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Carrot Cake - a delicate, perfectly spiced vegan sponge cake made with fresh grated carrot and finished with a sweet vegan frosting #vegancake #veganbaking #carrotcake #veganfrosting | Recipe on thecookandhim.com

Carrot Cake

Prep: 30 mins | Cook: 30 mins | Total: 60 mins | Quantity: 8-10 slices

Ingredients

Cake:

  • 2 tblsp ground flax seeds
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 tblsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1/3 cup oil – I’ve tried with olive and avocado oil but rapeseed (canola) oil should work too
  • 2 cups (300g) plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 3/4 cup (120g) coconut sugar
  • 2 cups (200g or roughly 2 medium) carrots

Icing:

  • 2/3 cup (150g) vegan butter – you want a block butter rather than a spread
  • 2 cups (200g) icing sugar
  • 1 lemon – grated zest only

Caramelised walnuts:

  • 1 cup (115g) walnut halves
  • 1 tblsp maple or agave syrup or Sweet Freedom Fruit Syrup

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 160 Fan / 180 C / 350 F / gas 4 and with a little oil or dairy free spread, grease and then dust with flour two 6 inch (15cm) sandwich cake tins. I also cut a disc of parchment for the bases - but my tins are old and losing their non-stick!
  2. In a mug or small bowl put the ground flax seeds with 1/3 cup (85ml) cold water, stir together and set aside
  3. In a medium bowl put the milk, vinegar and oil, whisk together and set that to one side too
  4. In a large bowl put the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar
  5. Finely grate the carrot - I used the side of the grater that you normally use for parmesan cheese. Add to the bowl
  6. Whisk the flax seed mixture (known as a flax 'egg') into the milk mixture then pour it all into your large bowl of dry ingredients
  7. Stir well together, mixing up from the bottom of the bowl so no flour pockets remain
  8. Evenly divide the mixture between the two prepared tins, spreading and flattening. Bake for 30 minutes - check they're cooked by inserting a skewer or toothpick into the centre of a cake and if it comes out clean with no cake mixture clinging to it the cakes are cooked
  9. Leave to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes then carefully lift out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely
  10. To make the frosting simply beat together the vegan butter, icing sugar and grated lemon zest until pale and fluffy
  11. To caramelise the walnuts put them into a small frying pan with the maple syrup and cook over a low/medium heat for 2-3 minutes until golden and crunchy. Leave to cool
  12. To assemble the cake put one of the cakes onto your serving plate then spoon or pipe the roughly 2/3 of the icing to cover the top of it
  13. Top with the other cake and spread or pipe the remaining icing across the top of the second cake. Top with the caramelised walnuts
  14. Keep the cake in an airtight container

Recipe by The Cook & Him at https://thecookandhim.com/recipes/carrot-cake/