Friday, July 10, 2015

Daiya gets polished up for a spa party

If you follow me on Instagram, you already know about the spa party I went to last night in honor of my nephew's bride-to-be (they're getting married tomorrow). His mom asked me to bring one of my dairy-free, gluten-free desserts that would be perfect for the occasion. Since I knew this could be a tough crowd to please when it comes to raw vegan, I opted to go with a semi-homemade spa-themed dessert with a non-raw Daiya Cheezecake as the star ingredient.

I had been dying to try Daiya's Dairy-free, Gluten-free, Soy-free New York Style Cheezecake for a while now, so you can imagine my excitement when I found it at my local grocery store. Honestly, I was wondering the aisles aimlessly, hoping for a spark of inspiration. The minute I saw it in the natural foods freezer section, I knew what I wanted to do: make Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Daiya Cheezecake Nail Polish Mini Desserts (say that 10 times fast).

To start, I needed to thaw the cheezecake out in the fridge for a few hours, so it would be soft enough to cut with a small, round cookie cutter, as shown.

The cheezecake was much softer at this point then expected, so I suggest pushing it up and out of the cookie cutter from the base to avoid squishing it (like I did to the one on the far left in the photo below).

As you cut out your cheezecake rounds (these will be the bases on your nail polish bottles), set them aside on a plate or serving platter. I was able to make 10 cheezecake rounds.

You'll be left with a lot of scraps, but that just means more for you :) It's also good for making other desserts (you can fill strawberry centers, make mini tartlets and more) or even blend into a shake.

Now, back to the nail polish mini desserts, you'll need to make the tops out of strawberry centers. Simply cut your strawberries (enough to top all your bases), as shown. All you need to do is cut off all four sides (reserve these to decorate your finished desserts), so you are left with a rectangular center.

Each of these strawberries will need to be put on the end of a wooden coffee stirrer to make them easier to dip in dark chocolate and attach to the cheezecake bases. I recommend placing them in the freezer while you melt some dairy-free chocolate chips in a double-boiler.

Once the chocolate is melted, dip each strawberry, one at a time, in the chocolate ...

... and put them in glasses to set in the fridge.

When the chocolate is set, cut off the wooden stirrer excess, as shown ...

... and attached the chocolate-covered strawberry toppers to the cheezecake bases.

Decorate your finished nail polish mini desserts with hearts cut from the strawberry scraps.

You can even add some other details to your platter of polishes, like some peach toe separators and another stirrer to looks like a nail file.

The nail polish mini desserts were a hit at the spa party, which was so much fun. I got my nails painted with this gorgeous Zoya nail polish in Oceane.

I also treated myself to a bunch of Coola Suncare products. I usually only buy the mineral sunscreens, but I couldn't resist this travel bag that contained some of the original formulations. It must have been the color :)

My hubby also surprised me with two new Pacifica Power of Love 100% Vegan Cruelty-free Natural Lipsticks in Compassion Passion and Nudie Red (check out my Pacifica post from the other day). I'm wearing Compassion Passion today.

I kept the spa theme going yesterday with a detoxifying smoothie that really has a kick. It was simply cucumbers blended with GT Kombucha in Gingerade and Philosophie Green Dream Vegan Protein & Superfood Powder. I'll probably use the rest of the kombucha in my smoothie today.

Speaking of smoothies, the other day I posted this Minion-inspired smoothie out of frozen bananas, cashew milk and Philosophie Berry Bliss powder. I poured it over fresh blueberries in a decorated Minions glass.

Hayden and I also used paper to decorate these mini bananas to look like Minions. So cute.

Are you going to see the new Minions movie this weekend? Are you going to the spa? What are your plans and are you going to make any of the recipes in this post? Let me know on Twitter at @Rawdorable or on Instagram (also @Rawdorable).