I've been out of raw cacao for a while, but when my stash arrived I decided to go big. Kelli from animal friendly eating inspired me to make a raw ice cream cake. I started with a crust of coconut, cacao, and coconut nectar. The second layer was leftover banana cream pie filling from Sweet Gratitude, poured around a small glass bowl and left to freeze for a few hours. Then I pulled out the glass dish and filled the empty space with chocolate ice cream.
Rich Chocolate Ice Cream
3/4 cup brazil nuts
3/4 cup cashews
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp raw cacao
dash of vanilla
pinch of salt
3 tbsp melted coconut oil
Yum, this was good. After blending, I processed it my ice cream maker, but I think it would have been easier to leave it in the liquid form for ice cream cake construction.
After freezing that layer, on top I spread blond buckwheat crunchies (from Sweetly Raw's Ultimate Ice Cream Cake ebook). Then I stuck the glass bowl back in the springform and spread more chocolate ice cream around it. Once that was frozen, out came the bowl and more banana cream was added to the cavity.
Back in the freezer, then:
- a layer of strawberry sauce (frozen strawberries blended with a wee bit of coconut nectar)
- a layer of coconut whipped cream from Sweetly Raw
- a little chocolate sauce from Sweetly Raw's Ultimate Ice Cream Cake (out of control!!)
- left over crust sprinkles
Oh. My. Can you believe I had room for spoonfuls of chocolate sauce after licking this plate clean?
The reason I had to admit my Oprah habit is because one of the featured stories was a fascinating article about a guy (Darin Olien) who gets paid to travel the world hunting down super foods. Where was the recruiter for this job when I was in high school?? Anyway, one of the interesting things mentioned in the article was biomimicry, or the idea that nature holds the answers to all the problems we face. The article talked about how certain foods look like the body parts they can benefit. (Click here for examples from Woman's Day). I thought this was intriguing, but TH believes it's a lot of hooey, mostly because earth's environment developed long before humans evolved.
Question: Did anyone else read this article, and get all tingly thinking about the secrets of our natural world?
