Two weeks ago, I hit 1,000 followers on Instagram! I am incredibly excited about having hit this milestone, and I am genuinely grateful for all the support from family, friends, and my followers. I would have never thought that one day my love for baking would take up such an essential part of my life and that I will be able to connect with people through my passion.
How was this even possible? Last week, I listened to a podcast about the power of imperfection and how our longing for perfection often causes us not to follow our dreams or even get started. That’s when I realized that letting go of trying to do things perfectly allowed me to get where I am today.
Before launching this blog I was worried about my site not being professional enough, my recipes not being innovative enough, my content not being meaningful enough, my pictures not being pretty enough, … But then I decided to just go for it. I set ‘launching bake and nourish’ as one of my goals for Q3 in 2017 (a concept I got introduced to at a goal-setting workshop in early 2017). I knew that I just had to launch something. It wasn’t going to be perfect, and that would be ok.
Now, almost ten months later, I am still continuously working on improving and expanding bake and nourish, and I love every single step of the way.
One of the most significant points I wanted to tackle for a while was to make my blog bilingual. Although bake and nourish was born in NYC and will always be my way to stay connected to my English speaking community and my English version of myself, I got a lot of requests from people in Germany to make my recipes available in German as well.
I was nervous about it. I wasn’t sure if my German would be good enough. This sounds ridiculous as a native German speaker, I know. But somehow I felt like I wouldn’t be able to express myself authentically. Most of what I learned about baking and nutrition was based on English books, blogs, etc. So how could I translate that while keeping my voice?
It wasn’t until I listened to this podcast about accepting your imperfections that I decided to give it a go. This past week I translated my website, and from now on I’ll publish my recipes in both English and German. I am still learning how this dual website-thing is working, and I haven’t figured out the RSS feed yet – but hey, who is perfect?
For you, my English speaking followers nothing will change. You’ll continue to read my blog in (imperfect) English. Nevertheless, I wanted to share with you this significant milestone. I’d also like to encourage you to think about how your striving for perfection prevents you from getting started. Just give it a try!
And now back to why you are actually here. Baking!
In the spirit of trying out new things, I made raw cheesecake for the first time. Rather, I made raw mini raspberry cheesecakes inspired by my new roots’ recipe. They are fresh and fruity summer treats and a great vegan and healthier alternative to your typical cheesecake recipe.
You do need a food processor or a great blender though to both make the crust and the filling. I used a standard muffin tin to create individual mini cheesecakes, but you could also make this in a 10-inch springform pan.
I’m looking forward to continuing this journey with you!
Love,
Marion
Are you a cheesecake lover? Make sure to check out this white chocolate cheesecake or these pumpkin cheesecake bars!
Raw Raspberry Cheesecakes
A great cheesecake recipe. It's raw, vegan, dairy- and gluten-free! The perfect summer treat!
Ingredients
- For the crust:
- 140g (1 cup) raw almonds
- 170g (1 cup) soft dates
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- For the filling:
- 375g (3 cups) raw cashews, soaked in water for at least 5 hours
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or the seeds of 1 whole vanilla bean)
- 110g (2/3 cup) coconut oil, melted
- 75g (1/4 cup) raw honey or agave nectar (if vegan)
- 250g (2 cups) raspberries fresh or defrosted
Directions
- Step 1 Grease a standard muffin tin with coconut oil.
- Step 2 Place nuts, dates, and sea salt in a food processor or blender and pulse to chop until a chunky mixture forms, and the ingredients hold together. Scoop out the mixture and press it firmly into the prepared muffin tin.
- Step 3 In a small saucepan, combine the coconut oil and honey and heat until liquid. Transfer to a food processor or blender.
- Step 4 Add the cashews (make sure you drain them before), lemon juice, and vanilla extract and blend on high speed until very smooth.
- Step 5 Scoop about 2/3 of the mixture out onto the crust and smooth with a spatula.
- Step 6 Add the raspberries (leave some aside for decoration) to the remaining filling and blend again until smooth. Pour the raspberry filling onto the first layer and place in the freezer until solid (at least 2 hours).
- Step 7 To serve, remove the muffin tin from freezer and let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Using a smooth, sharp knife, remove the cheesecakes gently from the tin. Decorate with remaining raspberries. Any leftovers keep well in the freezer for a couple of days.
