Baby News And A Yummy Raw Choc Mud Cake to Celebrate

There has been a lot to celebrate these past few weeks at Healthy Belly Happy Mind! You may have heard my husband and I are having a baby, yippee! After our scary start to the year (which I wrote about here) this bub was a beautiful surprise and we could not be happier.

However the last few months have been tough as I have had terrible morning sickness, fatigue and I have really struggled to eat the way I normally do due to food aversions and cravings for carbs, carbs, and more carbs! (the joys of the first trimester lol). The good news is I am now in my second trimester and things have improved so much!

I have learnt some huge lessons over the last few months and one of them has been that I needed to listen to my body, slow down and rest. Now that my energy is starting to come back I am feeling motivated to get back on track with my blog and thought I would create this beautiful raw choc mud cake to celebrate! It is surprisingly easy to make and it tastes divine!

Warning: if you are pregnant like me you may struggle to stop yourself from eating the whole thing 😛

Enjoy!

 

Raw Pecan Choc Mud Cake

Crust:

-1 cup of pecans

-½ cup of cashews

-2 tablespoons of cacao powder

-2 tablespoons of cacao nibs

-¼ teaspoon Sea Salt

-1 cup of deseeded and chopped medjool dates

Chocolate Filling:

-2 cups of, cashew nuts soaked for 4 hours then drained

-1 cup of date paste (recipe below)

-1 cup of water

-½ cup of melted coconut oil

-½ cup of rice malt syrup

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-¼ teaspoon of salt

-½ cup of cacao powder

-Extra pecans and cacao nibs to decorate

 

To make the Date paste

1. Soak 1 cup of deseeded dates in ½ cup water for 30-60min.
2. Blend both dates and liquid until smooth

To make the crust

1. Process all ingredients except for the dates in a food processor until they are really well combined (I used my thermomix on speed 9). Add dates and continue to blend until the dates are mixed well. The mixture should hold well when you squeeze small portion in your hand, it should not break apart/crumble easily. If the mixture seems too dry add a few more dates.
2. Prepare an 18 cm spring form pan by coating inside in coconut oil.
3. Press base mixture firmly into pan evenly ensuring there are no air pockets then set aside in fridge to set.

To make the filling

1. Blend all ingredients together until smooth.
2. Pour into spring form pan over the base evenly
3. Decorate with Pecans and Cacao nibs
4. Pop in Fridge to set over night
5. Remove pan and serve.

Enjoy!