Birthdays, Deadlines, School Holidays + Strawberry Cheesecake

BIRTHDAYS, DEADLINES, SCHOOL HOLIDAYS + STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE
22 September 2016

So, it’s official, we’re now in our second year of Lunch Lady. With us launching issue four and FINALLY waving goodbye to issue five, we see the second summer Lunch Lady complete. And while we manically finished pages and moved stuff around to make it the most perfect issue it can be, we were juggling kids on school holidays, endless requests for snacks and managing activities so it wasn’t all about the screen.

In between all that, we had a birthday in the house. I thought, this time I’d make a birthday cake I could pig out on too. Just when I thought I had run out things to search for on the internet, I find out I can’t eat gluten or fructose. A whole new world of google opened up before me! New cakes, bars and other weird looking stuff presented itself to me!

This little vegan and gluten free ‘cheesecake’ was a real winner. In fact, I had to push a couple of kids to the ground for an extra slice.

TIA’S BIRTHDAY CAKE

For the base:

• 1 cup almonds
• 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 3 medjool dates
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the cheesecake bit:

• 2 cups raw cashews, soaked for at least a few hours
• 6 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 ripe banana
• 2 cups strawberries, hulled
• 1 cup strawberries, for decorating

What to do:

1. Pop all the base ingredients into a food processor and whiz until a crumbly mixture forms.
2. Tip mix into a springform tin and press down to form a base. Smooth over with a back of a spoon to get a nice even spread.
3. Put the tin in the freezer.
   For the cheesecake bit, put the cashews in the food processor and whiz unit it start to appear smooth.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and whiz until the mixture is smooth and well combined.
5. Pour the mixture into the springform pan on top of the base and spread it out evenly.
6. Place the cheesecake in the freezer and freeze for 1-2 hours, until set.
7. Remove from the freezer and decorate with strawberries.
8. Stick in some candles and sing happy birthday.