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Vegan Avocado Chocolate Mousse Cake


Avocado Chocolate Mousse Cake

A chocolate cake that needs no baking and contains no refined sugars. This one is made with a good amount of avocado that gives it all the creaminess that I love about mousse au chocolat but without the guilt. It’s topped with fresh seasonal blackberries and keeps well frozen.

This avocado chocolate mousse cake is very easily done and and is sure to wow your guests and loved ones. It contains no refined sugars or dairy and it’s gluten free.

INGREDIENTS

For the base:

125g (1 cup) almonds
4 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp coconut oil
3 tbsp dark maple syrup, or sweetener of your preference

For the cream:

450g (1lb) avocado pulp, about 4 medium ripe avocados
250ml (1 cup) dark maple syrup
125ml (1/2 cup) cold water
100g (1 cup) medjool dates, pitted
8 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla bean (extract)

INSTRUCTIONS
Place all the ingredients for the base into a food processor and pulse until combined. Don’t over process it or it will turn into a paste, you still want some crunch in it and the base to hold together. Transfer it into a loose bottom tin and flatten it out evenly. I prefer loose bottom tins because it is so much easier to get cake out of them, especially no-bake cakes. The base will seem crumbly and rather sticky but don’t worry, once it’s frozen it will hold together very nicely. Transfer the form into the freezer and proceed with the cream.

Half the avocados, remove the stones and scoop the flesh into the bowl of a food processor. Make sure the avocados are ripe. If you are unsure about how ripe they are you can look at this post. Remove the pits from the dates and add them with the rest of the cream ingredients into the bowl. Process for several minutes until perfectly blended. Depending on your avocados and dates you might need a few more spoons of water. The consistency should be silky smooth.

Take the cake from out of the freezer and tip the cream onto the base. Spread it evenly with a spatula and tap the form against your kitchen counter a few times to release possible bubbles that are caught in the cream. Return it to the freezer and let it sit for about 2 hours.

Once frozen, spread a layer of berries on top. There is an easy way to get a neatly looking cake without spending an hour on arranging the berries. Simply lay a neatly placed ring of berries at the edge of the form and tip the rest of the berries into the center. Spread them gently with your fingertips and you are done. This will take little time and look like you arranged each single blackberry.

Return the avocado chocolate mousse cake to the freezer and take it out about half an hour before you want to eat it. Keep in mind this is a mousse cake. It will be very soft, creamy and rich so if you do want perfect slices you will have to keep it a bit more on the frozen side.

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Vegan Dark Choclate Easter salted almond Eggs

If you’re looking to make an easy last minute Easter treat, these Salted Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Eggs are the perfect choice!they have simple ingredients… no corn syrup solids, GMOs, TBHQ, or PGPR, or any other weird acronym-ed ingredients you didn’t know were lurking in your favorite commercial peanut butter egg. Also, they are free of eggs, dairy, or refined sugar.

Salted Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Eggs

Makes about a dozen small eggs

Ingredients

Chocolate Coating:

3 tablespoons of coconut oil
2 tablespoons of cacao or cocoa powder
1 tablespoon of maple syrup or honey
Filling:

-1/3 cup almond butter (or peanut butter)
-1/4 cup almond meal (I ground my own from raw almonds in my food processor) or you can use half almond meal and half freshly ground oats
-1 tablespoon of coconut oil
– 1 to 2 tablespoons of maple syrup or honey (or date syrup or other liquid sweetener of choice)
-1/4 tsp of finely ground himalayan pink -salt
-extra himalayan pink salt, course ground for sprinkling on top

1. Add the nut butter and coconut oil to a small pot and warm over low heat until coconut oil is melted. Remove from heat and stir in the maple syrup or honey. Add the almond flour (or almond flour/oat flour combination) and salt and mix well. It should form a very soft dough. Taste for sweetness, and add more sweetener if desired. If it seems too runny, add more almond flour or oat flour, a little at a time. It will firm up more when you cool it. Transfer the mixture to a glass container with a lid and put it in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes.

2. Remove filling from freezer and, using a teaspoon, scoop out a small amount and use your hands to roll it into an egg shape. Place the eggs on a parchment lined tray or plate and transfer back to the freezer for about 5 minutes.

3. While the eggs firm up, make the chocolate coating. Melt the coconut oil over low heat just until melted. Stir in the cacao or cocoa powder and sweetener. Taste and add more cocoa or sweetener to taste.

4. Take your almond butter eggs out of the freezer and using a spoon, dip them one at a time into the chocolate sauce. The chocolate will start to harden on contact. Transfer the coated eggs back to the parchment paper and place back in the freezer. After a few minutes, you can repeat the process, if you’d like a thicker chocolate coating. Sprinkle a few grains of course himalayan salt on each egg immediately after adding the last layer.

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Top 5 Popular Children’s Snacks Made with Cancer Causing Petroleum Products

gummyThe snack foods that are marketed for children can have anything from cancer causing artificial coloring to the unbelievable, petroleum products! ! Petroleum is the same ingredient that is used to make up oil and gas. Commonly used food dyes, such as Yellow 5, and Red 40 are made from petroleum and pose serious health problems. The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stated that ingestion is typically under the “concern threshold.”

Those health problems can include hyperactivity in children, cancer (in animal studies), and allergic reactions. Artificial food coloring has been linked to bed-wetting, ear infections, headaches, hypersensitivity, obesity, asthma,diabetes,eczema, mood swings, hyperactivity, sleep disturbances, increased risky behavior, ADD/ADHD, chromosomal damage, hives, and possibly hypoglycemia.

In fact, these substances are so toxic that the British government and European Union have ended the use of dyes throughout Europe.

1. Pop tarts

These toaster pastries were first introduced in 1964. The Frosted Strawberry flavor has corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose and sugar within the first 6 ingredients! These are all forms of harmful sugar. The other alarming ingredients are TBHQ which comes from petroleum and is related to butane, partially hydrogenated soybean oil that causes cellular dysfunction, and cancer causing artificial colors.

2. Fruit snacks

These come in so many “fruit” flavors and characters they maybe hard to resist, until you realize they are made mostly is artificial additives and colors. Red 3 is a commonly used food coloring, also known as E127 or Erythrosine, a petroleum product.

3. M&M’s

They are fun colorful chocolate candies that melt in your mouth and not in your hands… These colors are artificial and are harmful when ingested. The colors utilized are, Blue #2: Is a petroleum based product that increases hyperactivity in children, increases brain tumors in lab rats and other abnormal cell development. Blue #1: Produces malignant tumors. Red #40: Damages DNA. Yellow #6: Can cause cancer and Yellow #5: All of these artificial colors are made from petroleum and can cause, in addition, allergic reactions, hyperactivity, and cancer.

4. Cheetos.

Those orange, cheesy snacks. The artificial color that creates the “cheese” color is made from Yellow 6, which we know is derived from petroleum. As is the “cheese” flavoring, including, methyl benzoate and ethyl methylphenidate.

5. Teddy grams

They have been around since 1988 and are available in 5 different flavors. These tiny bears are a great size for even small fingers but they are laced with the dreaded TBHQ. TBHQ can be toxic and also cause nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ear, delirium and collapse. It is shown to cause stomach cancer in lab rats, fragment DNA and cause damage to humane lung and umbilical cells. In children it can cause anxiety, restlessness, and intensify the symptoms of ADHD.

There are many quick and easy healthy snacks to grab and go. Organic fruit, pre portioned bags of organic carrots and celery and when I have a few minutes I make a large batch of granola bars with chia and flax seeds. These bars freeze well, can be made with fruit or nuts, are filling and nutritious.

sources

http://www.cspinet.org/new/201310161.html

http://blog.aarp.org/2013/06/25/8-foods-we-eat-that-other-countries-ban/