Pre-vegan, carrot cake was not something I had baked very often. It’s not that I didn’t like it but there is just something unappealing about the thought of a cake made with carrots. Of course, anyone who has ever eaten carrot cake will tell you that there is nothing unappealing about the taste.
I can’t imagine what made the person who invented carrot cake decide to add carrots to a cake. It seems like two things that should never be mixed but the truth is that you can’t really notice the carrots and they make the cake deliciously dense and moist. Very clever really.
There are lots of different varieties of carrot cake. Some people like to add sultanas or other bits of dried fruit while others like to include pineapple pieces or walnuts. I’m not a fan of fruit in my carrot cake but I was planning on adding walnuts but all I had were pecans and no desire to go back to the shops. I much prefer pecans to walnuts anyway so it worked out really well.
The icing is a sweet, creamy vanilla buttercream (vegan of course) and after seeing a photo recently of a different type of cake with caramel sauce drizzled over the top, I decided that caramel sauce can never be a bad thing so I added it.
A few months ago, I made a carrot cake using someone else’s recipe and while it tasted nice, it was quite oily. While coming up with this recipe, I researched other carrot cake recipes and they all seemed to have a large amount of vegetable or coconut oil in them too (2/3 cup or ¾ cup).
To cut back on the oil (and also as an egg substitute) I cut back to ¼ cup of oil by soaking dates and blitzing them with 1 cup of the soaking water. The cake is still very moist but without the oiliness.
This cupcake recipe makes about 16 cupcakes but if you want to make a full cake then just bake it in a cake tin for at least an hour to 1 hour 20 minutes.
This could be the perfect treat to bake over Easter this weekend. The Easter Bunny eats carrots so it makes perfect sense as an Easter cake!
- CUPCAKES
- 1 cup gluten free plain flour (145g)
- ½ cup almond meal (50g)
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp bi-carb soda
- 1 cup brown sugar (170g)
- 1½ cups chopped pecans (150g)
- 3 cups grated carrots (340g)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ cup oil (vegetable or canola)
- 10 dates
- 1 ½ cups boiling water
- ICING
- 1 cup vegan margarine (220g)
- 3¾ cups icing sugar (500g)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- CARAMEL SAUCE
- 1 cup brown sugar (185g)
- 1 can coconut cream (400ml)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- CUPCAKES
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C (356°F)
- Remove stones from dates and soak in boiling water for 10 minutes.
- Sift flour, baking powder, bi-carb and spices into a large bowl.
- Stir in brown sugar, carrot and pecans.
- Place soaked dates in a food processor and gradually add 1 cup of the soaking liquid. Blitz until pureed.
- Add pureed dates and oil to mixture.
- Use an ice-cream scoop to put the perfect amount in each patty pan
- Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes. When cooked, remove from oven and allow to cool in pan.
- ICING
- Using a hand mixer or mix-master, whip margarine for a few seconds.
- Add vanilla extract
- Gradually add sifted icing sugar, mixing in between additions.
- Once smooth and creamy, icing is ready
- CARAMEL SAUCE
- Place all ingredients into a small saucepan.
- Place on stove over a medium heat. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer.
- Simmer for approx. 10 minutes or until sauce begins to thicken slightly.
- Pour sauce into an airtight container and place in the fridge until required. It will thicken more as it cools.
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