This is a raw vegan ‘chakra cake’. As an aura therapist, I’m always thinking in terms of chakras and colours, even when I’m ‘not-cooking’. That’s what I call raw vegan cake making, because technically, you aren’t cooking, you are food processing and freezing instead. This all started not long after we moved out from upstairs and got boarders in. We abandoned our kitchen (and oven) in the process, so I had to get creative with a make-shift outdoors kitchen and me wee indoors kitchenette. I have a baby Weber Q, 2 portable camp stoves that run on gas, a sandwich press that I love cooking mushrooms and eggplant in, a pressure cooker for dahl, curries and soups and my food processor for making vegan cheeses and cakes. Who needs an oven?! Not me!

So people have been nagging me to give them recipes and my sister wants me to write a recipe book. With this in mind, I have started writing the recipes down as I make them. I know. You are astonished aren’t you? Me, writing recipes down?! Will wonders never cease?

Recipe writing can seriously hamper the creative mood, but I’m learning to take it in my stride. How many dates did I just use? Hmmm, lucky I can count the date pips afterwards. As with most creative exercises, I go into a slightly altered, creatively feverish state when I make cakes and stopping to write things down usually doesn’t occur to me.

So this is my first recorded cake recipe!

But before we get to that bit, let me tell you a little about the magic in this cake. This is a happy cake that helps you feel as though you really are achieving your dreams, even when the world around you looks a little crazy, or you’re craning your neck back a long way to see the top of the mountain you have started climbing. It’s a hopeful cake. And even though it looks brown in appearance for the most part, it has four special ingredients that link it to the belly and sacral chakras (orange and yellow frequencies in the aura).

ORANGE RIND

The first one is orange rind. I’m crazily in love with citrus rind at the moment. I even brought a new herbal tincture for my dispensary and have been having lots of fun giving to my clients, occasionally taking a sip, and rubbing it through the aura during healings. This tincture is called Chen Pi. Sometimes I even make silly happy songs about Chen Pi. Luckily, no one has to listen to me singing these except my husband.

Chen Pi is made from dried citrus rind, usually mandarine or tangerine. It’s expectorant, tonic, anti-emetic, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory. I do admit, I did tip a little Chen Pi into this recipe, but you could easily do the same by using organic mandarine peel. Orange peel works pretty much the same way, in terms of energy effect on aura and flavour. Make sure it’s organic! Orange coloured rinds are supportive for the belly chakra, the inner child and the digestive system.

Here’s some info about Chen Pi:

*Regulates Qi and improves energy flow in the belly chakra and throughout aura/body.

*Relieves upper abdominal distention, fullness, bloating, belching, nausea, vomiting.

*Dries excess dampness in the body/aura.

*Transforms phlegm – i.e. coughs with a stifling sensation in the chest/diaphragm, and copious mucous/snot.

CHAMOMILE FLOWERS

My recipe also has a heaped teaspoon of chamomile flowers in it. This is a yellow frequency, very good for the solar plexus chakra. Chamomile helps us relax, especially if we tend to be a bit sensitive to the world around us, helping us expand rather than contracting the aura in fear and tension. When our belly and solar plexus chakras are happy, we tend to feel sunshiny, bright, optimistic, hopeful, warm, and friendly.

Chamomile can help with:

*Stress, nervous tension, pain, headaches, toothaches, fibromyalgia, neuralgia, allergies, asthma.

*Sensory and emotional oversensitivity, irritability, insomnia, restlessness, PMS, weepiness, depression, moodiness.

*Indigestion, flatulence, abdominal pain, nausea, appetite loss, IBS, colic, peptic ulcer, intestinal parasites, heartburn.

*Conjunctivitis, sinusitis, pharyngitis, skin eruptions with redness and itching.

GINGER

Ginger stimulates circulation, warms the aura, and wakes you up! This food-medicine has a yellow energy, calming the stomach and brightening the mind.

ALMONDS

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), almonds are slightly warming and their flavour is sweet. Almonds relieve stagnant Lung Qi and they help transform phlegm and lubricate the intestines.

Almonds are good for: 

Asthma, cold extremities, pale face, a frequent feeling of coldness, difficulty breathing on slight exertion. Constipation i.e. infrequent and hard to pass stools that are very dry, small and dense. Coughing/lung conditions.

Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) considers almonds as one of the best nuts available. They say almonds awaken intelligence, spirituality and reproductive ability.

RECIPE

2 cups of almonds

16 dates with pits removed

2 x 20 cent sized mandarine, tangerine, or orange peel

Blend the almonds first into a grainy flour. Then add the dates and the peel. I made mine a bit crumbly, which made it very much like cake. If you want it to stick together better, add more dates. Press this into the bottom of a baking dish. 

3 tablespoons of almond spread

2 tablespoons of cashew spread

2 tablespoons of coconut oil

A dash of vanilla essence or the seeds from 1 vanilla pod.

6 dates

3/4 cup of water (or dairy-free milk) to assist with blending

1 heaped teaspoon of chamomile flowers

A sprinkle of salt

Blend or process everything together until the mix is smooth and then spread this on top of the first layer. Put the baking dish in the freezer to set while you prepare the last layer. The last layer is easier to apply if the middle layer has firmed up. 

5 dates

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup of cacao or cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon of ginger powder or a small amount of fresh ginger

1 tablespoon of coconut oil

Blend/process and spread as the final layer. Put in the freezer, then cut into squares the next day and serve!