The Birth of Our Raw Apple Crumble
This vegan raw apple crumble cake recipe started out as a smoothie bowl creation but I quickly realized the potential for CAKE and as you get to know me better you will know that I NEVER pass up the opportunity to make cake ?
Especially raw freezer-bake cakes with delicious fresh ingredients. So here’s my take on a Raw* Apple Crumble.
*Using the term RAW loosely. This recipe could be easily converted into a true RAW cake but for simplicity and ease… buckwheat is toasted. Otherwise, all other ingredients are raw.
Fruit Dropping from the Trees!
As we travel around the UK on our pet sitting travels we oftentimes find ourselves inundated with fresh produce… avid vegetable and fruit growers leave for their holidays telling us to help ourselves to the organic bounty in their gardens (and water it if we are blessed with sunshine).
And one summer we were so blessed everywhere we went!!
When we stayed in a beautiful old Victorian Mini-Manor House near Taunton, in Somerset… it was duly so… with a garden full of veggies, the obligatory Somerset estate orchard and a shockingly under used local Community Orchard… we had apples coming out of our ears.
Our little charge Shadow helping collect apples
Ingredients
The Base
* 1 cup of buckwheat
* 1 cup of almonds
* 1/3 cup of goji berries
(raisins work too)
* Pinch of cinnamon
* Splash of water
Smoothie
* 1 Banana
* 3 Apples
* 2 Avocados
* Pinch Cinnamon
* 2 tsp coconut oil (optional)
* Splash of water
Crumble
* Buckwheat grouts
* Ground Almonds
* Saffron
Method: Making Your Raw Cake
Choose Your Mould
1. Good options are a Victoria Sandwich Tin with pop-out base, silicon cake mould, muffin trays or even a Tupperware box…
2. If using a metal muffin tray… cut little 1cm wide by 10cm long tabs out of baking paper and place in the bottom of the muffin moulds, pushing into the corners and folding the paper… so that they create two little tabs which will help remove the cake when its freezer-baked
ONE: Making the BASE
1. Lightly toast the buckwheat, set aside to cool
2. Soak goji berries in water for a short while… (no need if using raisins)
3. Put Almonds in Food Processor and blend for a few seconds
4. Add toasted buckwheat and cinnamon… Mix
5. Remove a small portion for the CRUMBLE topping and set aside for later
6. Add the rehydrated goji berries to the food processor and mix until the mix is ‘tacky’… ie, it is sticky and rollable between your fingers without coating your fingers in a sticky, gloopy mess!!
7. Ingredients vary so the Mixture Consistency is more important than exact measurements of ingredients… if your mix is too wet add more ‘dry’ ingredients (like the ground almond)… if your mix is too dry add a little splash of water
8. Place mix into the bottom of your cake tin, muffin tray or even a tupperware box and press down with the back of a spoon to compact the mixture
9. Then FREEZE, keeping the cake mould level in the freezer
TWO: Your Smoothie Cream
1. Peel and core the apples… place in blender
2. Cut avocados in half, remove stone and scoop the green goodness into the blender
3. Peel and chop the banana… place in blender
4. Add Pinch cinnamon, optional coconut oil and a small splash of water into the blender
5. BLEND it all up
6. Take the base out of the freezer and pour the smoothie main over the base. Use the back of a spoon to spread it out into the corners and level it all over
7. Put back in the freezer, making sure the cake mould remains steady and level… otherwise you’ll have a wonky cake
THREE: Crumble Topping
1. Let the Smoothie Main & Base sit in the freezer while you tidy up the kitchen…
2. Then remove from freezer and add Crumble topping
3. Put back in the Freezer for at least an hour (depending on the chilliness of your freezer) and/or until you’re ready to serve
Method: Removing From The Mould
1. Remove your raw apple crumble from the freezer 30 minutes before you want to eat it… it’s usually easily cut-able within 15 minutes
2. Let it stand for a few minutes to defrost a little around the edges… this will help with removing it from the mold
3. Removing your cake from the mold:
4. If you’re using a victoria sandwich tin with a pop-out base… carefully run a knife around the edge where the cake touches the side of the tin, then pop-out your base
5. If you’re using a silicon mold, carefully peel off the mould… if it is sticking try carefully running a knife around the edges first
6. If you’re using a tupperware box gentle ‘flex’ the box to ease the cake away from the edges… place a plate over the top, turn upside down to release it, then use a second plate to turn it back the right way up
7. If you’re using a muffin tray with tabs… carefully run a knife around the edges, then very gently pull the two exposed tabs either side of each muffin… pulling them gently upwards and the cake should come out with them
