You all must be extremely concerned that I'm not celebrating my birthday properly, so I would just like you all to know that I did, in fact, eat a delicious cake - a raw vegan carrot cake - and it exceeded all of my expectations and then some.
I made that??? Not to toot my own horn but I'd say that is a pretty beautiful cake in all of it's cashew-cream-cheese-and-lavender goodness.
I can happily say that I have stuck to my rules of lazy baking. If there are too many ingredients, I refuse to make it. A ton of ingredients take the fun out of raw baking and makes the whole shebang a lot more like work.
A cake that uses minimum ingredients and not too many steps doesn't seem like it would taste very good, but I assure you that it tastes exactly like a real carrot cake should taste.
This is a real carrot cake recipe. Not a processed sugary cake mix with some orange coloring and a few freeze dried carrots mixed in for good measure. 3 cheers for good food! *CHEER CHEER CHEER*
My mom came and visited for the week and the last day she was living with me was the day that this beauty was prepared. We got a little carried away with the decorations but dolling up a cake never hurt anybody! We used paper flowers, two animal figurines from a small collection I have displayed on my windowsill, lavender and walnut halves. We almost didn't want to eat the cake after making it look so pretty! Nevertheless, the cake was eaten. No problem there.
I did run into a few problems which could have been easily avoided, had I been more prepared.
1. A cheesecake tin would be great to use for this cake because it would help with easy removal. I used a normal cake tin which turned out fine. The removing of the cake was a tad more difficult than it needed to be. The middle of the cake was sticking to the tin but with a little TLC it was able to be unstuck.
2. I made the big mistake of using a Nutribullet instead of a legitimate food processor. I was able to get all of the ingredients blended together but it was a lot of work for the Nutribullet fella. He had a good workout and he survived in the end.
Ingredients:
The icing:
~ Soaked cashews - 4 cups
~ Lemon juice - 3 tbsp (4 tbsp for a cheesier bite)
~ Coconut oil - 1/4 cup (more or less)
~ Maple syrup - 2/3 cup
~ Water - 6 tbsp
~ Vanilla - 2 tbsp
~ Lavender - 3 tbsp (optional)
~ Walnuts - 1/4 cup (optional)
The cake:
~ Chopped carrots - 4 cups
~ Dried pineapple - 2 cups
~ Finely ground oat flour - 3 cups
~ Dried unsweetened coconut shreds - 1 cup
~ Water - 4 tbsp
~ Cinnamon - 1 tsp
Instructions:
The icing:
1. Put all of the ingredients into your food processor, aside from the lavender and walnuts. Blend until well combined. Your final product should be a whipped consistency.
2. Taste test and smile. Set aside.
The cake:
1. Put all of the cake ingredients into your food processor. Blend until well combined. (You've just made your batter. That didn't take too long, did it?!)
2. Spread half of the batter into a round cake tin. My tin was 23cm x 3.5cm and it all fit perfectly. About half of the cake tin should be filled.
3. Spread a generous layer of frosting onto the first layer. Put this all in the freezer until the icing has become firm.
4. Once the icing is firm, which will take about 3 hours, spread the remaining batter on top of the first layer. Your cake tin should be filled to the top now.
5. Remove the cake from the tin. This can be tricky so handle with care. I unstuck the cake from the edges of the tin with knife before attempting to remove it completely.
I would recommend using a cheesecake tin to help with easy removal.
6. Your cake should now be on a cake stand (or in my case, a plate). Generously ice the top and sides of your cake.
7. Sprinkle the lavender and walnuts onto the cake as you wish. The lavender does taste nice with the icing but the decision is yours.
8. You have made a really good carrot cake. Congratulations are in order.
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