Rawsome 'Desserts in the Raw' workshop

You may remember that, earlier this year, I raved about Rawsome products appearing at cafes around Perth. As I noted then, the Rawsome range includes raw, vegan (except raw honey in some products), gluten free, paleo, grain free, sugar free and soy free treats that are, quite frankly, amazing. Caramel slice, mint slice, and chocolate fudge brownies are just some of the choices on offer.

Last Sunday, I attended an evening workshop run by Laila Gampfer, the developer of Rawsome. Her Desserts in the Raw workshops are held regularly, and always sell out long in advance of the actual date. In fact, one of the reasons I signed up (way back in August) was the option to cancel without penalty up to 48 hours beforehand. There is always a waiting list of hopeful attendees, so if you need to back out, someone can be slotted into your place.

Raw, vegan chocolate mudcake.

Happily, I didn't need to back out. Along with the other 10 or so attendees, I had a great time and left with enough dessert to fuel me through the week.

The workshop was held in the Rawsome kitchen, which has the sort of bulk bought ingredients I wish my own kitchen was full of: large tubs of cacao, nuts and seeds; many jars of agave; and a huge amount of coconut oil. There are multiple thermomixes, large fridges, and the ovens are used for storage. It's a lovely place. It's also impressive to think of the number of products being churned out by Laila and her small (mostly family) team.



We were given recipes for the desserts we made on the night. Out of courtesy, I am not sharing them here, but will put my own twist on some of my favourites and post variations at a future date. For today, I hope you'll enjoy seeing what we created, and I am summarising some of the key things I learned. All photos are from my phone, so I apologise for that in advance!

Before getting to dessert, we started with a green smoothie and by making a batch of almond milk. Some of the almond pulp featured in recipes later, and I have realised just how poorly I've utilised my own almond pulp in the past.

From there, it was on to two cheesecakes (or cheesefakes as Laila more accurately calls them). Regular readers will know my dislike of regular cheesecake and my equal like of the raw vegan sort. Thus, it is no surprise that I loved this section of the class. Watching soaked cashews turn into cheesecake is something I will never get tired of.

'Fijian' cheesecake

The Fijian cheesecake may be my favourite dessert of the night. it includes a hefty dose of lime juice and a layer of banana between the base and the creamy topping. It packs citrus, coconut and fruit in each bite and I will definitely be experimenting with it at home (and sharing an adapted version with you).

The chocolate chai cheesecake was, ironically, probably my least favourite dessert of the night. It was creamy, rich, and entirely authentic in its cheesecake texture. Others loved it, and if you like cheesecake, I have no doubt you would too. For me, it was a bit too much - but extremely pretty.

Chocolate chai cheesecake

After the cheesecakes, we made the smaller desserts: lamington bliss balls (which included the almond pulp) and moon rocks (very dense - hazelnuts, cacao, nut butter, and coconut oil!). Interestingly, both were made in a mixing bowl, a reminder that food processors aren't necessary for everything.

A food processor was necessary for the final dessert, which was incredibly fun to watch come together. Reminiscent of Hannah's raw chocolate brownies, it was a chocolate mudcake with walnuts, dates and cacao forming the bulk of the 'cake', and chocolate avocado mousse providing the icing. Mixed berries topped things off.

Take home slice of raw, vegan chocolate mudcake - 
a bit messier than the first photo

I have made Hannah's brownies, and I have made many a batch of chocolate avocado mousse, but I have never made anything quite like this cake. Rest assured - I shall be repeating it at home now.

Other than a whole lot of deliciousness, and the aforementioned recipes, I took a number of useful tips from this workshop. In no particular order, they are:

• You can freeze homemade nut milks. I don't know why this never occurred to me, but it is very helpful to know now. Freezing in ice cube moulds would be a really handy way to do things.
• Setting raw cheesecakes for 2 hours in the freezer and then overnight in the fridge may give best results in setting speed and texture consistency.
• I think I make my cheesecake bases too moist; Laila's were drier and probably more like traditional, biscuit crumb, bases.
• Marbelling is a really effective way to fancify a cake!
• You can do an incredible amount with a tiny ingredient list. Nuts, cacao, dates and coconut butter go a very long way.
• If you make your own nut butters, adding brazil nuts to almond or cashew nut butters will help to reduce processing time and food processor effort. Brazil nuts have a higher fat content than almonds and cashews, so are more amenable to being turned into a spreadable form.

More generally, it deserves note that the workshop was well run and a very enjoyable way to spend a few hours. Laila is full of energy and clearly very enthuasiastic about what she does - and lots of fun to be around. I was also glad that while we had plenty of opportunities to participate in the processing / creating process, there was also no obligation to do so and you could sit back and watch if preferred.

Have you been to many / any food-related workshops? Or do you have any favourite raw / vegan dessert recipes of your own?

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