food to glow

This Chocolate Truffle No-Bake Cake is studded and topped with delicious caramelised Lotus biscuits, and is perfect to make with the children. Totally vegan, it has no extra added sugar but does have two surprising whole food ingredients.

*Jump to Recipe*

I hope your Christmas, whether snow-bound or sun-kissed, was merry and bright. Here in Edinburgh it was way too warm for snow (mid-50s), but we donned our elf ears and felt reindeer antlers and pretended it was a white Christmas anyway. We rarely get a snow here on the east coast, so we were very happy that it was gloriously sunny and not sloppy, sleety rain. I’m sure that will be coming….

We started the festive, happily fair, day with a portable brunch feast that we took to Andrew’s great aunt across town. Everything was ready to go straight into her old gas oven. I had even remembered to bring baking trays, condiments and little platters. But we couldn’t get the oven to light! Thinking on our feet, and not wanting to disappoint the rumbling tums in the next room, Andrew and I managed a combination of broiler and stovetop heating. It felt like fancy camping, with only a few things lightly singed. A new tradition, perhaps?

Later at home, my cauliflower and porcini Wellington was the edible table centrepiece at dinner, and the star of a few Facebook pictures by my mother-in-law, Ann. Apparently some of her friends were in disbelief that one could Wellington a cauliflower. But we did! Did you make it, too? If not, I think it might also be fab at a New Year’s Day lunch – if you aren’t already tempted by the oddly-named but awfully delicious bean stew, Hoppin’ John , which we Southerners eat for good luck with soft, golden cornbread. I also have a jerk-spiced version, too.

On New Year’s Day itself we often have homemade blinis with Scottish dry-cure smoked salmon, with plenty of dill lemon and crème fraîche. This year I will also be making them with this vegan Beluga lentil “caviar”. I can never make enough blinis, however they are topped: they disappear in no time. We also have them on Christmas morning, with this refreshingly crisp Crémant de Loire (a not-too-shabby Champagne-alike). I need to remember to go to Sainbury’s today for a re-stock!

Party people! My blinis recipe from 2011 is refreshed with new images and LOADS more topping ideas – savory, sweet, vegan, veggie, fishy 🙂

We have pretty much polished off the Christmas leftovers, save for a bit of roasted lemon-dill salmon. This has been repurposed into salmon and quinoa burgers, studded with chopped gherkins, with yet more dill, my own Scandi pepper blend, and an egg to bind. It is waiting in the freezer for a suitably hectic day, when otherwise a trip to “the chipper” (fish and chip shop) might tempt. That may happen anyway. After a brisk beach walk not much beats ripping open a paper parcel of fryer-hot fish and salted, vinegary chips/fries, diving in with frosty fingers.

Today’s recipe is keeping up the festive theme, but is more on the wholesome side of the sweet table. This no-bake cake is of course not a true cake, but I didn’t know what to call it. Not only is it delicious, it is very easy to make with your kiddo helpers. If you fancy something that feels special but doesn’t weigh you down, this is just the gently sweet treat to make. With or without “help”.

So, what’s in this chocolate truffle no-bake cake?

Five ingredients. Yep, that’s all you need to make this cake.

On first glance you make think, “hell no”. Please trust me. I’ve been making a baked version of this for many years and I always get asked for the recipe. Here is the recipe for it, my Chocolate Chestnut Truffle Cake, in case you want to make an actual cake version of the no-bake – albeit a non-vegan one (contains eggs and butter).

Here goes.

Prunes (!)

Chestnuts (puree or whole, cooked ones)

Coconut oil, vegan butter – or all dairy butter

Dark chocolate

Lotus biscuits! If you don’t have Lotus biscuits, why not try ginger snaps, digestive biscuits, graham crackers, or any light, caramelised-type cookie.

See, that isn’t so bad. 🙂

 

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How do I make the cake?

Essentially it is just melt the chocolate and fat, whizz it up with the prunes and chestnuts, then stir in the crumbled biscuits. You then press this glossy brown modge into a clingfilm-lined pan chill and patiently wait two hours for it to set and get all moussey-textured. There really isn’t much more to it, but it tastes like you spent ages making it. And, because there are no eggs or uncooked flour, you can lick the bowl clean!

So, let’s get, um, baking?? 🙂

Remember to follow me on Pinterest and, if you make my No-Bake Chocolate Chestnut Cake, click on the pin below the recipe card and leave a photo of your make with a comment telling me what you think, or any awesome changes that you made. Similarly, any Instagram posts tagged @food_to_glow using my recipes will go on my Story if I see them. I’m always so proud when you share my recipes with the world. Yay!!!

Whether on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or of course here on the blog, I love to see what you do with my recipes, and I welcome your comments, star ratings, tweaks and suggestions.

Does this sound like a nice easy non-baking project to you? What other foodie plans do you have over this festive time? Do you have any snow??

RIPE FOR PINNING!