Raw Vegan Carrot Cake

It was my dear friend Caroline’s birthday last week, and I decided I was going to “bake” her a cake. Caroline requested carrot, which I thought was appropriate, because carrot cake is nutritious, lovely, and sweet, just like dear Caroline. 🙂

This was my first attempt at a raw layer cake, but I thought it came out pretty well!

This cake was awesome. No bake, no dehydrators, just shape, frost and eat! I think the hardest part was shaping the cake into the layers. I had no mold, so I basically had to eye-ball the rounds, and make sure that all three were about the same height and width.

  The frosting part actually came quite easy, once both cake and frosting had been refrigerated.       After frosting the cake, I decided that just a plain white cake was too boring. The fun part was figuring out how to make “carrots” to decorate with. 🙂

Ingredients
Wet:
-The pulp from 1 pound (+ a couple extra) of raw organic carrots, juiced.
-1 cups of pitted dates, soaked in warm water for 20 minutes then drained
– 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
– 1 cup of the fresh carrot juice + extra as needed.

Dry:
– 1 cup barley flour (can substitute quinoa flour, any other type of grain flour you want, or more almond/coconut flour)
– 1.5 cups finely ground almond flour
– 1.5 cups finely ground Flax meal
– 2 cups coconut flour
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1 tsp Cinnamon (you can also put in nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, whatever flavors you’d like in Carrot cake)
– 1 cup finely shredded dried coconut meat

Frosting:
– The coconut cream from 2 cans of coconut milk (I refrigerate mine overnight so when you open it, the thick cream sits on top)
– 1.5 cups of raw cashews soaked for at least 4 hrs
– 1/2 to 1 cup of coconut sugar (depending on your sweetness preference
– 1/2 cup to 1 cup of coconut water (depending on thickness of cream)
– 2 tsp of Vanilla Extract

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, mix all dry ingredients together, and whisk till evenly blended. set aside.
In a food processor, mix together all the wet ingredients till smooth. Mix the dry and the wet ingredients together till a “dough” forms. The consistency should be like a thick cookie dough. Set aside and make the frosting. Waiting will make the dough more firm and easier to shape. If you find the dough is too dry, add more carrot juice. If too wet, add more flax meal.

Take the coconut cream and whip it with a hand mixer till it becomes “whipped cream”
in a highspeed blender like a Vitamix or a food processor, blend the cashews, coconut sugar, coconut water, and vanilla extract till  you have a smooth cream.
Gently fold the whipped coconut cream into the cashew cream till smooth. refrigerate (preferably overnight) to achieve desired thickness for frosting.

Mold three layers of 8 inch rounds from cake “dough.” Then layer the frosting in between, and frost the outside of the cake. Optionally, add dried shredded raw coconut to the sides of the cake. Refrigerate cake overnight for best results.

“Carrot” decorations
– 2 Tbsps of raw carrot pulp
– 1 to 2 Tbsps of frosting
– The zest of 1 lime, peeled, then cut into long thin strips of 1 inch.
Mix together the carrot pulp and frosting, form into small carrots, then gently place on top of cake. Insert 2 lime strips at the ends for the “greens”

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And if you’re wondering…oh my goodness it was good. It was quite a dense and satisfying cake, not too sweet, and very moist. The total prep time was a bit long, but well worth the end result, especially when it’s your good friend’s birthday!

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