Strawberry-chili-cheesecake

It is almost Valentine’s day and that means that soon it is my birthday as well (tomorrow in fact..) I can’t think of a better reason to make this special cake. Despite the fact that it is not strawberry season here in the Netherlands, I did manage to find fresh strawberries which taste like it is summer already! Now I love fresh strawberries, but somehow I am not that fund of strawberry flavored products, like ice-cream, sweets, cake etc. I solved that by adding chili-flakes to spice things up. It is a well known fact in the cooking world that sweet and spicy is a knock-out combination, I think sweet and spicy is also the best ingredient for a successful Valentine’s day!

Preparing a plantbased cheesecake is not difficult at all. This one also does not require baking in the oven.

When you search the internet for recipes you will find that lots of times the advise is to soak the cashew nuts overnight, which is kind of of-putting. No need for that though, if you soak the cashews in boiling water it only takes an hour and then you can start preparing the “cheese”filling. (Assuming you have a foodprocessor that is..)

My son complains al the time about my photographing skills (when it comes to food pictures). He probably has a point there, but I would like to share them with you anyway, just so you get the “picture”!

The bottom is a no-bake crust, a mix of dates, almond meal, cocoa-powder and hempseeds.

The “cheese”filling is made of cashews, strawberries, coconutcream, water and agar agar powder.

Like I said, I spiced the top with chiliflakes and sprinkle some shaved chocolat.

And especially for Valentine’s day I poured melted chocolat in heart shape on top.

Even though Valentine is 5 more days and my birthday only tomorrow, I felt I had to taste it before I could post about it 😉, so I did and it turned out to be a lovely “sweet” cake.

I wish you a lovely VALENTINE’S day with your (secret) loved ones!

For complete recipe click here