Raw lemon curd ice-cream cake with taco crunch

July 21, 2014 by Margaux 2 Comments

So yesterday I shared my choco-dipped ice-cream tacos, and today I’m showing off a different way of using the same ingredients. Sometimes one buys excess when you’re not sure about quantities, but I’m very glad to have splurged hard on soaking too many dates and blending too many bananas. Win win all round! (Marm + T – the simplicity of it all is why I said you’d facepalm yourself! :D)

Speaking of win, my NuNaturals competition is now closed and I’ll be announcing the winners tomorrow! I’m letting the rafflecopter decide who the lucky 4 are, so it’s even a surprise for me 😉

Ingredients (serves 4):

Ice-cream layer:

• 3/4 cup sliced and frozen bananas
• 1/8 – 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
• 1 dropper NuNaturals vanillla Liquid NuStevia/1.5 tsp vanilla essence
• 4 TBSP lemon curd (based on Jessica’s lemon curd sauce. Mods: double the corn starch, 1 tsp lemon zest + coconut oil instead of shortening)

Base:

• 1/3 cup soaked dates (don’t throw out the soaking water!)
• 1/8 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/8 pecan nuts
• 1 TBSP cocoa powder
• 1 taco shell, crushed

Topping:

• 1/8 cup sunflower seeds
• few pinches dried cranberries
• 20g carob chunks/vegan chocolate, melted

How-to:

1. Make your lemon curd in advance with at least half an hour in the fridge at the end of the process!
2. Blend your base ingredients in a food processor (except taco shell) til nicely mixed (can have some chunks), then get out your 10cm round spring-form non-stick tin. If you require some liquid for your blending add some of your date soaking water. Rather soak your dates for longer than add too much liquid in this process, however, otherwise the base will be too gooey.
3. Evenly spread the base ingredients along the bottom of the tin, then sprinkle on your taco shell crumbles.
4. Spread 4 TBSP of the lemon curd (with mods as described) along the top of the taco crumble.
5. Quickly rinse out your food processor and then blend your banana ice-cream til it makes a soft serve consistency – add more milk as necessary. If it’s too hard/stiff it will be difficult to spread.
6. Spread your ice-cream layer on evenly and press in your sunflower seeds and cranberries.
7. Melt your chocolate/carob chunks and just drizzle it as you please. Place in the freezer for 1/2 an hour before slicing into 4 servings.
8. Yum!

Seriously? I loved this! I was half dizzy from all the natural sugar and from being in the kitchen for at least five hours in between other chores, but oh so worth it! In fact, I am a bit of a traditionalist and prefer the cake to the tacos for guests, but the tacos for myself 😉

I LOVE the lemon curd layer! Without it this would just be another (awesome) ice-cream freezer treat, but it adds a magnificent richness and zing that is unmistakable, and when the cake has a few minutes to rest and it all just gets so creamy…gahhh! 

I think I may have to cut down on the sweet stuff for a while, because our freezer is packed to the brim with treats and I fear a crash and burn scenario with Man-thing where he stuffs himself and then has to nap for a few hours, because that’s how I am with sugar, even natural sugar! Still, I have no problem at all rationing out my daily fruit intake on this beautiful, yummy cake. 🙂

 O hai, and this means I can finally cross off lemon curd layer cake from my to-do list, because I think this covers it pretty much 😉

To round off this spectacularness, I’m happy to report that foster kitten Noir has found a home! She’s being fetched this weekend by a wonderful family who have a cat and a dog (who play together!), so I foresee much love and cuddles in her future. My amazing Pabla is still unhomed and we’ll have to take her to the shelter on Saturday so that she can get more exposure alongside her sibling Pooki, but there are very few kittens at the moment so I’m sure they’ll strike gold! They’ve come such a long way from being dumped in a box to being absolutely socialized and happy creatures, so I’m thrilled that their futures are brighter than they once seemed.

What sort of recipes are on your to-do list?