Flowers in the mouth
I‘ve always associated the scent of roses with a feeling of decadence. Their scent evokes something ancient and reminiscent of archaic maternal figures, young and old at the same time.
The lobes of my grandmother, my mother’s mother, scented with roses, as also her linen drawers, where hidden at the bottom there were the camay soaps she bought in dozens at the market.
Her trick of perfuming the laundry. Years ago, at a Florence and The Machines concert, I could smell that powerful scent of roses as she literally hovered in the air shaking her red Titian hair.
Rose is rarely associated with food, but it can be a sensual and extremely elegant combination, like lavender in a lemonade. I thought about this recipe imagining a late summer dinner that wants to be romantic but by pure coincidence.
Where the table is laid with uneven dishes of different origins, all with different stories, found at the second-hand market and with delicious old silver cutlery. Typically, you never have much time to prepare the cake, so I propose a quick recipe with a few ingredients such as coconut cream, rose water, dried roses to enhance the aroma, a soft cream of almonds (left to soak the previous evening) and vegan biscuits ready for the base. Here it is not the preparation that takes time, but only the soaking of the almonds and the cooling time in the refrigerator for this vegan cheesecake to settle.
‘Rose, Rose I love you with your almond eyes. Fragrant and slender ‘neath tropical skies.I must cross the seas again and never see you more. Way back to my home on a distant shore. ‘
1940 Mandarin popular song composed by Chen Gexin
Decadente Vegan Rose Cheesecake
Ingredients
- (crust) 300gr vegan biscuits
- (crust) 110gr soy butter (melted)
- (crust) 2Tbsp coconut sugar
- (filling) 350gr soaked almonds (overnights)
- (filling) 800gr coconut cream (cold)
- (filling) 2 organic lemons (juice & skin)
- (filling) 2 tsp agar agar
- (filling) 80gr soy milk
- (filling) 2 tbsp rose water
- (filling and decoration) dry roses
- (filling) 2 tbsp maple syrup
- (filling) 1 cup brown sugar
Directions
- Put overnight the coconut cream in the fridge. It’s really important that the cream is stiff and separated from the coconut water because we need only the cream.
- Soak overnight the almonds
- Mix the cookies in a blender until they reach a sandy consistency
- Transfer the mix on a cake tin and add the melted soy butter and coconut syrup, work the mix with the hands
- With the back of the spoon smooth out the surface of the crust and let it rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours
- Mix the soy milk with the agar agar and bring it to boil
- On a blender mix the almonds with the rest of the ingredients until smooth
- Cover the crust with a thick layer of the almond cream and put it in the fridge, let it rest for at least 4 hours to set.
- Decorate with dry rose petals.