A healthy Unicorn Cheesecake? You read that right: Paleo cashew unicorn cheesecake with rainbow colors and fruit. No icing – we decorated this with wildflowers!
Have you even heard of Unicorn Cheesecake? I didn't know unicorn cakes were a thing until Holley told me to make one (more on that below).
A Place to Connect & Relax
Do you watch what's happening on social media? I mean, are you connected to our accounts? Instagram is our favorite, and watching our stories is where you can see to most behind-the-scenes kinda stuff. Holley does run all of our social media accounts, but I do pop in there with a few things here and there.
Anyway, the reason I ask is that if you've been watching, you would have seen that I was working on this unicorn cheesecake a few weeks ago – and that I shaved my head! (More on that in the next few weeks.) But also would have seen that we have been working hard on making our roof-top deck area pretty sweet. This is mostly Holley's project, but we've both put a lot of effort into it and both enjoy spending alone time there. She get's the early mornings and evenings, while I enjoy the hot sunny part of the day in the sun.
Holley has many planters… planted with… plants. There was probably a smoother word choice for that sentence. Anyway, it's beautiful and the butterflies and bumblebees are happy to visit our flowers and enjoy the scents of our fresh herbs – which are such a delight to use.
It's not just the bees and butterflies that have been a delight to have out there. We both really enjoy entertaining out there as well! Playing board games, pouring drinks, and sharing homemade food while listening to music and telling stories fills our hearts. And what better food-share than a healthy pretty unicorn cheesecake in the sun?
Rainbow Cheesecake
In fact, if you're in the area let me know because I made way too much of this while creating this recipe because I would love to share some with you!
While initially experimenting with cashew cheesecakes – before I made the Salted Caramel Cashew Cheesecake – I made some fruit flavors and swirled them together, much like this. Holley said that they would make a beautiful unicorn cheesecake, and here we are!
What do you think about the carrot unicorn horn and ears? Healthier than those fondant ones, right? And waaaaay easier!
What is your all-time favorite dessert? Have you found or made gluten free/dairy free versions? Have you made a cashew cheesecake yet? What about a unicorn cake of any kind?
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Unicorn Cheesecake
- Total Time: 5-12 hours (soaking/cooling times)
- Yield: 8-10 servings 1x
Description
A healthy Unicorn Cheesecake? You read that right: Paleo cashew cheesecake with rainbow colors and fruit. No icing – we decorated this with wildflowers!
Ingredients
Crust
- 3/4 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
- 1 1/2 cups nuts (I used 1/2 cup pecans and 1 cup almonds)
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil (melted)
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
Filling (base)
- 2 cups cashews (soaked 4 hours to overnight in filtered water)
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
Filling Flavors/Colors
- red
- 1 cup strawberries
- yellow
- 1 yellow mango
- 1 pinch turmeric (for color)
- green
- 1 kiwi
– or – - juice of 1 lime
- 1/4 – 1/2 avocado
- 1 kiwi
- blue
- 1 cup blueberries
- purple
- 1 cup blackberries
Decoration (optional)
- large carrot (peeled)
- flowers
Instructions
Crust
- Line a 6″-8″ spring-form pan with parchment paper.
- Place all crust ingredients in a food processor and work it, baby! Er, process it until it's a course gravely texture.
- Pour into the spring-form pan and press down making a firm base.
Cheesecake Filling
Note: You're allowed to guess-timate amounts for each flavor. Start with the amounts listed here and add more fruit as needed for flavor/color. Keep in mind that when served refrigerated that the flavors will be a little muted.
Note: If doing 5 colors, each flavor will be about 0.7 cups each – 1/5 of 3.5 L (look at your total amount in the blender and divide by the number of flavors you're using. Why am I tell you this? You get it.)
- Dispose of water remaining in soaked cashews.
- Put all filling base ingredients in a high powered blender.
- Blend until smooth and creamy.
Filling Flavors/Colors
- Pour all but 0.7 cups (one flavor-worth) of the mixture into a large bowl or container.
- Add first flavor's fruit (i.e. strawberries). Test for taste and add more salt/fruit/lemon juice/maple syrup as desired. Pour into its own bowl.
- Rinse out the blender in preparation for the next flavor. Alternatively, shrink yourself down small enough to fit your head into the blender and lick it out. Be safe when you're doing this: unplug the blender.
- Repeat Steps 1-3 for each of the remaining flavors.
- Add each flavor into the spring-form pan, a couple of spoonfuls of each flavor at a time – red through purple, and repeat until finished. Using a knife or the handle end of a spoon, “draw” some random lines and patterns in the multicolored filling to add interesting swirls to the appearance – but not too much! You don't want the colored layers to blend together.
- Put in freezer for 1-2 hours to harden.
If frozen, allow the whole thing thaw out before serving and refrigerate any remaining servings.
Decoration
- At an angle, cut ears off of the fat end of your carrot (see the video above to see what I did).
- Remove the remaining cut part of the carrot so that you're left with a shorter carrot than before with a flat end. Use this part as the unicorn's horn.
- Place the ears and horn on the cheesecake as desired and decorate with wildflowers. The cheesecake is soft enough that you can press the base of the flowers into the sides as desired. I used 1/4 inch bits of leaf stems like nails for the eye flowers. No hammer required.
Notes
Do you have more of a savory-tooth? Check out our Salted Caramel Cashew Cheesecake. It's one of the best desserts I've ever made!
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 30 min (hands-on)
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Blender
WOW!
This is one gorgeous dessert! You have presented the recipe in a great way that doesn’t feel intimidating for a ‘non-baker’!
I really think that this is a delightful project for my vegan niece and I when she comes to visit.. Thanks for the inspiration!
Exciting!
★★★★★
It looks so fancy, but it is easy as well… cake. let us know how it goes!
It is pretty, AND pretty easy. YAY!