Description
Enjoy this super simple refined sugar-free vegan carrot cake recipe. The cake is dense yet fluffy, and the cream cheese frosting is a beautifully rich and creamy way to finish off the cake.
Ingredients
- 1 flax egg
- 1 cup (heaped) / 100g walnuts, crushed into smaller pieces
Dry ingredients:
- 1 cup / 135g plain flour
- 1 cup / 120g white spelt flour
- 1 cup / 150g coconut sugar
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon bicarb soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon mixed spice
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
Wet ingredients:
- 1 cup / 250ml plant-based milk (I used organic soy milk)
- ½ cup / 110ml neutral-tasting oil (I used rice bran oil)
- 70g unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Additional:
- 2 cups / 200g carrots, finely grated (approx 2 medium carrots)
- Cream cheese frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius (355 degrees Fahrenheit) and place the oven rack in the middle. Line an 8-inch cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides for easy removal from the pan. Set aside.
- Make the flax egg.
- In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients and whisk together to combine well and remove any clumps.
- Place the walnuts on a flat baking tray and put in the oven for 10 minutes to slightly toast. Once toasted, set aside the equivalent of 3-4 extra walnuts for decorating the cake. You can always use more if you want; however, this is all I needed to create the look for my cake.
- In a separate smaller bowl, combine all the wet ingredients and whisk them until they are well combined and slightly frothy. It will be pretty thick.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix using the whisk until there are no lumps. Please don’t over mix!
- Fold in the carrots gently.
- Add 1 tablespoon of flour to the walnuts and toss to coat. This will prevent the walnuts from falling to the bottom of the batter when baking in the oven. Now add them to the batter and gently stir.
- Pour batter into the prepared tin and place on the middle rack in the oven, baking for 1 to 1½ hours. Bake until the skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake. Please don’t be tempted to open the oven any sooner as this will make the cake collapse in the middle as it cools. You will see that the cake is starting to separate from the sides of the pan; this is when you can test to see if it’s finished. You want the cake to spring back if you touch the top.
- While the cake bakes, you can prepare your cream cheese frosting.
- Once the cake is made, let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes before carefully removing it and letting it completely cool on a wire rack.
- Once the cake is completely cooled, refrigerate for at least a few hours.
- When you’re ready to add the cream cheese frosting, remove the cake and frosting from the fridge and spread the frosting generously on top.
- Take the remaining walnuts and decorate the edge of the cake with walnut pieces.
- The cake will keep at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days without the frosting or the fridge for 4 days with the cream.
- Diet: Vegan
