I’m back! + Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake Recipe

Did you hear all that static noise? 😅 Sorry about that, but now I’m finally back and I can explain. My last post was almost a year ago, and my nonexistent posting afterwards came down to three reasons: inspiration, health and frustration.

As a student who doesn’t have to make all her meals (thanks mom!), it was hard finding inspiration and motivation to make food on a weekly basis. I found myself worrying over what to make each week, and I knew if I didn’t succeed I wouldn’t have the chance to make it over again (I get stressed easily). Besides that, I also wanted to eat healthier, and although the recipes posted here were mostly healthier versions, I think we can all agree that dessert is still dessert 😁. The other reason was based on my photo skills. I just couldn’t take a pretty photo with the dark winter lighting!

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Figs and Pistachios

The Crossroads Cookbook has been sitting in my shelves for quite a while now and I decided to take a look at it recently. It’s a vegan cookbook with lovely recipes such as homemade pasta, soups, and this decadent chocolate cake. I did modify the recipe a bit because I was too lazy to make all those different components at once. The figs and pistachios add an extra flair to the once simple chocolate dessert, and it tastes wonderful.

Rhubarb Almond Ginger Cake

Along with the Coconut Lavender Ice Cream recipe I shared with you guys, I also made this rhubarb almond ginger cake for my mom’s birthday. It is a simple recipe to make and is healthier than you might’ve thought.

This is a moist and fluffy cake that has a mixture of the tartness from the rhubarb, the sweetness from the coconut sugar and the healthy addition of ginger. Instead of sour cream, I used Greek yogurt with great success.

Also very easy to make and clean up since it’s a one-bowl recipe! I love one bowl recipes.

Strawberry Rhubarb Upside Down Almond Cake

I made this cake to clear out the very ripe strawberries in our fridge and use up the last stalks of rhubarb. This is a gluten-free almond cake with strawberry and rhubarb and it is so delicious. It’s also healthy because it has fruit, coconut sugar (which is better for you than white sugar), and almond flour. I have to admit, the cake won’t win any beauty contests, but I have high regards for the taste.

This recipe comes from a combination of an almond cake recipe from Well Plated by Erin and my own mixture of fruit on the bottom. The most famous upside down cake is probably the colourful pineapple one, but I would choose this one over the pineapple one any day.

Healthy Coconut Lavender Ice Cream

Okay, I promise my vacation post will be up soon, but while I finish it up, I’m leaving you guys with an ice cream recipe. And it’s not just any ice cream recipe. This one is:

• Dairy-free
• Vegan
• Healthy
• Naturally sweetened
• Flavoured with lavender and blackberry
• No churn

When summer is hot, ice cream is the perfect way to cool yourself down. I really wanted to make something healthier than the normal ones, so I did! We have a bunch of lavender in the garden which dried out due to the heat, so it was perfect for the recipe. There’s also a lot of wild blackberries around our neighbourhood, so my brother and I always go out with a container in hand to pick them all. Well, all that we can take. There’s always this annoying little group of perfectly ripe blackberries just a bit too high and deep in the bush for us to pick.

Greek Yogurt Healthy-Freddo with Berries

The day I’m done school the weather decides to be blistering hot. Well, blistering hot compared to the rest of the year. It’s 30°C here and I know that might not seem hot in other places, but trust me, here it’s incredible.

I decided to beat the heat by making a cold dessert, and what better than the Italian dessert Semifreddo, which literally means half-cold? I was looking at Elisabeth Prueitt’s cookbook, titled Tartine All Day, and I happened upon the most gorgeous picture of chocolate Semifreddo. I was so hyped to make it until I saw the ingredients and realized I didn’t have half of them and it wasn’t as healthy I would have liked.

No-Bake Matcha Tahini Energy Bites

Sometimes we all need a bit of extra energy. Especially when it comes in the form of a sweet and nutty ball with matcha and dates. These bites literally melt in your mouth! And I absolutely adore the soft texture of the dates with a bit of crunch from the almonds and chia seeds.

I call this the easiest and healthiest dessert, snack, whatever, invented! (My dad called them donkey shit but whatever, it’s the taste that counts, right?) It only takes 5 minutes to blend all 5 ingredients in a food processor before popping them in the fridge for a few hours. I may or may not have also licked the pot sparkling clean while waiting for the bites to firm up.

Olive and Grapeseed Oil Almond Cake with Mascarpone Raspberry Cream

I’m very pleased with this cake. I started from Life Love Food’s Honey Olive Oil Almond Cake, but I made a few changes because I either didn’t have the ingredients, the pan or the patience :). I can also proudly say that the mascarpone raspberry cream was all me! I do use a lot of recipes online to help me with my baking adventures because of ratios, proportions and other scientific stuff that comes with baking, but not for the cream.

Baking healthy means changing many things, like butter, sugar, eggs, flour, etc. Although I haven’t reached the healthiest point in baking (like I still use AP flour which I’ve heard was bad but other flours are just way too expensive and I’ve been wanting to try cashew cheesecake forever but cashews are also very expensive), I’m happy with baking because it still tastes good and doesn’t take too much of my time.

Healthy Sesame Mochi Ice Cream

I’ve had this one time in Japan and I loved it so much that I’ve been waiting to make since forever.

It’s essentially healthy ice cream, with only sesame powder and bananas, wrapped in a naturally-sweetened coating. And it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. It just takes time to refrigerate and freeze, but during that time you don’t have to be like standing in front of the fridge and watching the mochi. Unless you want to for some reason?

I’ve also been preparing a food board presentation for school, which may or may not include healthy brownies, so if that works out I’ll share that here, plus the presentation board because it has food drawings on it :).

Healthier Pecan Pie with Almond Crust

On Saturday, I was sitting down, scrolling through my Pinterest, when I found a gorgeous photo of pecan pie. My mom adores this dessert, so I decided to make it. It was much quicker than I thought it would be to make a pie, plus I managed to make it gluten-free and healthier (no butter or sugar).

We ate the dessert after going out to a restaurant, so I was already dreading taking pictures in the dark and under my yellow kitchen lights. But then I found a perfect — and most unusual — place in the house with white lights: my brother’s room.