Raw Vegan Lemon Cheesecake
Beautiful raw vegan lemon cheesecake is a tasty and healthy dessert. It’s gluten-free and free of refined sugar.
Vegan cheesecakes are usually really easy to make, and because of their make-ahead-nature they are perfect for dinner desserts and brunches, they don’t need any preparation at the time of serving.
I like raw cakes for weekend breakfasts; they are nutritious and pretty filling. This cake is fairly small, it’s made in 6-inch cake tin but serves at least 10.
Making raw cakes is a slow process, consisting a lot waiting. You can speed it up from almost two days to four hours, but the cake will not be raw anymore. It will taste equally good though. I’ll explain the quick version in the recipe.
And please note that you don’t have to make the raw cake for two days, you just need to start the preparations two days before serving it.
Using just pretty yellow lemons is not enough to color the cake in its delicate pale neon-yellow. Turmeric will do that. If the cake is still too light after you have added a half teaspoon of turmeric, add a little more, a pinch at a time until the color is right. Or add saturation in Lightroom app like I did. 😀 😀
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Raw Vegan Lemon Cheesecake
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 cup pitted dates
- ½ cup nuts any nuts will do
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil
Filling:
- 2 cups cashews
- ⅓ cup coconut butter
- grated zest of 2 lemons
- squeezed juice of one lemon
- 4 tablespoon maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
Instructions
- Soak the cashews in cold water overnight. Or half an hour in boiling water (don't cook). Drain and rinse before starting to make the cake filling.
- Prepare the crust before the filling. Measure dates, nuts and 2 tbsp of coconut oil in a blender and blend to a sticky paste.
- Press the crust paste with your fingers in a 6-inch spring form and put the form in the freezer to wait for the filling to be prepared.
- Put all the rest of the ingredients in a cleaned blender and pulse until the mixture in silky and smooth.
- Pour the filling over the crust and let to set in the fridge for overnight or if you are in a hurry, for a couple of hour in the freezer.
Nutrition
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Hi! I just made this and I am wondering if I did it right?? Lol the lemon stuff is only about a quarter of an inch think and yours seems so much thinker in the picture! My is all crust with a lemon topping… ? did I do something wrong?
What size of cake tin you have? In a 6-inch tin, it will look very much like mine. I a bigger thin it’ll be more a pie looking. 🙂
It was a 6 inch. Not sure why my ratios are flip flopped. But it tasted great!!
Mine is the same… I just made it and the mixture is not very high up the tin at all! And yes, I did use the right size tin… I find some recipes don’t give proper ratios and most of the time you are having to change, add to work it out yourself ?
Too sour. All that citric acid- the lemon zest plus the lemon juice still burns my throat this morning. I tasted the filling last night when I was making it. I should have added more maple syrup.
I’m sorry to hear that! My recipes are not very sweet, I try to add a note to every recipe from now on to tell that on top of being refined sugar free the recipes are in general very low in sugar.
Is it really pitted dates you add to your blender? Do the pits get all crumbled up as well? Seems a bit weird to me, never made it 🙂
Pitted means they’ve had the pits removed?
“pitted” means that the pit has been removed 🙂
Thank you Ana and Priscilla for answering already!
Pitted means indeed that the pits are removed. Trying to blend the pits might be dangerous and seriously damage your blender!
May i add a tip for ANA Soak them in a little water to soften first
I want to try this recipe out but I don’t know of the dates need soaking? the dates I have available are dried, is the recipe asking for fresh dates?
I used fresh dates but I think you could use dried ones as well. I’m not sure if they need to be soaked first. Maybe not. Soaking might just make them too wet.
I used the dried dates and they work fine.
Recipe is fantastic, I had rave reviews from my taste testers
Makes me so glad to hear you and your testers liked it!
Not very clear!!which is topping amd which is filling please!
I just updated the recipe, hope it’s more clear now!
Any thoughts on making this without the cashews? A good substitute? I can’t have treenuts. ☹️
tofu? coconut cream,
vegan creamcheese
Yes, I might try purring half cooked soybeans and half chickpeas in place of the cashew cream.
Yes, I might try putting half cooked soybeans and half chickpeas in place of the cashew cream. If it loses its firm texture while sitting out try omitting the coconut which melts at room temp.
avocado makes creamy topping instead of nuts
Hi
I have got followed this recipe however the cake turns melty in room temperature very quickly. I wanted to make this as a birthday cake for my friend. Is there any way I can prevent it/ any suggestion in adjustment in ingredients to firm it up?
Thanks
I did it yesterday and I must say: thank you! It was easy to prepare and the guests really liked it 🙂 nice job, thanks for sharing!
Love this recipe and want to try it, but am allergic to coconut. Has anyone tried replacing the coconut butter with another butter (real butter, vegetable based butter/spread cahsew butter or tahini)? If so, what was successful and what flopped?Thanks for the insight. Cheers
I think you can just leave the coconut out. The crust will be just perfect without any coconut oil and you can replace the coconut butter with the same amount of soaked cashews.
Hi! Do you think i can use sunflower seeds instead of cashews??? I am super allergic!!! Also, of yes, do i also need to soak them un water as the cashews??? Hope you can replay!
Easy to follow recipe and my friends thought I was a raw cake expert. This was the first raw cake I made. I would use a bit less coconut oil in the base mix next time with an oily nut like the walnuts I used. Now for a choc version
Do u think it would be OK to substitute maple syrup with honey???
Sure! It’s not vegan then anymore but if that’s not a problem then why not.
I made this today and its amazing. I actually messed up and used coconut oil instead of coconut butter in the filling (trying to cook whilst watching a baby…sometimes mistakes happen ?) but it still tastes absolutely great. It has set well also. I definitely will be making this more often!
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with the cake!
I know the watching baby and putting wierd things in your cooking situation! I’m a mom of three. 🙂 Coconut oil, luckily, is perfect for this cake.
This is the most perfect fail safe recipe that you can swap the lemon out for any other fruit! I’ve made it half a dozen times and I love it! Thank you! (Ps I never soak anything including the cashews and dried dates and it turns out delish)
Hello! If I use coconut oil in the filling instead of coconut butter, how much (solid or melted) should I substitute? Thank you 🙂
I loved it so much. I followed the recipe and it was a success. My family said that a little bit more suger in the filing would be nice too. Thanks you very much for the recipe
Mistäs stadista löytyy kookosvoita? Vai onko kyseessä kuitenkin cocoa butter, kaakaovoi?
Mä oon ostanut Ruohonjuuresta ja isommista K-kaupoista eli Herttoniemen K-supermarket Hertasta. Foodinin ja Puhdistamon valikoimista löytyy.
Kookosvoi on samanlaista kuin pähkinävoi, eli se kookoksen hedelmäliha soseutettuna. 🙂
Eli tarkoitatkohan kookosmannaa mahdollisesti? kookosvoi nimellä ei foodinilta eikä puhdistamolta kyllä löydy mitään, ruohiksessa vain ihonhoitotuote kookosvoi nimellä.
Tein lopulta kaakaovoi/kookosöljysekoituksella, toimi niinkin.
Juu, samaa kamaa!
Just made this for my raw vegan mom and it’s delicious!! Thank you 🙂
I love to hear that you liked the cake, thank you for your comment.
I have been looking at this recipe for a while now, and my birthday celebration was yesterday, and as a vegan my mom and aunt wanted to try making this for me… all I can say is WOW! This turned out AMAZING!! I read some of the comments about it being flat and not tall… but who said it needs to be? It was so delicious and light and I’m currently sat eating some leftover bits for breakfast… so delicious. Thank you for a beautiful healthy recipe! My heart and tummy are happy!
Thank you, Caity! It makes me very happy to hear you and your family liked it. Greeting to your mom and aunt, too, those wonderful ladies who choose to bake something special for on your important day. <3
Loved this cake. My first vegan raw cake. It was really very easy. I added a 1/2 teaspoon of mesquite for a little extra sweetness, sprinkled more lemon zest on the top, along with some walnuts. Also used walnuts in the base, with mejool dates. Delicious!
Adding more lemon zest to decorate is a great idea! Glad you liked the cake!
So good! The only thing different that I did was adding just a little bit of vanilla to the filling may a teaspoon. But this was delicious!
Is the cashew raw cashew nuts or already roasted cashew nuts? Can my nuts be roasted?
The nuts should be raw for this cake. Thank you for the comment, I’ll update the recipe to be more specific. <3