Raw Cacao Fudge Cake Pops-Vegan Mofo Day 22

Johanna very kindly invited us to dinner this week and I offered to make something for dessert. I have been on a bit of a health kick this week after getting sick so wanted to make something healthy but also hoped that I might manage to make something that that her cute daughter Sylvia would like. It was apparent from her recent posts that she tends to enjoy all sorts of desserts as long as they are on sticks, which helped to narrow down what to make. I'm not a big fan of raw mains but love raw desserts too so I chose this recipe.

Cacao Fudge Cake Pops from barefoot and frolicking

Yields approximately 20 cake pops

Cake Pop Filling
2 cups walnuts
½ cup dates, soaked
½ tsp maca powder (I skipped it)
3 tsp powdered goji berries
¼ cup maple syrup
seeds of 1 vanilla bean (I used vanilla essence)
3 tbsp buckwheat flour  (I used coconut flour and shredded coconut)

Dark Cacao Chocolate
2/3 cup melted cacao butter
1 cup cacao powder
2 tbsp dark agave syrup (I used light agave)
1 tsp vanilla
dash of lucuma powder

Preparation:
To make the Cacao Fudge Cake Pop filling, grind goji berries in a coffee grinder until a powder-like consistency. I just used a food processor which kind of worked. Set aside. Process the walnuts until they are a fine and crumbly consistency. Add in the dates, maca, goji powder, maple syrup, vanilla, and process until mixture is soft and dense. Add in the 3 tbsp of flour if the mixture is too wet (this may change depending on the individual preparation of the recipe). You might also find yourself patting the mixture with a cloth to remove some of the excess oil from the walnuts.

Chill mixture in a large bowl in the freezer for at least thirty minutes. Roll mixture into small balls and set aside on a sheet of parchment paper. Chill mixture in the fridge/freezer for another twenty minutes or so, and then place pop sticks in each round mixture.

To make the Dark Cacao Chocolate, melt the cacao butter in a medium-sized mixing bowl over a pot filled with warm water.  Using a sifter, sift the cacao powder in a small mixing bowl and set aside. Once the cacao butter is melted, mix in the maple syrup, vanilla, cacao powder. Whisk until the overall mixture is a smooth, liquid consistency.

Dip each cake pop in the melted chocolate mixture, swirling to remove excess chocolate. Dip cake pops in desired toppings, I used coconut sugar.

I had a few issues, for some reason the mixture was still to wet, so I added in shredded coconut and coconut flour which didn't help that much so I ended up using more walnuts which then changed the flavour and made it quite oily. So I had to remove lots of the oil with lots of paper towels. I also then added more goji berries and more maple syrup. I also ran out of chocolate quite quickly, so am not sure what I did wrong there. They certainly look much lighter in  than hers too. But I thought taste wise they were petty good and I got a big 'yum' from Sylvia. Toddlers can be the most difficult critics so I was pleased with myself. I also ate quite a few with out the chocolate and they are still quite delicious.

PS, I got the sticks from cake deco in the city thanks to a reply on twitter from eatnik.