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Heavenly No-Bake Cherry Cheesecake With Decadent Dark Chocolate Ganache (Gluten Free, Vegan)

This No Bake Vanilla & Cherry Cheesecake has a delicious pecan and coconut crust, a layer of creamy vanilla cheesecake, topped up with irresistible cherry cheesecake layer. Glazed with vegan dark chocolate ganache, this is a cheesecake you want to make for your next occasion! 

Hello, my beautiful friend!  I truly appreciate you stopping by!

Once upon a time, I used to create raw vegan cakes for wider masses and sell them in a juice bar I used to work at, as well as fulfilling the bespoke orders, and organising workshops on how to make these lush treats. Then things changed, as life often happens, and I moved from city to rural area, and delivering cakes became way too complicated. That was the time when I had to give a thought what the next steps for the raw vegan cakes business would be and decided to give it a break.  Since then I have launched my health & wellness coaching, and continue to make cakes occasionally (mostly for family and friends).

Often I get asked to share a recipe here and there, so after popular demand, today is the day when the Vanilla & Cherry Cheesecake made it to be featured! Yey! The occasion couldn’t be better – my other half’s birthday! Happy birthday, love! The request was to make something with cherries, and so here it goes.

This cake is made with cashew nuts and home-made almond milk, however, you can replace the almond milk with coconut milk for more coconutty flavour if you wish. The vanilla layer is followed by a rich cherry cheesecake layer. I usually use freeze-dried fruits for my cakes, but it can be also done with frozen (and thawed) fruit. I get my freeze-dried fruits and powders from Real Food Source – they are very affordable and offer a great quality organic produce. For the top of the cake, I’ve melted the Green&Blacks Organic 70% Dark Chocolate (just because I had it at home) – otherwise, I would make my own chocolate with organic cacao powder, coconut oil, maple syrup and salt.

RELATED POST: How To Make Your Own Home-made Almond Milk

This no-bake gluten-free Cherry Cheesecake is easy to make thanks to my best friend ever Vitamix – the crust and the filling are both made in there. For the crust, the ingredients are pulsed together and then pressed into the pan. The ingredients for the filling are blended until smooth. If you have an ordinary kitchen blender, you might want to scrap the sides of the blender a few times (this might take a few minutes longer than with high-speed blender) until you achieve a creamy texture. Once both of the layers are frozen, the chocolate ganache is poured over and topped up with fresh cherries.

Not only this dessert looks decadent and lush, but it also tastes absolutely divine!

Let’s make it!

Lush Vegan Raw Vanilla & Cherry Cheesecake With Dark Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

CRUST:

• 3/4 – 1 cup desiccated  coconut
• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup pitted dates
• pinch of quality salt

If the texture doesn’t stick together, use 1 teaspoon coconut oil to make it sticky. Pulse everything together until a sticky dough texture, and press into a 6″ pan. I use parchment paper for the bottom of my pan to avoid the sticky texture to stick to the pan. This is optional, but it makes your life easier when taking the cake out from the pan in order to slice it.

FILLING:

• 2 cups of raw cashews (soaked for 8 hours, or overnight. You can soak the nuts in hot water for 2-3 hours if running out of time)
• 1/2 cup almond milk (or canned coconut milk)
• 1/3 cup organic maple syrup
• juice of half a lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract OR 1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean powder
• 1/4 cup of cold-pressed coconut oil (melted)
• 2/3 cup of freeze-dried cherries OR 2/3 cup of de-frozen cherries (strain the cherry juice and put aside)

CHOCOLATE GANACHE:

• 1 block of high-quality dark chocolate (melted)

If you making your own chocolate ganache from scratch you will need:

• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup raw cacao powder ( I get mine from Real Food Source)
• 1/4 cup of raw cold-pressed coconut oil (melted)
• generous pinch of a quality salt (sea salt or pink Himalayan salt)

Blend everything together in a blender until smooth and pour over the frozen cake.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Line a 6″ springform pan with parchment paper and grease with coconut oil for easy removal, or you can grease the pan directly if you don’t have the baking paper. Set aside.
2. Using either a food processor or a blender, add the ingredients for crust and pulse, until well combined. The mixture should form a sticky dough, with small bits of pecans remaining. Press the mixture evenly to the bottom of the cake form.
3. Add all the ingredients apart of the cherries into the blender, and blend until smooth and silky. As mentioned previously, if you don’t have a high-speed blender, you might have to scrap the sides of blender more often to achieve the smooth silky texture. Either way, you will get there 😉 Adjust the sweetness, if desired. When ready, pour half of the filling onto the pecan crust. Smooth out the top, and tap the pan hard against the counter a few times to release any air bubbles. Set in freezer for about 30 minutes, or until the vanilla layer is firm.
4. In the meantime add the cherries into the remaining filling sitting in the blender. Blend until smooth.
5. After 30 minutes or so, take the vanilla layer cake from the freezer. Run the blender for a few seconds to get the smooth cherry layer going. If necessary, add a little almond (coconut) milk, or the cherry juice, if the mixture seems to have firmed up too much). Pour over the vanilla layer, tap against the counter again to release any air bubbles and return to the freezer for about 3 hours or until completely firm. You can also let it sit in the fridge overnight if time allows.
6. For the ganache, simply melt the chocolate in a small bowl. I let my stainless steel bowl with chocolate sit in a larger pot with filled up with hot water. Let it melt until smooth. You can add a teaspoon of coconut oil if desired. When ready, pour the ganache over the frozen (or firmed) cheesecake and top up with a few fresh cherries. Pop into freezer for15 minutes to firm the chocolate ganache a bit if desired.
7. Store in the fridge or freezer. When ready to slice the cheesecake, I recommend using a hot knife before slicing (simply run the knife under hot water to warm it up before slicing the cake). If serving from frozen, let the cake sit on the counter for about 15-20 minutes before slicing.

Cherries are an incredible nutrient powerhouse. Not only are they considered to contain a high level of antioxidants, but are also high in potassium (which reduces the risk of stroke, alleviates hypertension and high blood pressure reduces muscle cramping and improves muscle strength), This incredible berry is also known to reduce inflammation, boost heart health, help sleep cycle, promote weight loss, as well as helps to treat gout and osteoarthritis. (SOURCE)

Are you in to give the Vanilla & Cherry Cheesecake a go?

Happy no-baking!

Keep Shining!

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