Ever fallen in love at first cake? It certainly happened to us when we set eyes on Hen’s Clean Cakes. This clean eating haven of beautifully crafted desserts was created by Suffolk-based pastry chef Henrietta Inman. After working for a range of award-winning kitchens, Henrietta set up her own patisserie, which specialises in healthy and flavoursome desserts. This clean cake recipe, as with all her creations, are gluten free, dairy free and refined sugar-free. Made using seasonal and local ingredients, they are gorgeous looking too!

Summer is one of our favourite times to whip up something with the plentiful supply of seasonal berries. So, we turned to Henrietta for inspiration. Enter the Strawberries and Cream Dream Cake. This delicious clean cake recipe uses one of our breakfasts of choice, Qnola, as a base. Whether you are looking for that strawberries and cream recipe to celebrate Wimbledon or wanting to put ripe strawberries to good use, this is a clean cake recipe to try right away.

Strawberries and Cream Dream Cake

This cake is the ultimate summer cake. Full of British strawberries bursting with flavour in a feather-light layer of vanilla infused mousse. Atop a smooth pistachio layer with a hint of orange, this clean cake recipe finishes with a crunch from the Qnola base. It really is dreamy!

Ingredients

For the Strawberry Vanilla Mousse:

1 x 400ml can coconut milk, 230g set thick cream
140g cashew nuts, _{soaked in 300ml filtered water with ½ tsp Himalayan pink salt or sea salt for 3-4 hours}
250g strawberries, tops removed
Finely grated zest ½ lemon
25ml lemon juice
100g raw runny honey _{*see Notes below for a vegan swap}
¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt
1 ½ tsp baobab powder, see note below
½ vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped out
90g Sister & Co. coconut oil, melted

For the Pistachio Orange Cream:

70g pistachio nuts, _{soaked in 150ml filtered water with ¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt or sea salt for 8 hours}
30g cashew nuts, _{soaked in 100ml filtered water with ¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt or sea salt for 3-4 hours}
80ml almond milk, cashew milk, oat milk or rice milk
30g raw runny honey _{*see Notes below for a vegan swap}
50g Sister and Co coconut oil, melted
Finely grated zest of ½ orange

For the Qnola base:

100g cacao butter
70g cashew butter
40g raw runny honey _{*see Notes below for a vegan swap}
¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt
½ vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped out
Finely grated zest of ½ lemon
100g Almond & Vanilla Qnola quinoa puffs

Method

1. The night before, place the can of coconut milk in the fridge for the Strawberry layer. Soak the pistachio nuts for the Pistachio layer. The next day, drain and rinse the pistachio nuts. Soak the cashew nuts for the Strawberry layer and Pistachio layer.
2. Line the base and sides of a 23cm spring form cake tin with baking parchment.
3. For the base, melt the cacao butter. Put the melted butter in a blender with the rest of the ingredients, except the Qnola. Blend until combined and completely smooth. Pour into a bowl and stir in the Qnola. Combine well. Then, pour into the tin to form the base. Spread the mix out evenly and freeze.
4. For the Pistachio layer, drain and rinse the pistachio nuts and the 30g cashew nuts. Remove the skins from the soaked pistachio nuts. (You can skip this step but your pistachio layer will be a less vibrant green.) Place the activated nuts, plant-based milk and honey in a blender and process until almost smooth. Add the coconut oil and orange zest. Continue to blend until completely smooth. Pour the mix out onto the frozen base and return to the freezer to set.
5. For the Strawberry layer, drain and rinse the cashew nuts. Place the strawberries, lemon zest and juice, honey, salt and baobab powder in a blender and blend to make a strawberry juice. Add the cashew nuts and blend again until smooth.
6. Open the can of coconut milk and remove the top which will have set to a thick cream. Weigh out 230g of the set thick cream. (Use the remaining milk for smoothies, porridge or muesli!) Whip up the cream with the vanilla seeds using a hand-held whisk or a free-standing mixer with a whisk attachment. Keep on whisking till the cream is firm and light.
7. Pour the coconut oil into the strawberry cashew mix. Blend once more until smooth. Pour out the strawberry mix into the whipped vanilla cream and fold everything together lightly until just combined to a lovely light pink colour. Pour the mix onto the pistachio layer. Freeze for a further 1-2 hours.
8. Demould carefully. Decorate with extra Qnola, chopped pistachios, fresh strawberries, edible flowers – and serve. Enjoy!

This clean cake recipe can really be eaten however it has set. Enjoy it straight from the freezer as an ice cream cake. A frozen base will be quite hard to cut so let it defrost for an hour and eat it as a semifreddo parfait. Alternatively, let it defrost completely in a cool place for about 2-3 hours and enjoy as a wonderful mousse cake. I think it tastes best as a mousse cake. All the flavours will be at room temperature, and the Qnola base is just right! Have a go and see how you like to eat your strawberries and cream dream cake!

Notes

• •  VEGAN SWAP I prefer to use local raw honey in this clean cake recipe. If you do not eat honey, blonde coconut syrup is a great replacement.
• •  Baobab powder adds a citrus hit and really helps to lift up the strawberry flavour. If you do not have any, add 1 ½ tsp extra lemon juice.
• •  Please do not be put off by soaking the nuts. It’s really quick and easy and a very important step in a clean cake recipe. Otherwise the smooth cream layers will not be so smooth! Soaking also activates the nuts, getting rid of phytic acid. It makes their nutrients more readily available, not to mention much easier to digest. Soaked nuts are therefore kinder to your system. I also think soaking nuts really improves their taste. It gets rid of any bitterness to create a sweet and creamy flavour.
• •  If you cannot find Qnola or puffed quinoa, just make an easy raw cake base. Use dates or other dried fruits, nuts, seeds, oats, buckwheat groats… whatever you like. Here’s an example of a quick and delicious one: Process the pistachio nuts until small pieces. Add the rest of the ingredients. Blitz again and spread onto your base – 90g pitted Medjool dates, ¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt, ¼ vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract, 40g desiccated coconut, 40g pistachio nuts, 50g sunflower seeds and 40g coconut oil, melted.

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