Recipe of the Year: Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

As we're just about to turn the page on 2007, I thought today's post should feature the ‘Recipe of the Year’. I sure got to enjoy my share of scrumptious raw creations these past twelve months - in fact, I’ll be sharing my top favorites in my next entry - but if I was to pick one that stands particularly out, I’d choose my dear friend Josephine Lee’s Lemon Poppy Seed Cake.

Joz is the most enthusiastic person that I know about spreading the benefits of raw foods. With her generous and candid spirit, she passionately spreads her message to 'Go Raw, Go Healthy' in the Medford, Oregon area where she organizes potlucks and events with the Boutenko family. Her latest potluck in December was such a huge success that it drew over 80 attendees. Imagine the feast! (You can drool about the fantastic spread they had here.)

But back to her now famous Lemon Poppy Seed Cake. To me, it is not only beautiful and delectable, it also embodies how we all have a creative spark awaiting to be ignited. This cake was one of Joz’s first attempts at recipe creation, yet it spread like wildfire across the raw world. It was voted ‘Recipe of the Month’ on Raw Freedom Community last summer, was featured in The Raw Family’s October 2007 Newsletter, as well as in the latest publication of the Purely Delicious magazine.

Well done, Jozzie! You RAWk girl!


Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
Slightly modified version by Anna of TheRawTable.com, as featured in the Purely Delicious magazine of Fall 2007

Cake
2 cups jicama, peeled and cubed
1 green apple, peeled, seeded and chopped
3 cups dehydrated almond pulp from making milk or 2 cups almonds soaked, dehydrated and finely ground
1/4 cup golden flax seeds, finely ground
3/4 cup agave nectar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large lemon, juiced
2 generous tsp lemon zest
2 tbs psyllium husks
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup poppy seeds (and a bit more for garnish)

Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until everything is finely chopped and moving freely. Press one half of the mixture in the bottom of a springform pan, smoothing edges and evening the sides as much as possible. Reserve the rest for later.


Lemon Coconut Frosting
2 cups cashews
1 1/2 whole lemons (seeds removed)
3 or 4 tbs coconut oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup  agave nectar
3-4 tbs water
Pinch of sea salt

Place all ingredients in high speed blender and process until smooth. Frost bottom layer of cake and allow to freeze for 4-6 hours. Top with remaining cake mixture and gently press, again smoothing edges and evening the sides. Return to freezer for an additional 2 hours. Remove from spring form pan and frost either top or sides or both with remaining frosting.

Alternatively, you could use the following frosting...

Joz's 'Just like Costo Frosting'
Beat/whip with beaters:
1 cup coconut oil

Add:
1/4 cup agave nectar
Juice of 1/2 lemon (If you like it more lemony, add the juice of an entire lemon and/or zest)

Whip again.
Proceed as above for frosting and assembling the cake.


Berry Glaze
(This is sooo good and simple)

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1/4 cup honey

Place all ingredients in blender and process until smooth. Refrigerate until needed - chill for at least 2 hours. Shake or stir well before using.

*~*~*~*~*

Photo Credit
The first photo is of the artful rendition that Don's niece, Jaime, and I made of this cake last summer.
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Berry Glaze by Anna of TheRawTable.com

Finger-Licking Goodies: Get Ready to Rawk Your New Year's Party!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

For our part, it was a quiet and relaxed one; just the way we like it. I've really come to appreciate not having to deal with all the pressures I used to experience around this time of year.

I spent most of the day doing what I love most: playing with food. Don helped me make sauerkraut, then I worked on dinner while he and his daughter, Amber, who is visiting, did the Tibetan Rites and had a long talk. We also had a nice walk in the snowy landscape - you know, gotta enjoy our Winter Wonderland.

Our Christmas Feast...
I opted for a simple but color-full dinner menu, somewhat inspired by the traditional Christmas fare.

Rawssian Borscht with a dollop of cashew cream

Ani Phyo's Walnut Cranberry Squash "Rice"

A Cranberry Sauce I came up with


And our complete main course:
My Thankful Turkey served the cranberry sauce and squash rice

We have desserts coming out the ying yang in the freezer these days, so I let Amber take her pick. She chose my Banana Chocolate Cream Cake. Mmmmmmm

I forgot to make Raw Nog, but I'll be serving it this evening with a nice cookie platter.

New Year's Raw-solutions
New Year's Eve promises to be just as low key at our end, but in case you're planning on attending parties to celebrate the arrival of 2008, I thought I'd give you a hand in deciding what raw goodies to take along. In fact, I've been playing with the idea for the last several days, consulting Heathy in the process, as she just LOVES that sort of thing.

There's certainly no shortage of raw recipes that can be easily transformed into bite-size treats, but here's my favorite cool finger food ideas that are almost certain to rawk your party to the bone!

Veggie sticks with dip of choice
(Try the Raw Deviled Egg-less "Egg" Spread or the Ranch Dressing/Dip - they're both outstanding!)

Cheesy Cucumber Bites

Spinach & Cheese Balls

Seed Cheese Topped Celery

Tuna Salad on Zucchini Crackers or Black Sesame Sunflower Bread*

* You might want to make round crackers by cutting them with a cookie cutter right before or after flipping them onto the mesh.

Cashew Cheese Au Poivre with crackers of choice

Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms

Savoury Nori Snacks

Zucchini Roll-Ups

Sesame Nuggets in Sweet 'n Sour Sauce

Spinach Mini-Quiches


Spinach & Wild Mushroom Quiches

Crab Cakes with Tartar Sauce


And of course pizza is ever the perfect snack! (For pizza topping ideas, see this, this, and this.)

You can make mini ones about the size of your palm...


Or go for a large one cut into teeny pieces.
Below is a gorgeous pizza that Fairygirl/Heathy served at a raw dinner party. She topped it with a sundried tomato sauce, red/green peppers, red onion, parsley, and seed cheese.

And On the Sweet Side...
Desserts can be especially fun to convert into finger food by spreading the batter about 1/2 " thick into a cookie sheet, a rectangular pan or muffin pans. Just make sure to line these with plastic film so your goodies pop out easily.

Brownies

Cheesecake

 
Banana Chocolate Cream Cake

(Shown here sans banana)

Oh, and let's not forget cookies and nut balls! How about Ani's Donut Holes, Cinnamon Balls or Snowdrop's Chocolate Orange Confection (shown below.)

Not sure what cookies to make? Have a look here for a bunch of yummy recipe ideas. In the meantime, here's a couple of lovely platters to get your creative juices going...

Coonlie's Caramel-Maca Balls, Chocolate-Berry "Candy" Canes, Ginger Swirls and Chocolate Chip Cookies


And Being's assorted Gingerbread Cookies

And lastly, a few other great sweet treats that could be easily made into miniature versions...

Chocolate Mousse Tarts
Snowdrop's Blonde Fruitcake
White Chocolate-Strawberry Cheesecake

Hope you find some finger foods that hit the mark with you and have fun being creative in the kitchen. I know I had such a blast making some of these, I wished we were more into the party thing. Ah well... Guess we'll just have to throw our own.

Wishing you a Healthy and powerful New Year!

*~*~*~*~*

Photo Credits
Happy Holi-berries! by outnbout
Veggies & Dip, Cucumber Bites, Cheese Topped Celery, Pizza, Brownie and round cheesecakes by Fairygirl/Heathy
Tuna Salad by Ocean
Cachew Cheese by Chad Sarno
Zucchini Roll-Ups by Nomi Shannon and Sheryl Duruz
Chocolate Orange Confection by Snowdrop

Recipe of the Week: Cheezy Spinach Balls

Phfew! This has been an intense last few days. I feel like I've been playing with food all week: crab cakes, pizzas, quiches, nori snacks, zucchini roll-ups, cheesecake, brownies, chocolate mousse torte, fruitcake... But what else is new, right? Thankfully, I've been having fun in the process and got some helpers to give me a hand.

I've been brainstorming about raw finger foods, you know, the kind of things you could take along to a party and impress all your SAD friends. I'll be sharing some recipe ideas with you in a couple of days, definitely long enough ahead of time to prepare them for the upcoming New Year's parties. In the meantime, here's a raw rendition of the popular cheese spinach balls that I came up with.


Cheezy Spinach Balls
2 cups spinach
5 pieces of onion bread crumbled up
1 cup cashews
1/2 cup macademias
1 tablespoon almond butter
1 large garlic clove
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon ACV
2 teaspoons ground flax seeds
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch nutmeg

Blend all ingredients until smooth in the food processor.

Drop by the teaspoon on a teflex sheet and dehydrate.

Carmella's Notes: Unfortunately, the batter was a tad too sticky to shape into balls. They are yummy nonetheless!