Another dairy free, vegan, gluten free cheesecake miracle! This one is a little simpler, fresher and more pink than my other cheesecake slice. An oat and almond base is topped with strawberry cashew ‘cheesecake’ filled with chunks of fresh strawberry and a swirl of strawberry puree. It’s delicious and very pretty.

I make this in a loaf tin but you could double the recipe and make it in a 20 x 20 tin. As per usual, I have tried to keep the sugar content as low as possible but remember it’s still a sweet treat and should be treated as such! Cake is not lunch… well…maybe sometimes it is haha.

Makes 6 large slices or 18 bite sized ones.

Ingredients

Base

2 Tbs rolled oats

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs almond meal

2 medjool dates (pitted and soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes to soften)

2 tsp coconut oil

Strawberry

1 cup whole strawberries (for puree)

1/2 cup finely diced strawberries

1/4 cup finely diced straw berries to serve

Cheesecake

1 1/4 cup cashews (soaked for 4-6 hours in room temp water or overnight)

1/4 cup rice malt syrup or maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract or the seeds from 1 vanilla pod

1/4 cup of the strawberry puree (see above)

Directions

Prepare the base: Blitz all ingredients in a food processor until it begins to clump together. Line a loaf tin with glad wrap, let it reach all the way up the sides. Press mix into base of tin, wetting your finger tips makes this easier. Once roughly spread out cover with the excess glad wrap and use a shot glass as a rolling pin and roll over glad wrapped base until even. Un peel the glad wrap sides from base and then freeze in the tin while you prepare the next layer.

Prepare strawberry puree: place the 1 cup of whole strawberries (tops removed) in a food processor and blend until you have a smooth puree. You can pass it through a fine sieve if your fussy about lumps (but as you will be putting chunks of strawberries into the slice, why bother?).

Prepare the cashew cheesecake: Place all ingredients (just scoop 1/4 cup of puree from what you prepared above) in the food processor and blend until very smooth. Mix through the 1/2 cup of chunks of strawberries with a spatula and then fold through all but two teaspoons (reserve these) of the remaining puree. Pour over the base, smooth with a palette knife or similar and then drip the remaining strawberry puree on top and use a toothpick to swirl it into pretty patterns. Place back in the freezer for at least 1 hour. Then slice and serve with the reserved 1/4 cup diced strawberries sprinkled on top.

HH. x