Gluten Free Dairy Free Cheesecake

C's birthday was yesterday, and I made her a gluten-free, dairy-free "cheese"cake.  Inspired by  a fellow blogger, I deviated from my usual gluten-free chocolate cake without considering the fact that I no longer  have a food processor. When I moved out of my house, I both needed and wanted to downsize, and I was possessed by a somewhat irrational fear of being accused of taking everything. So I left as many small appliances as I took: Toaster, blender Kitchen Aid mixer, coffee maker: mine. Food processor, icee-maker, soft-serve maker: his. Okay, so it wasn't perfectly even, but maybe I'm forgetting something.

It was labor intensive to make this dessert without a food processor.

Insane, actually. I had to grind up the five cups of cashews in tiny batches.  The crust went quite smoothly and required just a couple of batches. But the "cheese"? Craziness ensued. There's not a lot of moisture in the filling. Blenders like moisture. Food processors don't care. But I prevailed, and the cake reaped an interesting side benefit from my ignorant determination. The coloring was rather beautifully rendered in tones.

Luckily, our day was planned for a late birthday celebration, and, in fact, due to the tiredness that resulted due to the birthday parasailing adventure, we shifted our celebration to this morning. The verdict? Amazing cheesecake-like texture. But the flavor is more nutty than cheesy. Maybe because I used vanilla extract instead of vanilla paste because the vanilla paste I found disclosed that it contained some kind of wheat product. But with the fresh berries drizzled with boysenberry sauce? Yeah...cheesecake, cashew cake....whatever. It's darned good.

But if you're getting divorced, take the food processor.