Whole Life Times: Naked Chocolate

October 2005 | Features

Naked Chocolate

The luxurious, sensuous, healthful delights of pure, raw cacao

By David Wolfe and Shazzie

There is nothing in the world like chocolate. It is luxurious, sensuous, delightful, passionate, inspirational, sexual and exciting to all the senses. On average, Americans consume 11.7 pounds of chocolate per person annually, and yet, for most of us, it has been a blind date all along. After all, what is chocolate? Where does it come from?

All chocolate is made from cacao, the seed of the fruit of a jungle tree. Cacao beans are the raw form and key ingredient of the chocolate we know and crave. Cacao beans taste like dark chocolate, because they are dark chocolate. And (giving extraordinary new hope to chocoholics everywhere) the raw cacao bean is nature’s most fantastic superfood! The cacao bean is the earth’s primary edible source of magnesium, a key nutrient that supports the heart, increases brain power, aides flexibility and helps build strong bones. Raw chocolate is also one of the best natural sources of antioxidants, multiple times more antioxidant-rich than red wine or green tea.

With the endless physical and emotional health benefits of raw chocolate, you can turn guilt, misconceptions and addiction into super nutrition.

Prince Pondicherry’s Raw Chocolate Cherry Cake

Warning: preparing food with raw chocolate may allow you to find that perfect alchemical potion that causes all heaven to break loose.

Base
1 level tsp. dried orange zest
3 c. baby figs (dried)
1 c. almonds (soaked in water for 1 hr.)
1/4 tsp. ginger powder
1/4 tsp. grated nutmeg
1 c. dried cherries
2 c. fresh cherries
1/2 c. poppy seeds

Jam
2 c. fresh cherries, stoned
1 level dessertspoon of chocolate powder (crushed cacao beans or nibs)
6 prunes (dry), stoned

Cream
3 c. cashews (dry)
Juice of 1-2 oranges
1 tbs. water
1 vanilla pod

To make base
Blend all base ingredients together in a food processor until a ball forms (you might have to do this in two batches). Line a loose-bottomed cake tin with plastic wrap and put half of the mixture into the tin, then flatten it out. Turn this out onto a serving plate. Put the remaining mixture in the tin, and flatten it out. Leave it in the tin until you’ve completed the next step.

To make jam
Blend all jam ingredients together with a hand blender or in a Vita-Mix. Add more prunes if it’s not solid enough.

To make cream
Cut vanilla pod into tiny pieces. Blend all the cream ingredients together using a hand blender, or start the mixture off in a food processor, and then use a blender once the cashews have broken down. Alternatively, if you have a Vita-Mix, you can easily make the cream all in one go.

To complete cake
Spread half the jam onto the cake base on the serving plate. Spread half of the cream on top of the jam. Turn out the other half of the cake base from the cake pan and place it on top of the cream. Spread the rest of the jam on top of the cake. Follow with the rest of the cream. Decorate with cherries and a deep red rose.

Adapted from the book Naked Chocolate by American raw food guru David Wolfe, and UK health educator Shazzie. Published by Maul Brothers, 2005. To order, visit naked-chocolate.com or call 800.205.2350. Raw chocolate nibs available for purchase at various local health retailers and online at rawfood.com.

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