Red Velvet ‘Cheesecake’ {Vegan, Paleo, No-Bake}

Name: Red Velvet 'Cheesecake' (Vegan & Paleo)
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 1 cup almond flour; 2 Tbs cocoa; 2 Tbs maple syrup; 2 Tbs refined coconut oil (melted); Dash of pink salt; 2 1/4 cup raw cashews (soaked); 1 2/3 cup roasted beets; 1/2 cup + 1 Tbs maple syrup; 3/4 cup cocoa; 1 oz dark chocolate (melted); 1 cup refined coconut oil (melted); 1 1/4 Tbs vanilla; 1/4 tsp almond extract; 1/8 tsp pink salt; 1 cup raw cashews (soaked); 1 Tbs maple syrup; 2 1/2 tsp lemon juice; Splash of vanilla; Dash of pink salt

November 1, 2017 /

Intense red color, dreamy dairy-free Red Velvet ‘Cheesecake’! Rich chocolate flavor– made entirely with healthy, whole foods. No dye! (Paleo & Vegan)

Two bottles of RED dye? Nope!! It’s 100% natural. It’s made from a VEGETABLE, haha! For real. Can you guess which one? 😉

Secret Ingredient

It’s BEETS! Remember my Hot Pink Pie made with beets? I was SO infatuated with that amazing color, and I just had to make MORE with those powerful little root veggies!

It turns out, if you add cocoa to beets (along with the cheesecake base), it turns RED. Deep, dark, glamorous burgundy red. Omg, don’t you love it?! It’s like art class all over again mixing paint colors. 🙂

And the beets add a subtle earthy quality to the chocolaty flavor of the cheesecake. It’s definitely a specialty cake. Unconventional– absolutely. Delicious? Yes!

Birthday Girl

This cake was made for my gorgeous mama, who was celebrating a special birthday last week. (Hi, Mom! Love you)

We got to spend the weekend at my parents’ house and had such a great time seeing a bunch of family. We made sure to do our favorites: visit 8th Street Coffee House for brunch, shop at the local antique/vintage shop, eat some Tex-Mex and go to TJ Maxx, ha! Love it.

Red Velvet has always been my mom’s FAVORITE, so I was determined to recreate that for her, using only whole foods. And it was a hit! I was surprised that my brother (who is not gluten/dairy/sugar-free) kept asking for more, haha.

Velvety Velvet

The texture of this “cheesecake” is unlike any I’ve made before. It’s ultra VELVETY. Smoother than anything I ever made before. And it has a RICH buttery quality, thanks to cashews and coconut oil.

I decided to use refined coconut oil in this recipe as to not mask the chocolate flavor, but virgin works, too! There is also a “Buttery Flavor” Coconut Oil that I really wanted to get for this recipe, but I waited too long. Someday I must try that!

With a chocolate almond crust, cocoa cashew cheesecake filling and creamy cashew “cream cheese” frosting, this cake is both flavorful and RICH. You only need a tiny slice. 😉

Special

This Red Velvet ‘Cheesecake’ would be wonderful for the holidays (or for any special occasion). Especially for those of us on special diets – without refined sugar, eggs, gluten, dairy and grains. But as my brother could attest, even non-special diet folks love this cake, too! 🙂

If you make it, I’d be so thrilled to hear from you! Leave a comment or share your photo on my Facebook page or tag me Instagram @emily.likes.food and hashtag #prettypies

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