Carrot Cake
A moist and fluffy (plant-based) carrot cake recipe.
Ingredients
Wet Mix
- Flaxseeds (ground) - 2 tbsp.
- Water - 6 tbsp.
- Applesauce (unsweetened, or low sugar) - 250g
- Coconut oil (substitute or mix with vegetable oil) - 240g
- Maple syrup (substitute with Agave syrup or sugar) - 100g
- Sugar - 200g
- Vinegar (substitute with lemon juice) - 2 tbsp.
Dry Mix
- Carrots (peeled and grated, might need to add 100 or 200 grams for unpeeled weight) - 700g
- All-purpose flour - 450g
- Cornstarch (substitute with flour) - 50g
- Baking powder - 4 tsp.
- Baking soda - 4 tsp.
- Salt - 1 pinch
- Cinnamon (ground) - 5 tsp.
- Nutmeg (ground) - 1/4 tsp.
- Cloves (ground) - 1/4 tsp.
Frosting
- Butter - 250g
- Cream Cheese (subsitute with whipped cream and stiffener and more lemon juice) - 500g
- Lemon juice - 3 tbsp.
- Powdered Sugar - 250g
Toppings and extra
- Coconut Flakes
- Walnuts (optionally combined with the coconut flakes)
- Non-stick spray or oil and a tablespoon of flour
Tools and equipment
- A 30cm round baking pan
- A teaspoon and a tablespoon
- Two big mixing bowls (one for batter, another one for frosting)
- A small mixing bowl (for two flax-eggs)
- Blender or hand blender
- Hand mixer
- A 1L cup, if using a hand blender
- Rubber spatula
- Whisk
- Big sieve
- Scale
- Grater
- Oven
- Oven mittens or thick cloth
- Cooling rack
Total time: Under 2 hours
Instructions
- We’ll start by peeling and weighting the carrots. We need 700g of peeled carrots, which we will grate. Preferably a mixture of small and big pieces. Leave it aside.
Wet mixture
- We’ll start by making the flax-eggs. In the small bowl, mix 2 tbsp. of flaxseeds and 6 tbsp. of water. Leave the mixture aside for at least 10 minutes.
- While waiting for the flax-egg to thicken, mix the rest of the wet ingredients. Add 250g of apple sauce into a blender or a big (1L or more) cup, then add 2 tbsp. of vinegar or lemon juice. Add 240g of your prefered oil, 100g of maple syrup or sugar, and 200g of sugar.
- Once the flax-egg thickened, add it to the mixture of wet ingredients.
- Then use a blender or hand blender to blend it all until smooth. Or until most of the sugar has melted.
Start the oven at 170 degrees Celsius, top and bottom.
Dry mixture
- Sift 450g of all-purpose flour, 50g of cornstarch, 4 tsp. of baking powder, 4 tsp. of baking soda, 5 tsp. of ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. of ground nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp. of ground cloves in a big mixing bowl.
- Then, use a whisk to mix everything well.
Take a 30cm round baking pan and spray with some non-stick spray, or use some oil to coat it. Then, cover the inside of the pan with flour. Leave it aside.
Batter
- Pour the blended mix over your dry mixture and use a rubber spatula to mix everything slowly. Don’t overmix, or you’ll develop too much gluten, resulting in dense and deflated cake. Try to break apart any flour lumps and stop when you cannot see any more dry ingredients. That is why we blended the other ingredients separately.
- Very gently fold in the grated carrots (700g) to the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared round pan. Tap the pan gently against the counter to get a nice cake texture by removing the air bubbles (which make the cake drier).
Baking
- Place the pan in the preheated oven, lower middle rack. Leave enough space over the pan so the top doesn’t burn.
- Set a timer for 30 minutes then go make the frosting.
- After 30 minutes, take it out of the oven and do the toothpick test. Simply insert a toothpick in the middle of the pan. If the toothpick comes out with wet batter, take it back to the oven and bake it for 5 to 10 minutes more. Otherwise, stop the oven.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and place it on a cooling rack.
Frosting
- In a big mixing bowl, add the 250g of vegan butter and use the hand mixer to make it light and fluffy.
- Then add the 3 tbsp. of lemon juice and 500g of cream cheese and mix it all until combined.
- Slowly add the 250g of sifted powdered sugar while mixing.
- Mix everything at medium speed until it is light and fluffy.
- Place the bowl with the frosting in the fridge until the cake has completely cooled down.
Assembly
Once the cake has cooled down, add the frosting on top with the spatula, then add the amount of coconut flakes to your taste (optionally mixed with chopped walnuts).
Keep it refrigerated.
Enjoy!
