Description
This easy vegan carrot cake is perfect those when you’re feeding people with a bunch of different dietary needs. Naturally it’s vegan, and to make it gluten free just switch out the flour, nice and easy. I made mine as a loaf cake, but you could just as easily do it in layers for more of a showstopper.
Ingredients
for the cake:
- 3 flax eggs (3 tbsp flaxmeal, 8tbsp water)
- 80ml rapeseed oil (/coconut oil)
- 60ml maple syrup
- 200g grated carrot
- 75 raisins
- 200g plain flour
- 120g ground almonds
- 160g light brown sugar
- 200g applesauce (unsweetened)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 200ml soya milk (unsweetened)
- 1 large pinch of salt
for the topping:
- 1 tin of coconut milk (full fat, left in the fridge overnight)
- 3 tbsp icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
The night before, pop your coconut milk in the fridge. Leave it there and don’t knock or tilt it - you’re looking for it to separate.
Preheat the oven to 170 C and line a 900ml/2lb loaf tin (I use liners, because it’s just much easier, and they’re compostable).
In a large bowl make the flax eggs - mix the flax meal (if you have seeds pop them in the blender for a few seconds) with about 8 tbsp of water, stir and leave to sit for a few minutes. Whilst the ‘eggs’ are resting, grate your carrots.
Once ready, add the oil and maple syrup to the bowl. Whisk together and then add in the baking powder bicarb, salt, cinnamon, sugar and applesauce. Mix together into a paste.
Add in the soya milk, then the carrots and finally the flour, mixing gently all the time. Add the raisins and gently fold them in. The batter should be thick, but pourable. If it’s too thick, add a little more soya milk.
Pour into your loaf tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 75-90 minutes, checking if a skewer comes out clean every ten minutes or so after 70 minutes.
Whilst the cake is baking, make your topping. Take the tin of coconut milk out of the fridge and carefully open it. If it’s worked, the liquid and cream will have separated. Scoop out the white cream into a cold bowl, add in the vanilla and icing sugar, beat together until smooth. Put back in the fridge until the cake is baked and cooled, then gently spread across the top of the loaf.
Notes
If something goes a little wrong with your can of coconut milk and it didn’t separate, try adding a couple teaspoons of cornflower or tapioca flour, this should thicken things up sufficiently without changing the taste too much.
- Category: Baking