Do you love carrot cake but find layer cakes to be a bit too daunting? Me too, although learning to make layer cakes is one of my goals this year so I guess you'll se some of those from me soon too. This carrot cake is anything but daunting though, just mix together a simple batter, pour it in a pan, bake, cool and frost! Waiting for the cake to cool before decorating is probably the hardest part of this recipe, and if that's not a good indication of how easy it is then I don't know! As always, please tag me @mealsbymiri on Instagram if you give this recipe a go as I absolutely love seeing your creations!
Ingredients: 400g fresh grated carrot
200g milk
1tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 flax eggs (3tbsp finely ground flax seeds +7.5tbsp water)
1tsp vanilla extract 160g unflavoured vegetable oil (such as rapeseed oil)
100g unsweetened apple sauce
140g granulated sugar
140g dark brown sugar
350g all purpose flour
1tbsp baking powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp powdered ginger
4tsp cinnamon
1.5tsp cardamom
0.5 tsp fine table salt
1tsp ground cloves
Frosting: 225 vegan cream cheese 150g vegan butter
400g powdered sugar
2tsp lemon juice
30g cornstarch
approximately
1/2 cup (1dl) chopped toasted walnuts (optional for garnish)
Method: Start by making the cake batter. Mix your flax seeds and water and leave to thicken until they look gloopy. Mix your milk and apple cider vinegar and leave to curdle. To a large bowl add flour, both sugars, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Mix well until all dry ingredients are fully combined. Then, mix your curdled plant milk, flax egg mixture, apple sauce, oil and vanilla extract. Pour the wet mix into the dry and mix to combine. Finally, fold in your grated carrots. If the batter looks a bit thick at this point that's normal, the carrots will release a lot of moisture as you bake! Pour the mix into an oiled cake pan about 20 by 30 cm and bake at 200 degrees C for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely before frosting. If you have a cool room to put it in that would be ideal. Make the cream cheese frosting by mixing up some butter until smooth (this is to avoid getting lumps of butter in the frosting), then adding your vegan cream cheese and mixing again until smooth. Sift powdered sugar and cornstarch to remove any lumps and gradually add this to the batter until everything is incorporated. Add the lemon juice and mix again. Leave the frosting to thicken up in the fridge or a cool room for an hour or more. Once the cake is cooled and the frosting is thickened, add the frosting to the cake and garnish with chopped toasted walnuts (or any other garnish you might want). Enjoy!
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