How to Make Perfect, Moist Vegan Carrot Cake.
This is the Best Recipe for Moist Vegan Carrot Cake I have Found.
No Eggs, Butter or Milk. But Lots of Taste.
Making a moist vegan carrot cake without using any eggs, milk or butter sounds hard, making a cake like that that doesn't taste dry and bland seems impossible but it doesn't have to be.
When my youngest daughter was just sixteen she decided to become a vegan. My first reaction was panic, she loves cake and I couldn’t find one decent sounding vegan cake recipe in any of my existing cookbooks. My second reaction was worry that she wouldn’t get enough nourishment to remain healthy. How would she cope without cheese, milk, butter and eggs? How could I, as her mother, provide her with decent vegan meals?
She has been a vegan now for many years and she is happy and healthy and I have learned how to make a huge variety of vegan food. This carrot cake is without a doubt the best tasting cake, vegan or otherwise, I am yet to find. So I thought I would share the recipe with you.
Over the years I have found hundreds of vegan recipes online and in books. Some were simple and tasty but the vegan cake recipes all seemed a little too dry or too stodgy. This cake is slightly sticky, moist and the lemon frosting contrasts perfectly with the sweet interior. I have listed the walnuts as optional as I know some people have a nut allergy.
I really hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 225g carrot, grated
- 85g dates, chopped
- 85g dried cherries, chopped
- 140g self raising flour, sifted
- 140g wholemeal flour, sifted
- 100g soft brown sugar
- 10-20g cinnamon, according to taste
- 200ml vegetable oil
- 180ml water
- pinch salt
- 3-4 drops white vinegar
- 6-7 drops good vanilla extract
- 225g icing sugar, sifted
- 115g vegan spread
- 6-8 drops lemon juice
- 2-4 drops vanilla extract
- lemon zest, to decorate
- 100g chopped walnuts, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5.
- To make the cake, mix together all of the dry ingredients making sure that the fruit is well distributed through the mixture, then stir in the wet ingredients. Pour into a well-greased loaf tin.
- Bake for 40 minutes, then reduce oven to 160c/325f/gas mark 3 and cook for another 35 - 40 minutes. Keep your eye on the cake as it can sometimes catch a little on the top. Leave the cake to cool in the tin.
- To make the icing for the top of the cake, stir the sifted icing sugar and vanilla essence into the vegan spread with a wooden spoon. Mix this until it is quite smooth and a spreadable consistency. This will take around five minutes. Add a little lemon juice for an extra hit of citrus taste.
- When the cake is completely cold remove it from the tin and place it on a serving plate. Spread the icing over the top and sides and then sprinkle the lemon zest over the icing to decorate. You can use a few very thin blanched lemon slices as extra decoration.
- This cake will keep very well for a couple of days if you keep it covered in a cool place but don‘t put it in the fridge as it goes rock hard and pretty much inedible.
Let it Cool.
Remember to let the cake cool completely before you try to ice it if the cake is still warm the icing will melt into the cake.
Variations.
I have tried replacing the grated carrot in this recipe with grated parsnip and it works really well, as does a mixture of the two. Another variation is to use grated beetroot, messy, but very tasty I wear rubber gloves if I use beetroot. If you want to add some extra crunch and a little more protein to the cake then try adding some chopped pecans to the walnuts. I have also made the icing using orange juice and zest, it is a little sweeter than the lemon and I have found children prefer the taste.
If you want to make the cake using only wholemeal flour you can but it does tend to be a bit heavier and I would suggest adding some sort of raising agent to the mix.
© 2010 Galaxy Harvey
