Speckled Brownie Bottomed Blackberry Mousse Cakes

These Speckled Brownie Bottomed  Blackberry Mousse Cakes are Raw, Vegan, Paleo, and free of Dairy, Gluten, and Refined Sugars.

It seems that the Easter season always brings with it an explosion of candy in the grocery store sweet isles. Pastel colors rule, for a change, and every type of candy known to man gets squished into the shape of an egg. With so many different types of sweets to choose from, it is with a smidgen of chagrin I admit that malted robins eggs are my favorite Easter candy.

I know, so simple. Even plain. But I think what gets me about those little elongated malted milk balls are the speckles. The soft colors spotted with little chocolate flecks are so inviting and youthful. They take me right back to my childhood when my Easter basket was sprinkled with them each year. I would always pick out the malted robins eggs first and gobble them up. Well, once I found the basket, that is.  My parents would always hide our Easter baskets in the most random places. My little brother once found his basket in the freezer. His candy turned into a sticky mass of wet sugar within 10 minutes of being found. The freezer became off-limits after that kerfuffle.

Back to the speckles. Don’t they scream spring unlike anything else? I’ve seen so many speckled egg cakes floating around the internet over the last few years and have been dying to make my own version. It just so happens that today was Sunday, so of course I needed a special dessert to bring to my parents for dinner. Since we won’t be going to my parent’s next weekend for Easter, I though tonight would be the perfect time to serve something festive.

With SPECKLES!

I had originally hoped to make a raw cheesecake in a pale robin’s egg blue, but as it turns out, nature doesn’t offer a lot of foods in that color. I try to stay away from artificial food dyes so blue was out of the question. I went with a pretty lavender color instead, thanks to a bag of blackberries that I had in the freezer, picked from our vines last summer. The berries look reddish/purple when pureed, but when you blend them in with the rest of the ingredients it turns a nice purple color.

These cakes have a raw cake-like brownie studded with mini chocolate chips on the bottom and are topped with a light, fresh, blackberry mousse on top. Melted chocolate speckles the top of the cakes to give them a ‘robins egg’ look.

You’ll notice that the ingredient list calls for Chia powder. This helps hold the blackberry mousse together without the need for so much coconut oil or cashews. It also keeps the mousse firm so that it doesn’t melt at room temperature, like many raw cheesecake-like desserts will. You don’t need to buy chia powder if you have chia seeds and a high speed blender. Just grind them to a fine powder. White chia seeds work best, but you can also use black seeds. If you use powder made from black chia seeds you may have flecks of seed in your mousse mixture, running it through a fine mesh sieve after mixing will get rid of them. If the flecks don’t bother you, you can just leave them in the batter. It won’t really alter the texture of the finished product.

Just a little disclaimer: Speckling is messy! Line your work area with newspaper or get ready to wipe a lot of chocolate dots off of your counter. I think I shook my paint brush loaded with melted chocolate about 30 times before any chocolate actually hit the cakes. My arms, counter, and cupboards had no problem collecting chocolate speckles, however. Who knew that speckling little cakes was so technical?

But good news: my counters are clean and these cakes are gone! Everyone loved them and I’ve had my speckled egg fix for the year.

More raw cakes?

Raspberry Rose Mini Cheesecakes with Pistachio Crumble

Chocolate Superfood Matcha Mint Slice

Black Bottomed Chocolate Vanilla Swirl Cheesecake

Speckled Brownie Bottomed Blackberry Mousse Cakes

 

Print

Serves: 3 small cakes (about 4 inches in diameter)

Ingredients

• For the Brownie:
• ¼ cup Apple Puree or Applesauce
• 2 tablespoons Coconut Flour
• ¼ cup Almond Flour
• 1½ tablespoons Raw Cacao Powder or Cocoa Powder
• pinch of Sea Salt
• 2½ tablespoons Maple Syrup
• 2 tablespoons Coconut or Almond Milk
• ½ teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 tablespoons Coconut Butter
• 3 tablespoons Mini Dark Chocolate Chips
• For the Blackberry Mousse:
• ⅔ cup Blackberries
• ¾ cup Cashews, soaked overnight
• ½ cup Coconut Oil
• ¼ cup Maple Syrup
• Juice of ½ a Lemon
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 tablespoon Chia Seed Powder
• 1 tablespoon Dark Chocolate, chopped
• ½ teaspoon Coconut Oil

Instructions

1. For the Brownie Layer:
2. Lightly grease 3 mini cheesecake tins (about 4 oz each) with coconut oil.
3. Place the apple puree, coconut flour, almond flour, cacao powder, salt, coconut milk, vanilla, and coconut butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until well combined. Add the chocolate chips and process until just mixed in. Let mixture sit for 5 minutes so that the coconut flour can fully absorb the liquid.
4. Divide the brownie mixture evenly between the prepared pans and press down into an even layer. Refrigerate while you make the blackberry filling.
5. For the Blackberry Mousse:
6. Place the berries in a blender and puree until smooth. Run puree through a fine mesh sieve and discard seeds. Place the puree back in the blender and add the cashews (drain them first!), coconut oil, maple syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, and chia powder and blend until silky smooth. Run through a fine mesh sieve if a smoother mixture is desired. Pour over the tops of the brownie layer, dividing evenly between all three pans. Freeze for 30 minutes or until solid.
7. Remove the cakes from their pans and placed them on a work surface.
8. Melt the chocolate and coconut oil together in a small bowl in the microwave. Stir together until smooth.
9. Dip a small paintbrush into the chocolate and tap or shake over the tops of the cakes, repeating until the tops of the cakes have the desired amount of speckling.
10. Store cakes in an airtight container in the fridge.

3.2.2925