PEPPERMINT OREOS DIPPED IN DARK CHOCOLATE

This recipe is the BOMB. It tastes as good as the photos look, and I know ya'll are freaking out over the photos. Basically we've got chewy chocolate cookies sandwiching a peppermint vanilla coconut creme filling. Yupp. Oh right, then all the cookies are dipped in chocolate, making them double chocolate. Can life get any better? Well, yeah, because these are also really good for you and easy to make. Okay, now life can't get any better. Unless you throw in a bowl of banana ice cream (but that is a constant truth).

MARSHMALLOW CREAM CAKE

This was a delicious accident. I meant for this to be your run-of-the-mill raw vegan cream cake (which sounds like an oxymoron... shh), but I wanted to add a bit more substance to it without adding a bunch more heaviness, so I chose to throw in some chia seeds. I figured they could multi-task and work to thicken up the batter too, since chia seeds plump up with liquids and make a kinda superfood pudding. Well, thank goodness I did. When I took the cake out of the freezer, sliced myself a piece and tasted it - I was pleasantly surprised by the texture. It's light and fluffy just like marshmallows! Not nearly as sweet, because I prefer to leave my desserts au natural and not add too much sweetness (even though my sweeteners are pretty au natural themselves), but I immediately thought: I can call this bad boy a marshmallow cake!

MEYER LEMON COCONUT CREAM TARTS with MINT + LAVENDER

These are divine, and they are reppin' the world of desserts that don't include chocolate. The non-cocoa players need love too! I'm just mentioning this because a lot of my recipes lately have included that brown powder we all secretly kiss when no one is looking. This time, Imma be kissin' my Meyer lemons instead. Honestly when I eat chocolate I usually think something along the lines of "I NEED YOU IN MY LIFE ALWAYS AND FOREVER." But in reality, I go days without it and hardly notice (cacao, please don't be hurt, you're still in my heart). My point is: ya don't need cocoa or cacao powder to make a kick-ass dessert; raw, vegan, or otherwise. This recipe proves it. 

LIFE-CHANGING MARZIPAN & BUTTERSCOTCH ICE CREAM SUNDAE

I was going to call this Sex In a Bowl but that would've been NSFW. Anyways, that's what it SHOULD be called. It's... unreal. It's... perfection. It's... heaven. I can't say enough about it so I'm just gonna keep this post short and say: you need this in your LIFE. It is so easy to make, and I have been whipping it up daily for the past week because now I can't live without it. I very seriously think to myself: as long as I have a life supply of this, everything is okay. You will understand once you make it. One of the best parts of this three ingredient recipe (besides the fact that it's mouthgasmic and yes, has only three ingredients) is that it's really good for you! The only ingredients - drum roll, please - are frozen bananas to make the ice cream, almond butter for the marzipan, and carob syrup for the butterscotch. The world is too good to us.

ICE CREAM TARTS with CHOCOLATE SAUCE & PECANS

 When I started making this recipe this morning my aim was to revamp one of my first ones ever (from 2011 when I started da blog). But I just realized that this turned into an almost exact replica of my immediately previous recipe, with the addition of a tart crust. Oops. Oh well! Don't cry over repeated ice cream + chocolate recipes, I always say. Actually that is the first time I've ever said that yet now I think it should be stated more often. I do eat banana ice cream and chocolate nearly every day, and positive reminders are always... positive. Ah, I just started the new semester today so my brain is already overworked. Thank goodness no one comes here for the prose. I know you only love me for my ice cream recipes and it's OOOKAY. I love you right back.

CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT and PEANUT BUTTER CREAM CAKE (aka THE ORGASM CAKE)

Oh yeah, I went there. Again. I made this cake for my mum's party, so fingers crossed that her friends like it. I'm also saving a piece as my secret santa gift for a party tomorrow night. Double fingers crossed. Or... fingers crossed on both hands; that's more comfortable. I am still on my Mariah Carey binge so please make this cake then eat it while listening to this (just wait for the chorus). 

BANANA VANILLA SOFT SERVE with DARK CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE

Sooooo going vegan is pretty much the best decision ever, because it means you can eat ice cream and chocolate all day long and get healthier and happier than ever before. How is this possible? You can make the best ice cream in the WORLD with one ingredient: bananas. You can make the healthiest dark chocolate sauce ever with super nutritious foods like cacao and carob. I eat ice cream for breakfast regularly, and I am smiling and jumping around the rest of the day, every day. Why spoon a bowl of antibiotic- and sugar-loaded bovine secretions when you can gorge on ripe fruit!? No offence to the cows. They are awesome, but we don't need their milk. Another terrific bit of information about vegan ice cream: it's inexpensive! Organic bananas are often $1.00/lb here in Vancouver, Canada (conventional ones are 70 cents/lb or so) and I KNOW they are often cheaper in the States.

ALOHA, SUPERFOOD CHOCOLATES!

This recipe was inspired by Aloha's superfood chocolate bar. Their chocolate is some of the best I have ever put in my mouth, so I HAD to recreate it in my kitchen. I think the superior taste must come from the magical ingredients - spirulina, mushrooms, berries, coconut, cashews, vanilla - that develop this ridiculously satisfying flavour. It just tastes... real. It's like a vitamin pill in the form of decadent, sweet, dark chocolate. Share these with the ones you love, because it'll give 'em long life and good vibes.

CHOCOLATE COCONUT ALMOND BUTTER CUPS - OH BABY

Caution: these are almost as addictive as my chocolate cream caramel bars. This is the THIRD TIME I have made them because they are so damn delicious. Please, make them. Share them. Rejoice in the miracle that is raw vegan chocolate + almond butter + coconut. Essentially what you have here is a super wide peanut butter cup with raw chocolate, but I use almond butter instead of peanut butter, and I mixed in coconut shreds to thicken it up. By the way, I found the best shredded coconut! It's from a really neat little company right beside me (on Vancouver Island) called Harmonic Arts. They have the most amazing tea blends too, and many of their products are wild-harvested. Everything is organic.

WHIPPED COCO CREAM TART with FRESH BERRIES

An ode to tarts:

Precious tart,

so elegant and sweet,

you tempt me with your textures... 

a slice I cannot help but eat.

Who was your inventor?

They were indeed a genius.

Your taste and colour are sublime,

nothing is more luscious.

From your crust to your cream

and the fruitiness in between,

I love you for your simplicity, 

I'll see you in my dreams.

So that was really tacky and incredibly lame of me but sometimes ya just gotta write love prose to your fave dessert. Right, guys? ... GUYS? In all seriousness though I do adore raw vegan tarts. They're easier and quicker to make than cakes, and most of the time they come out looking like super stars. You make the crust which is usually just a mix of dates and nuts, press that into a tart pan, and then you make your filling which is normally a simple blending up of bananas, coconut or nuts with  a healthy sweetener, and finally you decorate it with something pretty like fruit. Done. You now have a gorgeous, delicious, uber-good-for-you treat to impress everyone with. This is why I love raw vegan desserts.

I made this recipe a few months ago and am posting it now to remind me of the wonderful berry harvests of the summer. I will miss the sun dearly for the next couple seasons. We basically get straight rain for the next five months here in British Columbia. The only way I survive is by daydreaming about the vibrant berries we had the pleasure of eating in the previous warmer months. Until the next fertile epoch I will be consuming a lot of frozen fruit, apples, greens, carrots and potatoes. I am trying to eat more food that is grown locally, and as I have said before: it's easy to do that when you have TWO winter farmers markets in your city. Yep, we locavore Vancouverites are spoiled.

Another bonus to buying local - in addition to being more connected to your food system, minimizing your carbon foot print, and supporting ethical, environmentally-concious farmers in your area - is the quality of the produce you are getting. Yes, it can be more expensive and usually is (though sometimes you can actually SAVE money at farmers markets) the flavour, colour and texture of locally grown organic food versus internationally shipped stuff from the grocery store is incomparable. What I do now is buy "the dirty dozen"(i.e. the ones most contaminated by pesticides, etc.) if they are available at the farmers market, or at least organically-grown kinds from the grocery store. That way I find a happy balance for my wallet AND still support the local farmers and enjoy amazing produce. Is buying organic important to you? Is buying local important to you? Why or why not? Let me know in the comment section! Have a great day, beautiful people, and try making the tart! x

WHIPPED COCO CREAM TART with FRESH BERRIES

Crust:
1 cup pecans
1/3 cup hemp seeds
1 1/2 cups dates
Pinch Himalayan salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Coconut cream:
Follow this recipe.

Fruit:
3 cups fresh berries
2 bananas
1 tablespoon coconut nectar (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the crust: pulse the pecans and hemp seeds into powder in a food processor, then add the rest of the ingredients and process until it all begins to stick together. Press into a lined tart tin and put in the fridge for a couple hours.

To prepare the fruit: wash and slice the berries and bananas then coat with the coconut nectar (if using) and vanilla and put in the dehydrator for 30-60 minutes, this softens and sweetens them.

Assembly: spread your coconut cream into the crust and top off with your berries. MMM.

PERFECT RAW VEGAN GRANOLA (+ PERSIMMON STRAWBERRY SMOOTHIE)

Hello, hello! And happy Sunday! I have spent the entire morning working at my new standing desk (which I got on Craigslist for $30, whaddup), trying to figure out how to make my blog more beautiful and efficient for you. My conclusion is that it's gonna have to wait. I am so busy these days with school, promoting my second book (pre-order your copy now!) and trying to maintain a life that I don't have the time to build a whole new website... yet. However, I want you to know it is something I am planning on doing. I wanna update my recipe index, take better pictures, give you more recipes, focus on putting out great YouTube videos (like recipes demos and FAQ's), and in general just keep improving This Rawsome Vegan Life. I hope that's cool wit you. Don't worry - I'm not gonna turn it into some bland, generic webpage. TRVL is my heart and soul and I always mean to show that in this cyber corner of the 'net. But you don't wanna hear about me and GALANT here wishfully searching for unicorn HTML code... you wanna hear about granola.

Let's talk about granola. This recipe is the bomb! 

SALTED CARAMEL + SESAME CHOCOLATE CREAM TARTS

It's recipes like these that I find easy to compare with sexual experiences. I promise you'll get some intense mouthgasms when you bite into one of these tarts. I did. 

When basic logic is applied one can see how most - if not all - pleasurable moments in our lives are as such because of hormones. Namely endorphins, dopamine, oxytocin and the like. Some might think this is depressing, but I think it's totally awesome. Why do I love Jack? Well, for a lot of reasons that are unexplainable at the moment. But a huge part of it is because when I am around him and when I think about him, oxytocin is released in my brain! I associate positive emotions with him and my body and mind wants me to stick with the relationship because our evolutionary history values solid reproductive partners. When ya really give it a think - we are still such primal creatures. We are ANIMALS through and through. Sure, in the last several thousands of years our environment has changed - but our biology has not. Look around: we are uber preoccupied with eating, sex and... oh that's pretty much it. Of course we've got culture and art and music and important movements for social, political and environmental policy improvement; these seemingly have nothing to do with our fundamental drives but in a lot of cases I think you can still relate it back. There's no doubt that the general public is most focused on appeasing their senses. We are a sensual species! We like feelin' good. So do other mammals (because we are mammals, after all)! 

MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM SANDWICHES

I know what you are thinking: "Emily told us she was gonna lay off the desserts!" Well, you are right. I did say that. I was burnt out after writing an entire book on raw vegan desserts in 4 months... so I thought I wasn't going to want to make any for a looong time. Then this past weekend, I visited my friend in Victoria (on Vancouver Island) while camping nearby with my beau (it was a fab trip) and we ate at this fantastic restaurant called be love. I will be posting a review on our experience there soon. We all loved our meals so much that we ordered dessert too. Eva was given this amazing plate featuring a cherry ice cream sandwich and it reminded me of why I love[d] raw vegan desserts so very passionately! My meals and recipes have been so simple lately, and personally I have been loving that. Yet at the same time, none of them have the capacity to make people swoon and moan with pleasure, and simply be wowed at the sight of the dish, like raw vegan desserts do. My sweet treat creativity got flowing once more and I couldn't wait to get home and whip up all these ideas I have for raw vegan desserts! No, really. I have a lengthy list. This was one of the items on said list, and since it was reminiscent of the yumminess in Victoria, it felt like the perfect fit. I can confidently say they turned out wonderfully, and the whole family loved them; even some friends from Switzerland who are visiting right now! I mean, they KNOW their chocolate. 

I used chocolate mint leaves from the garden, but you can use any kind of mint leaf you like. I also used some beautiful peppermint oil from doTERRA, because it's so organic you can eat it! Highly recommended. Top secret info that is no longer secret because I am typing it out on a very public blog: I used a little bit of spirulina powder to give the ice cream that classic mint ice cream colour we all learned to love as kids. You cannot even taste it but it worked perfectly. Nobody knew... mwahaha. Call me the devious nutritionist. But don't actually, 'cause I ain't certified; I am just a crazy girl in a kitchen who likes eating plants and photographing everything. If you wanna keep this recipe low-fat, I give a few adaptions you can make in the recipe directions. As for me? Even though I am super into the whole high carb thing right now, I still love me some fats and I adore nothing more than getting my daily recommend intake of them in desserts like this. We should all be eating some healthy plant-based fat everyday, we just don't need much! So that being said: please enjoy the heck outta these, and share them with those you love. Or those you don't love, so you can improve that relationship. Or let's be real - you might just hoard them in your freezer and not tell anyone, so you can devour them all in stealth mode. I know you. 

MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM SANDWICHES 

Cookie:
1 cup walnuts
1 cup dates
1 tablespoon cacao powder
Pinch Himalayan salt

Chocolate chips:
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1 tablespoon cacao powder
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Ice cream:
1 cup young coconut meat 
1 cup cashews 
2 cups water 
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup mint leaves 
3 drops doTERRA peppermint oil
Spirulina powder, as needed (optional) 

ADAPTIONS: if you wanna make this low-fat, use rolled oats instead of walnuts; use bananas instead of cashews; and use date paste instead of coconut oil. 

To make the cookies: pulse the walnuts in a food processor until they become a fine powder. Add the rest of the ingredients and process until it all begins to stick together. On parchment paper, shape the dough into cookies however you like. I used a circular cookie cutter and dropped a spoonful into it, pressed it down, then gently tugged the cookie cutter off and made another. Set these in the fridge overnight. 

To make the chocolate chips: whisk together the ingredients, then pour onto a flat plate and freeze until solid. Chop into small pieces and stir into the ice cream when it's thick enough (otherwise the pieces will just sink to the bottom). 

To make the ice cream: blend all the ingredients until smooth, adding tiny amounts of spirulina until the mixture is the colour you want. Put this mixture into an ice cream maker and follow the instructions of the machine. If you don't have an ice cream maker (like me), simply pour the mixture into a metal pan and stick it in the freezer, whisking it up every 30 minutes until it's transformed. Remember to add your chocolate chips! 

Assembly: cookie, scoop of ice cream, cookie. 

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RAW VEGAN CARROT CAKE with CREAMY CASHEW LEMON FROSTING

Yo, you beautiful human, you. In case you haven't seen it yet, my previous carrot cake recipe is pretty much my most popular. Check it out here. Everyone loves it, and that makes me wanna do a happy dance. I'd so DO a happy dance right now but I'm listening to very calming music thus the mood just isn't right at the moment. I'll make up for it tonight though - I'm going out with friends and we are going to boogie until the sun comes up, surrounded by glistening bodies, smoke machines, house music and trippy lights. Before that: organic brown rice sushi. Yes. Friday is here, people. 

Okay can we acknowledge that I went far off course in the above paragraph, and yet it flowed so naturally? Should I feel proud? I dunno. Probably not. Moving back to the real topic: CAKE OF THE CARROT. This recipe is fairly similar to my original one, but I adapted it slightly and more importantly took new photos which I wanted to share with you in a post. This recipe isn't better or worse than my other one, it's just different. I made this for a TV interview on Global BC (watch me wear a dress here) and the hosts loved it! This seems to be one of those recipes that everybody can enjoy, no matter what their diet preferences are. I hope you do too. Keep in mind this recipe makes much less cake than my other one, so if you want to feed more people; double the amounts given here, or use the original recipe instead. 

RAW VEGAN CARROT CAKE with CREAMY CASHEW LEMON FROSTING 

Cashew lemon frosting:
1 1/2 cups cashews
Juice from 1 lemon 
2 tablespoons liquid coconut oil
2 tablespoons coconut nectar 
1 teaspoon vanilla powder
Water, as needed 

Carrot cake:
3 large carrots, peeled and chopped into small chunks 
1 1/2 cups oats 
2 cups dates
1/2 cup dried coconut 
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 

To make the frosting: blend all ingredients in your high speed blender until smooth, adding water as needed. Taste it - mmm. Put in the fridge. 

To make the cake: process the oats into flour in your food processor then throw the rest of the ingredients in the food processor and process until it all begins to stick together. 

Assembly: press half the cake mixture into a small spring form pan (mine is about 4 inches). Gently take this out and put on a plate, then put in the freezer until it's solid. Do the same to the remaining half of the cake mixture. Spread about 1/3 of the frosting onto the top of one of the cake layers. Put it in the freezer until the layer of frosting is hard. Place on the other cake layer and frost the entire thing, I let it set in the fridge overnight. 

RAW VEGAN PEANUT BUTTER & CHOCOLATE BUTTER CREAM CUPS

I know. They sound amazing. They look orgasmic. But guess what - they taste EVEN BETTER. Plus: gifs. I was having a busy afternoon in the kitchen a couple days, whipping up a raw vegan cake (which will be coming soon, don't ya worry babe), and I ended up with an extra container of raw vegan chocolate "butter cream". I don't usually like calling my recipes after their non-vegan conventional counterparts BUT in this case, this recipe ACTUALLY tastes just like chocolate butter cream... but of course it's vastly superior because it's cruelty-free and HEALTHY. So much caps lock today. What's goin' on.

Hey, guys. Back to the story, you're getting me off topic. I ended up with all this extra chocolate frosting - not the worst problem in the world (in fact, it's probably the greatest) but I still had to figure out what to do with it. I also promised my lover that I'd bring them some kind of chocolate delight when I saw them the next day. I decided to make inside-out Reeses cups. Yeah, man. It's happening. It HAPPENED.

For the filling, as I hope you already surmised, I used my *famous* chocolate butter cream recipe (it's not truly famous, but I just love it a lot so it's a celeb in my world). To make the outside of the cups, I combined tahini (sesame seed butter) with peanut butter and coconut oil. The coconut oil allows the nut/seed butter to become solid when refrigerated. Heh heh heh - I'm so clever. Not really but this is what I tell myself in order to get up every day; the sunshine and chirping birds help too. The final result is simply to-die-for. I mean I'd seriously consider sacrificing my own life so more people could get this in their mouths. The thing is: I cannot fathom in what world I would have to die so people could eat chocolate... that makes zero sense. And thank goodness! This means we can all shove these things in our faces, mouthgasm into nirvana and still LIIIVE. Yesssss.

RAW VEGAN PEANUT BUTTER & CHOCOLATE BUTTER CREAM CUPS  

Filling:
This chocolate butter cream recipe.

Outside:
3 tablespoons coconut oil
3 tablespoon peanut butter 
3 tablespoons tahini 

Note: you can use whatever nut/seed butter(s) you want. Also: try to be patient and let the butter cream sit in the fridge overnight, it becomes exactly 1 million times more amazing.

Stir the outside layer ingredients together in a bowl over steaming water until melted and combined. Pour 1/3 of this into the bottoms of cupcake papers and try to get some around the sides. Freeze until solid. Pour a little more around the sides and freeze until solid again. Fill with the butter cream then cover with the remaining nut/seed butter mixture. Freeze for 10-30 minutes then GOBBLE.