Carrot Cake
This vegan, gluten free carrot cake is not too dense and not too fluffy. Decorated beautifully it makes for a lovely celebratory cake for a birthday or dinner party.
Serves 10-12
what you need
for the cake
Aquafaba from 1 can of chickpeas (see tips)
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1 cup apricot sauce (I used homemade apricot sauce but you could easily substitute applesauce)
3/4 cup coconut sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup oat milk
2 cups grated carrot
1 cup buckwheat flour
2 cups gluten free flour
1/2 cup chopped raw walnuts + extra for decorating
Cream cheese frosting
1/2 cup nuttlex
tub of Tofutti
4 cups of icing sugar (maybe more)
rind of 1 organic orange
what to do
for the cake
Preheat oven to 180ºC. Butter and flour two cake pans and set aside.
In a large bowl, add half of the aquafaba and the melted coconut oil and whisk to combine. Next, add apricot sauce (or applesauce), sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla powder, cinnamon and nutmeg and whisk to combine.
Add oat milk, grated carrot and walnuts and stir. Then add flours and stir. Now gently fold in the remaining aquafaba. The batter should be thick, but easily spreadable in the pan. If too thick, add a bit more milk.
Divide evenly among cake pans. Bake for 50 minutes or until deep golden brown and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow the cakes to sit in the pans for 15 minutes before removing and placing on a wire rack to cool.
for the frosting
To a large mixing bowl, add Nuttlex, Tofutti and orange zest and beat until creamy.
Add icing sugar 1 cup at a time until very thick but still spreadable. It should be quite thick as you want the frosting to hold its shape. If it’s not thick enough, the layers of the cake will start sliding around.
to arrange cake
Allow the cakes to cool completely, then cut each cake in half, creating four layers in total. Spread a bit of the frosting between each layer and then all over the outside of the cake. Decorate with walnuts, organic rose petals and mint leaves like for a lovely celebratory cake!
Tips
To make aquafaba drain the liquid from a can of chickpeas and add it to the bowl of a high speed mixer. Whip, together with half a teaspoon of cream of tartar for about 6-8 minutes, until stiff peaks form.