Good afternoon! I have been so busy this Easter weekend that I have not had time to develop any new recipes! However, I could not let an Easter weekend pass by having not made anything appropriate for the occasion- so today I have made a delicious vegan carrot cake for you all. I really hope you try this recipe as it is absolutely delicious- especially the cashew frosting! I have made cashew icing before however, I have used slightly different ingredients here and developed a slightly different recipe. (If you would like to try my original cashew icing you can see the recipe here).
So believe it or not, this vegan carrot cake is actually very healthy- of course we’ve got carrots that are very good for our health; I added cinnamon for flavour and for it’s powerful antioxidants; and all other ingredients are 100% plant based, which is what makes the best healthy recipes!
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups of spelt flour
- 1/2 cup of light brown muscovado sugar
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 3 teaspoons of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
- 1/4 cup of organic agave
- 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk
- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 1 large carrot (grated finely)
For the frosting
- 1 cup of raw cashews (soaked for half an hour and drained)
- 2 tablespoons of almond milk
- 3 tablespoons of agave
- Juice from half of one fresh lemon
- 1 cup of icing sugar (optional depending on the consistency you want)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and grease a cake tin with coconut oil.
- In a bowl, combine the spelt flour, sugar and baking powder. Then add the almond milk, half a cup at a time.
- Add the agave and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is combined. Then add the 2 tablespoons for coconut oil (melted) and the vanilla essence.
- Mix in the cinnamon and nutmeg, then gently fold in the grated carrot.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin, and bake in the oven for approximately 40 minutes.
- Once done (knife comes out clean), allow the cake to cool in its tin for 10 minutes before removing. The cake must be completely cool before icing.
For the icing
- Once the cashews have been soaked in water for half an hour, mix them into a blender so you have 1 cup of ground cashews (they don’t have to be completely ground)
- In a bowl, mix the almond milk and agave into the blended cashew nuts. Then squeeze in the lemon juice.
- For a thicker frosting, gradually mix in the icing sugar, until you reach desired consistency.
- Spread the frosting over the cake (cake must be cool) and top with little cut up carrots (see picture). This is optional- it just looks prettier!
Enjoy!
SHK x
