Chocolate Raspberry Cake with Ginger Chocolate Mousse

[Carmella]

Russell James' newsletter was a few days late this week, but it was sure worth the wait. I couldn't help chuckling when I saw that he, too, has been playing with raspberries and chocolate. (See my Raspberry Chocolate Rhapsody Cake)

Looks absolutely divine...

Chocolate Raspberry Cake with Ginger Chocolate Mousse
By Russell James
Published in his 'News From the Kitchen' eZine*

Makes 4 cakes

For the base
1/4c oat flour*
1/2c cashew flour**
2T cacao powder
2T maple syrup
1/2t vanilla extract
3T water
1t lemon juice
pinch salt

1 small pack of raspberries for the center of the cake.

For the mousse
1c cashews
1/4c coconut oil
1/4c cacao powder
1/4c + 2T maple syrup
1/2c water
1T fresh ginger
1/2t ground ginger
1t lemon juice
2t tamari/shoyu
pinch salt

For the decoration (optional)
1/2c raspberries
1T maple syrup
1t lemon juice

*Oat flour is simply raw oats that have been turned to flour in a coffee grinder or Vita-Mix.

**Cashew flour is made by grinding cashews in a food processor until they turn to crumbs. You don't need it as fine as the oat flour.

Method
- In a large bowl: mix all the base ingredients, thoroughly.

- Place a metal ring***, approximately 7cm wide and at least 5cm tall, on a dehydrator tray and Paraflexx sheet. Dividing the mixture into 4, place one part into the bottom of the metal ring and spread evenly. Repeat this until you have 4 bases.

- Dehydrate at 115 degrees F, for 2 hours. At this point you should be able to transfer the bases to a dehydrator tray without the Paraflexx sheet; allowing them to dry for a further 8 hours.

- Blend all mousse ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth and set aside.

- Take your bases and place the metal ring back over one of them. I like to line the inside of the ring with non-stick paper; I find this aids in the removal of the ring at the end.

- Arrange some raspberries at the bottom of the ring, covering the whole of the base. You can then cover them with one quarter of the mousse.

- Repeat this with the other bases. This can be done using another 3 metal rings; or you can leave the cake you have just done in the freezer for a few minutes, by which time it will be firm enough to remove the metal ring.

- You can decorate the cakes however you like, but for the decoration in the picture I blended all the decoration ingredients, and used a spoon to drizzle that mixture onto a Paraflexx sheet. I then dehydrated it for 24 hours at 115 degrees F on the sheet, and a further 24 hours without, until crispy.

- Instead of doing that, to save time, you can just top with more raspberries and a dusting of cacao powder.

*** The metals rings I used can be bought from most cook shops in a variety of sizes.

*To sign up for Russell's ‘News From The Kitchen’ bi-monthly eZine, Click Here!

[wyjoz]

holly shmolly molly yawhsers! Russell just outdid himself and others !


Horray for Russell ! It's such a 'pleasure' to be part of his sharing of his creations with the world ! Joz

[Carmella]

I know! What a blessing that such a fantastic chef freely shares his creations like he does. To my knowledge, he has never published a recipe book, yet there is no doubt that it would sell. (He's been said to be "the UK's leading raw chef", btw.)

Here's to your creative genius and generosity, Russell!

[Being]

It IS absolutely divine... I made this today to take to a friend's house... and sadly, forgot to bring my camera to capture the masterpiece.

Okay, it wasn't a masterpiece, next time will be closer to perfection, aesthetics wise. Still it looked pretty fab

The only changes I made were using cocoa powder (not raw) because I was out of cacao nibs after making the crust.. and only 1 tsp. of tamari because that was just too weird for me to put in chocolate mousse!

Everyone, cooked and all, loved it. It is very rich... the recipe made two 4" sized crusts/cakes for me. Actually there was just barely enough crust mixture to make the two crusts, pressed in the bottom of a 4" springform. Less than 1/4 inch thick.

The mousse, fabulous! Super gingery, and the fresh raspberries were a treat this time of year (Too bad they were shipped in from Chile )

I will certainly make this again, now that I struggled through my very first fancy gourmet dessert. Hands on time was 15 mins. max. The rest is dehydration and chillin' in the freezer.

[Carmella]

Oh yay! Thanks for the feedbacks!

This one was on our 'to make' list when FG came over, but sadly we didn't manage to fit it in.

I've got some 4" pans coming through the mail which will be perfect for this.

Do you think frozen raspberries would work? The chances of finding fresh ones at this time of year are pretty nil around here.