You know your bestie knows your love language when she surprises you with a raw berry cheesecake!

I instantly grabbed the recipe from her and saved it for a special occasion.

When asked to bring a dessert to a new year party, I saw it as an excellent chance to make this delectable cheesecake.

No baking required and easy to put together, I will definitely make this again and also play with different flavours such as exotic mango or fresh lime. Yum!

Method

Base:

Grind the almonds into a flour in a food processor.

Add the raisins and continue grinding until broken down.

Add the coconut and vanilla. Grind again to incorporate.

Add another 1/2 – 1 teaspoon water if needed to keep the mixture held together when pressed in your hand.

Press evenly into the bottom of a 12″ spring form cake pan.

Filling:

Blend all except the oil and berries in a high speed blender.

Add 2/3 cup of the coconut oil and blend again until completely smooth.

Transfer 1/2 cup of the mixture to a small bowl.

Add all the berries and the remaining coconut oil (1/3 cup) back to the mixture in the blender and blend until smooth.

Pour the filling evenly over the crust.

Pour blobs of the lemon cream on top.

Using a chopstick, push each blob down into the berry filling before swirling it into the berry cream on the surface.

Chill in the fridge for at least 8 hours, or overnight.

Garnish with berries or whatever else your heart desires!

Keep in fridge or freezer as it does start melting at room temperature.

Notes

Because I used maple syrup instead of agave syrup, the lemon swirl was quite dark and would be too close in colour to the berry mixture. So instead of adding all the berries to only half of the mixture, I added 2 cups of strawberries to the lemon swirl and 2 cups of blueberries to the other half of the mixture and created a berry swirl instead of a berry and lemon swirl.

Also, I was low on lemon juice, so topped up where I was short with lime juice. So fresh!