Happy St. Patrick's Day! I had a lot of fun creating this Irish themed cashew cheezecake, making it festive and green by adding matcha tea and cutting out a shamrock stencil for decoration. The filling and chocolate marbling are completely raw but the crust is made with toasted hazelnuts and rolled oats. You could leave them raw but I prefer the flavor and texture after toasting them.
Matcha and chocolate are a divine combination. This cake is not just for St. Patty's Day, its a keeper for anytime of the year. I fell in love with the marbling on these matcha cheesecake brownies by my friend Bella, so I thought it would be fun to do something similar with a raw chocolate swirl on this cake. I love the contrast of the dark cocoa color against the spring green matcha layer. You could stop there but the shamrock stencil adds an extra bit of whismy and Irish pride.
I hope you all have a fun day with a touch of green!
xx Kaity
recipe after the jump...
Vegan Layered Matcha + Cocoa Cashew Cream Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut Cookie Crust
Ingredients
- Filling
- 1 cup raw cashews
- ⅓ cup coconut milk *see notes
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
- 2 tablespoons raw cacao powder
- 1 tablespoon matcha powder plus more for garnish
- Crust
- ⅓ cup rolled oats
- ⅓ cup hazelnuts
- 8 medjool dates pitted
- 2 tablespoons cacao powder
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- Raw Chocolate
- 3 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
- 2.5 tablespoons raw cacao powder
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or more to taste
Instructions
- Soak cashews in water at room temperature for at least 2 hours up to 1 day. Cut a parchment paper round to fit the bottom of a 6 or 7” springform pan.
- Once cashews are soaked drain and rinse them. Blend cashews on high with the rest of filling ingredients except for the cacao and matcha. Blend filling until it is super smooth, about 2 minutes on highest speed. Pour out ½ of the filling into a bowl. Add cacao powder to the blender and blend to mix it in thoroughly. Add matcha to the other ½ of filling and whisk to combine. Set fillings aside while you prepare the crust.
- Preheat oven to 350˚F. Spread oats and hazelnuts onto a baking tray and toast them in oven until nuts are golden brown, about 5 minutes. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.
- Add toasted oats, hazelnuts, pitted dates, cacao and sea salt to the bowl of a food processor and process into a crumbly mix that holds together in your hand. If mixture is too dry to hold together, add a tablespoon of water at a time and pulse until it comes together. Press crust into the springform pan.
- Spread cocoa filling layer over crust and freeze for 5 minutes. Meanwhile prep the raw chocolate.
- Melt the coconut oil in a small bowl set over simmering water. Once melted, remove from heat and whisk in cacao powder and maple syrup until smooth. Set aside.
- Take cake out of the freezer and spread the matcha layer over the cocoa layer. Dollop raw chocolate over matcha layer in rounds by the spoonful. Using a toothpick or butter knife create a marbling effect by swirling the toothpick/knife through the raw chocolate and matcha layers.Work quickly as the raw chocolate will start to harden as it cools.
- Freeze cake until firm, about 1 hour. Cover cake with wrap and keep frozen until ready to serve.
- Cut a shamrock stencil out of cardstock. When ready to serve, take cake out of freezer and let sit at room temp for 10 minutes. Lay the stencil over the top of cake and sift matcha powder over it. Carefully lift stencil off of cake. Serve right away. Enjoy!
Notes
- Return leftover cake to the freezer and store covered for up to 6 months.
- I used SoDelicious brand culinary coconut milk (not sponsored) which is thick enough to use straight out of the container. If using canned coconut milk, it is best to first refrigerate the can overnight so the cream separates from the water. Scoop the thick cream out to use for this recipe.
Prop Love: Plate by ANK Ceramics. Pie server by Facture Goods. Table linen by Nade Studio.
bella says
Thank you so much for mentioning that one of my recipes inspired you Kaity! I especially love the matcha shamrock you added to the top of this cheezecake <3
Kaity Farrell says
Hey B! Gurrrrl, those matcha brownies of yours had me salivating! Tanks for the inspo. xx Kaity
Coco De Salazar says
Hi, I have a question pertaining to the raw chocolate you are supposed to dollop on the matcha layer before making the swirls. My raw chocolate mixture came out super thin, so instead of thick beautiful swirls, mine were very runny since the chocolate was of a liquid consistency. I followed the measurements - Was I supposed to refrigerate the chocolate or thicken it somehow? It was too runny to work with to make elegant swirls.
Kaity Farrell says
Hi Coco! The raw chocolate will be runny. By spooning it in small dollops onto the matcha layer you should be able to swirl each dollop of chocolate. The raw chocolate will harden pretty fast as it cools so you need to work quickly through this step. The raw chocolate will sit mostly on the top of the matcha layer. You could instead make more of the matcha filling and less of the cocoa filling then swirl the cocoa filling into the matcha filling for thicker swirls and just skip the raw chocolate all together if it didn't come out as you would have liked, if that makes sense. Thanks for your question!
Kaity Farrell says
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