Merry Ho Ho Ho guys! I hope you all had an amazing and restful Christmas! I would like to say that I did too, but, well…my Christmas didn’t go entirely as planned. Which, for anyone who knows me, is pretty much par for the course/ C’est ma vie.

The day started out normal. I got up 2 hours BEFORE the a$$-crack of dawn (or 5:30 AM to be precise) to continue making the Brioche-based Sticky Buns I had started the night before as well as start making the leper-friendly/Paleo-ish Sticky Buns I made for myself (as well as my Dad and soon-to-be sister-in-law who are both lepers of the gluten-free variety). I also poached me a lobster, and made some Hollandaise for Eggs Benedict (for the non-lepers). It was pretty damn tasty guys. Lobster for breakfast is pretty luxe.

My original plan after breakfast was to, well…nap, and then work on getting this blog post up (given that it’s a Christmas recipe and all). But then my Mum spilled boiling water all over her right hand. Being right-handed, and given that cooking is obviously a two-handed endeavour, it was therefore up to me, my bro and the BF to cook Christmas dinner under her supervision. (We were having some guests over, otherwise, pizza may have honestly been a valid Christmas Dinner option…).

So…cook we did, for pretty much the entire day. And this blog post was pushed to a later date. Apologies guys. But family first at Christmas, right?

Further, apologies are in order for delaying the delivery of this amazing recipe guys. I say this because it really is the best Christmas Dessert! It’s called Mardi Gras Torte, which is essentially fancy speak for uber rich Chocolate Cheesecake filling (because there actually IS a way to make cheesecake MORE rich) with brown sugar meringue layers. Except this time, the cheesecake and meringue are completely dairy and egg-free! Yup. You heard me. Vegan chocolate cheesecake with brown sugar meringue layers. It’s pretty much the best.

Now…the good news is that while this recipe can be eaten at any time of the year. In fact, given it’s title, I initially shot it to be a Mardi Gras recipe (and I have actually included my Mardi Gras-themed photos below because I really love them), but I decided to post it this year as my Christmas recipe because, frankly, in my family/mind, it’s a Christmas dessert.

And like my other favourite Christmas recipes, this recipe comes straight from Gramma Richards’ Traditional Christmas collection. For many years, the Richards-Boaks Christmas tradition has been to have Duck à l’Orange with Wild Rice pilaf and Ginger Carrots for Christmas Eve dinner (all possible future posts because these recipes are, likewise, unparalleled), followed by the whole my brother and I waking up at the crack of dawn to make a huge Christmas Breakfast for my parents. We would open presents at home, then head to my Gramma’s where we would essentially have Christmas Eve Dinner 2.0. I say 2.0 because we would open the more extended family presents on Boxing Day morning, and THEN have our real Christmas Dinner on Boxing Day.

Now, unlike every other meal cooked by my Gramma, the Christmas Eve 2.0 dinner was, well…horrible. (Sorry Gramma). Actually, now that I think about it, Christmas Day lunch was also the pits. The dilemma each year always came down to whether I wanted to slather cold tinned salmon salad thing vs. weird whipped cheese salad stuff with glacéed cherries on my sliced bread; haute cuisine popular in 1950s America, I’m sure, but pretty much my definition of prison food.

Now, to add further context to this story, you must understand two things: I LOATHE cold food. Unless it’s ice cream, green salad, or this Mardi Gras Torte, for that matter, I don’t eat cold food. Like, ever. I also utterly detest mayo. I always feel like I’m eating vaguely twangy snot. Sorry if that’s graphic, but it’s the truth.

(For those of you who were wondering, out of these two heinous salad choices the salmon thing usually won out. But only just. And really only because glacéed cherries + whipped cheese do not a food make in my mind.)

THEN…as if the yearly lunch time salad debate wasn’t enough, Christmas Eve Dinner 2.0 always consisted of MORE cold salad with flavour-less white rice, cheddar, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and peas layered on top of each other and with this weird white gook on top which I think was also mayo-based. (I asked the fam at dinner last night…they also have no idea what the gook was. There may have been some sour cream or yogourt in there too….Alls I can say is that it was slimy and white).

(AND if ALL THAT wasn’t bad enough, guess what we would eat for lunch on the 26th as a run up to the grand Christmas dinner? Freakin’ LEFTOVERS!)

At this point, y’all can pretty much imagine the situation; me completely famished, eating as little of my cold lunch and supper as I politely could, knowing I would have to eat repeats of it the next day, and dreaming of our Christmas Dinner on Boxing Day. Things always looked pretty grim, to my stomach that is.

But then, oh then folks, the Mardi Gras Torte would come out of the kitchen which, given how hungry I was practically had beams of golden light emanating out of it. And, I swear, I’m not just saying this because I was starving. That only guaranteed that I would get the largest piece I could fit on my plate! It’s because this Mardi Gras Torte really IS the best! It is pretty much the definition of utter piggery (or, en français, cochonnerie).

Obviously, therefore, I had to figure out a way to adapt it from it’s original cream cheese and whipped cream base with eggy-meringue layers to an equally delectable Paleo-ish version. I figured it out earlier this year and 100% planned to post it for Mardi Gras (hence the Mardi Gras themed photos mentioned above and included below) but then, well, the second hardest year of my life happened and blogging has taken an unfortunate backseat while I get the rest of my sh*t together. (I swear I’m working on establishing some more order to my life. Sigh.)

So Now that I have a bit of time off for the holidays, and, like I said, this Mardi Gras Torte is, to me, a Christmas recipe, I have gotten this post together for you guys. Feel free to enjoy it any time of the year though!

Paleo-ish Mardi Gras Torte

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Mardi Gras Torte, a.k.a. Vegan chocolate cheesecake filling with brown sugar meringue layers. Drooling yet?

Author: Amelia
Prep Time: 35 mins
Cook Time: 45 mins
Total Time: 80 mins
Yield: 8–12 servings 1x

Ingredients

Scale

| Meringue Things |

1/3 cup Aquafaba (a.k.a. water from a can of chick peas)
1/8 tsp Cream of Tarter
1/4 tsp fine Salt
3/4 cup Brown sugar

| Chocolate Filling Things |

9 oz Semi-sweet Chocolate (I use Lindt Zartbitter chocolate. If you want to make the dessert completely vegan, use vegan chocolate).
1 cup Brown sugar
Dash of Salt
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
12 oz vegan Cream Cheese (I use Daiya Cream Cheese)
1 1/2 cup Coconut Cream (i.e. the coconut solids from 2 cans of full fat coconut milk )

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Instructions

| Meringue |

Preheat oven to 300°F.
Line two baking trays with parchment paper. Draw 4 8″ round circles on two pieces of parchment paper (i.e. 2 circles per paper). I use the bottom of cake pans as my stencil. Flip parchment paper over (so that you don’t get ink/pencil lead in your meringues). Set baking trays aside.
Add aquafaba, cream of tarter, and fine salt to the bowl of your mixing machine. Whip on high until the aquafaba is stiff and holds medium-stiff peaks. (i.e. about 15 mins).
Slowly add your brown sugar as the machine continues to beat.
Continue beating the mixture until the sugar dissolves and it is a uniformly soft beige colour.
Put 1/4 of the mixture in the centre of each circle and spread out the meringue with a spatula until the circles are filled.
Bake in oven for ~ 35 mins, or until the meringue is a golden brown colour and cooked. It will still be at bit soft when you pull them out of the oven.
Set aside to cool and harden.

| Cream Cheese Filling |

Melt your chocolate in a double boiler (or a metal bowl sitting on top of a small pot with water in the bottom). Set aside to come to room temperature.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix the cream cheese, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla together on medium speed until fully combined.
Remove mixing bowl from mixer, open your chilled cans of coconut milk, and remove coconut solids which have formed at the top of the can. Use any remaining coconut milk to bring total amount up to 1 1/2 cup of coconutty goodness. Fold the coconut cream into the cream cheese mixture. The mixture will be super runny!
Fold chocolate into cream cheese mixture. It should get thick enough that a glob of it will sit easily on your spatula.

| Assembling the Torte |

Spread a little bit of the chocolate mixture onto your serving plate/platter. Carefully peel one of your meringue layers off the parchment paper. Place the flat side down on the chocolate mixture.
Carefully layer the chocolate mixture on top of the meringue, spreading the chocolate mixture to the edges of the meringue using a spatula or, if you have one, a cake spatula.
Alternate back and forth between placing a meringue layer and the chocolate mixture, making sure to place the last meringue layer bumpy side down (to leave a flat surface for your last layer of chocolate cream cheese filling). Make sure to leave some filling to ice the sides of the torte as well!
Using the cake spatula and the remaining filling, spread the cream cheese filling along the sides of the torte, rotating the serving platter as you spread.
Chill Torte for 8 hours (or overnight). The meringue will re-liquify a bit the longer it chills, so if there is a brown syrup the next morning, you can just wipe it off with a paper towel.
Remove Torte from fridge about 20 minutes before serving.
Enjoy!

Notes

| Substitution Notes |

For you lucky dairy-vores out there, you can substitute 12 oz your favourite cream cheese in place of the vegan cream cheese. You can also use 1 1/2 cups of whipped cream instead of the coconut cream.
For you lucky lucky egg-ivores, you can use 3 egg whites in place of the 1/3 cup aquafaba, and the cream of tartar would be optional.

And that’s all for this week folks. It may not have been in time for Christmas, but it IS in time for New Years shenanigans!

Per usual, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me by commenting below or shooting me an email.

Ciao for now!