No-bake desserts are the new gastronomic trend in Moscow, and even traditional restaurants now frequently add healthy sweets to their menu. Here are the best places in Russia’s capital where you can try raw handmade cakes with no added sugar, wheat or mysterious chemical ingredients.
1. Tut ne pekut (“We don’t bake here”)
The name of this confectionary speaks for itself. You won’t find anything baked on the menu, which includes cakes, pastries and chocolate bars. Their cakes are based on a mixture of almond and green buckwheat flour with various fillings. Depending on the particular dessert, this can be blueberry, mango, raspberry, cocoa or nut pastes. Jerusalem artichoke syrup is used as a sweetener instead of sugar. They make a good coffee using regular or vegetable milk too!
Menu highlights: Black currant and chocolate cake (290 rubles, $4.5), Orange-chocolate tartlet (200 rubles, $3).
Where: Pokrovka St., 4
2. 42 coffee shop
This healthy café is right at Patriarch’s Ponds in the very center of Moscow’s most popular gastronomic neighborhood. Their cakes are made of dried bananas instead of flour and use coconut cream instead of cow’s milk. They even have a raw version of traditional Russian cheesecakes (sweet cottage-cheese pancakes) made from cashew and using erythritol as a sweetener. You can also have a good lunch here with caprese (tomatoes and raw cashew cheese) or spring rolls with vegetables.
Menu highlights: Medovik (a Russian honey cake but without honey for 120 rubles, $1.80), chocolate ring with fruit puree (200 rubles, $3).
Where: Malay Bronnaya St., 28
3. SML
Another cafe with vegan desserts on Patriarch Ponds. The menu includes both raw cakes and baked pastries. SML’s desserts look very appetizing–and there are a lot of them, including banana ice cream and peanut bars. In addition to coffee and cakes, you’ll find soups, salads and toast on the menu.
Menu highlights: Raw candies from cashews and dates with different flavors (50 rubles, $0.8), mint cake (400 rubles, $6).
Where: Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya St., 32 bld. 2
4. Green Corner
This is where you can find the largest selection of handmade chocolate in Moscow! Strawberry, orange, lemon, lavender, banana–and all of it without sugar or artificial “flavors.” Guests won’t be able to resist the green chocolate cake with dates and cashew or the banana "Napoleon" with coconut cream and raw coconut bar in chocolate. You can also warm up with hot drinks based on coffee, tea, turmeric and ginger.
Menu highlights: Coconut ice cream with caramel (200 rubles, $3), "Bird's Milk" cake from cashew (350 rubles, $5.4).
Where: Krasnaya Presnya St., 13.
5. Vkus & Tsvet (Taste & Color)
Besides offering healthy cakes, this is an educational center where yoga and wellness courses are held. The specialty here is chocolate truffles with different fillings, including carob, ginger, mint and dried fruit. They’re a quick and delicious way to recharge your energy. The most unusual dessert here is a raw apple Charlotte pie. What sets it apart from the classical version is that this one includes banana, pear and has a bright green color that comes from spinach.
Menu highlights: Charlotte pie (370 rubles, $5.7), brownie with avocado cream (350 rubles, $5.4).
Where: Bolshaya Novodmitrovskaya St., 36 bld.6 (Flacon Design Factory)
6. Avocado
This is one of the most popular vegan and raw food cafes in Moscow, and the food here is simply delicious. There is a separate menu for breakfast and lunch, as well as a large selection of desserts. For cooking raw cakes they use oatmeal, green buckwheat flour and nuts. Take note that Avocado also does classic cakes from flour, so the main thing is not to confuse them with the raw versions.
Menu highlights: Poppy seed roll of walnut and prunes without sweeteners (310 rubles, $4.8), Nut dream cake of dates and almonds (390 rubles, $6).
Where: Chistoprudny Boulevard, 12, bld. 2
7. RAW-Coffee & BotaniaFood
In this small corner café you can not only drink delicious natural coffee, but also try desserts from BotaniaFood, which produces raw homemade desserts for several cafes in Moscow. The menu is small, but you certainly won’t leave hungry.
Menu highlights: Spicy orange dessert (335 rubles, $5.1), Blueberry mascarpone cake (375 rubles, $5.8)
Where: Friedrich Engels St., 23, bld. 4