Better Than DQ Cake? (Raw Cashew Chocolate Cheesecake Bars)

I first whipped up this cake for my birthday back in November. This year I wanted to make a “clean” dessert that would keep me from buying my traditional Dairy Queen birthday cake (much to my husbands dismay). I vowed that this would be better than DQ cake and it is!.. er, okay, maybe not. It’s no DQ cake. I mean, it’s not even ice cream. BUT, this dessert did satisfy my longing for a sweet birthday treat. I used raw honey and dates as my natural sweetener of choice.

I do like to have a treat from time to time. I honestly don’t like to say “I don’t eat that!” when it comes to anything (except maybe hummus… I think it’s gross). But for health purposes alone, I try not to turn my nose up to anything entirely. I like to think that my body wont implode if I don’t eat entirely clean from time to time. For example, I don’t usually buy pork for my family and I (for a number of reasons, but I will save that for another post). But if I were at a friends house, I would happily eat pork if it was being served for dinner. I have also bought bacon on rare occasions for family camping trips because my family just loves it. Seriously, who doesn’t love bacon? However, in years past I have eaten far too much of my favorite cake on my birthday, and felt terrible in the days that followed (thanks to all the dairy and sugar that I wasn’t used to ingesting on a regular basis). So for the sake of feeling good this year I decided to whip up this sweet treat instead.

I call this dessert “Raw Cashew Chocolate Cheesecake Bars”.

Now, I can’t say these are the healthiest thing I have ever eaten, but they’ve gotta be much better than DQ cake (since they are at least made of real food), not that I know what is in DQ cake. Part of my love affair with Dairy Queen is not allowing myself to look at the list of ingredients.

Since my birthday I have made these bars two other times. I substituted maple syrup from my local farmers market the last time I made them since my daughter can not tolerate honey. They were just as good with maple syrup!

Here is how I made them!

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 cup of nuts ( I used 3/4 cup walnuts and 1/4 cup almonds… what I had on hand that day)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
• 1TBS cacao powder
• 6 pitted dates
• pinch salt. We buy our Redmonds Real Sea Salt at Thrive Market.

Creamy Cashew Top Layer:

• 3 cups of cashews (soaked ahead of time: I soaked the cashews in a jar of filtered water and salt for 3 hours before hand)
• 1/4 cup honey (or organic maple syrup)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup coconut oil

You will need a food processor and 8X8 Pyrex pan.

To make the crust:

1. Put the walnuts and almonds and coconut in my food processor and blended until smooth.

2. Then added cacao powder, pinch of salt and 1 pitted date at time until thoroughly blended.

3. Press the mixture into a 8×8 Pyrex pan until spread evenly.

To make the Cashew “Cheesecake” Layer:

1. Put the presoaked cashews into the food processor and lend until creamy.

2. Add coconut oil, honey, lemon juice, and vanilla extract and blend thoroughly.

3. Add mixture on top of the fudge layer.

4. Place in freezer a few hours then serve.

My son enjoying a piece of cake.

I asked him to use his fork so he stabbed the “bar” and had the entire piece on his fork. Silly boy.

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