Raweo's and approximation measuring

Heeey!!!

So, I've been back in the kitchen the last few days. I recently came across some cacao powder that I found stuffed in the back of my kitchen cupboard. It was bought a few months ago when we holidayed in Sri Lanka. We went to a Herb and Spice Garden, and our guide gave us a whole heap of information about what's grown in Sri Lanka, how you can use a particular herb/spice for medicinal purposes or for beauty purposes etc. There was a shop at the end of our tour and we came out with a heap of goodies. One of which was Cacao Powder. I really would like to think it is as pure as they told us and as I'm assuming it's raw. I decided to make something on a whim. This was the result! For now, I shall call them Walnut and Cacao Balls

I know, they look pretty much like every other thing I've posted on here, but they are different I promise!! 

I've recently learnt about myself that I prefer approximations rather then measuring anything, and somedays this goes in my favour, but other days, not! I feel I have baked enough in my time to know how much 1 cup is, or 1 tablespoon etc, and I have watched my Mum many times having a lot of fun with just throwing something into a bowl....dang, she makes an amazing veggie 'approximated ingredients' stew!!  So I guess I also get a lot of it from my Mum...

Today was an approximation day...it turned out ok...

Here is what I did.

I used walnuts, and turned it into a powder (about 2 cups) I then threw in about 1/2 cup of raisins, 8-10 dates (these are quite small, not like the large medjool dates) a squidge of agave syrup, about 4tablespoons of cacao, and 2tablespoons of coconut oil. I whizzed in a food processor. I whizzed some more...unfortunately, I ended up with a bread-crumby type of consistency, for whatever reason, I decided at this point, it was a good idea to add coconut flakes, with little improvement to my mixture, but great for the taste!! I'm not sure what I may have done wrong...perhaps I should have used more dates? more Agave to bring it together? I don't know but I do know that if I handled it all quite delicately, with minimal rolling etc, I was just about able to get a ball shape out of the mixture. I then put them in the freezer for the coconut to solidify and for everything to set. Once out, they tasted good. A pleasantly nice combination of chewy and crumbly. Me and my hubby both thought that it was a bit biscuity and I just kept thinking that they looked like the biscuit part of Oreos. So I decided to make a Raw Vanilla Frosting to finish off this recipe...and this time I measured. Here are the Ingredients and what I did-

1 Cup of Cashews
3 tbs Agave
1 t Vanilla Extract
1 tbs Coconut oil

I blended the cashews until they became a butter. It took quite a few attempts of starting and stopping the blender to wipe down the sides etc, (this was my first attempt at butter so wasn't sure what I was looking for) eventually the Cashews go creamy and end up like this

This is what I think Cashew Butter should look like!!

I then put the Cashew Butter and the rest of the Ingredients in a food processor and whizzed until it had all come together to make a thick paste. Depending on how you like it, you could add more coconut oil to make the frosting a bit thinner (or maybe even water) as this came out quite thick (sorry I forgot to take a picture)

I then flattened the Raweo (were once called Walnut and Cacao Balls) balls to make a biscuit, but they just crumbled into a mess so I decided it was to become a Raweo Cake, and so the balls were now the base of the cake. I then the vanilla frosting on top and sprinkled some walnut base and coconut flakes on top of that!! 

It looked oddly like Cheese on toast! Ha!

I popped it into the freezer for an hour.

I couldn't wait to try it and once I cut a piece up, I was left this yumminess

It was delicious! The Vanilla frosting was soooooo good too, it reminded me of fudge! Be warned though! It is very filling and although I would say that it isn't overly sweet, it can leave you thinking hmmm I ate too much of that and be left with that sweet, sweet, sickly feeling. But believe me, it's worth it!

Overall though, this has been a lesson learnt. I'll be turning over a new measuring leaf and be saying bye bye to approximation fun. I enjoy the thrill of 'will this work, or wont it' but I'm finding myself increasingly frustrated for not knowing how I made it exactly!! I shall redo this recipe at some point, in order for me to get the exact measurements. I cant guarantee it will taste the same, but thats fine too...hopefully it will taste even better ;)

xx