Birthday Lava Cakes with Mousse

Tonight we had my parents over for dinner to celebrate my Mom's birthday. February 7th is her official special day. For my dinner I made another spiralized noodle dish topped with red bell pepper, tomatoes, cilantro, red onion, radish sprouts and a drizzle of Italian vinaigrette. It was wonderful. The vinaigrette was simply Italian herbs, fresh lemon juice, EVOO, and a splash of balsamic.

I made an extra special, almost raw, dessert for everyone. It was carob mousse and Lava Cakes. The Lava Cake recipe is from Sweetly Raw's new carob cookbook. You can have the recipe e-mailed to you, just go to her blog and read her post.
My mousse was so simple yet so delicious. I used avocado, carob, sea salt, vanilla, maple syrup, and a small drizzle of raw agave. It required a small amount of water to get the right consistency. The key to this mousse is chilling it well prior to serving.
Next I prepared the Lava Cake by soaking the raw walnuts for 10 hours. I rinsed them twice during the soak period, they seemed a bit dirty. By the time they were done soaking and had their final rinse they looked super clean. It is so important to properly clean and soak your raw nuts.
I processed the walnuts into a "flour". Next I made a paste with pitted Medjool dates and a splash of water. In went the carob, vanilla and a pinch of sea salt. Now it was time to add in the walnut flour and turn it into a "dough".

The mini cake pans were prepped with plastic wrap and I made the carob sauce for the lava center. I used a glass jar to shake together the sauce. It was basically carob powder, water, vanilla, melted coconut oil and maple syrup. I don't use raw carob; I was told that the raw carob is not healthy. Our health food store downtown won't even carry raw carob. I'm not worried about an occasional dessert with products in small amounts that are not raw. As long as the majority of the ingredients are, I am fine with that. Dessert shouldn't be stressful, just enjoyable (but healthy).

It was a bit tricky pressing the dough into the mini cake pans; it kept sticking to my fingers. Once I got them all filled I took a spoon and gently scooped out the center, being careful not to puncture the bottom (which really ends up being the top, once inverted).

In goes the carob lava sauce. Into the freezer they go to set up.

I plated the cakes and drizzled on some of the extra lava sauce.
Alongside the cakes I put a dollop of mousse. I made the smaller cakes for the three youngest kids and the rest of us had the larger size. I bought the molds at Bed Bath and Beyond.

+JMJ+ Today I am grateful for time with my parents.