provided for your convenience and if you click it and make a purchase, I get a small commission at no cost to you.

The Epic Guide to Beeswax Modeling in Kindergarten


How to Use Waldorf Modeling Beeswax - Tutorial

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