So. Why the love? Well, carrot cake, the cake part of it at least, is delicious. I wouldn't have thought carrots would make for a good cake ingredient but alas they do and hot damn do they deliver. But, I'd be lying to you if I said that the very best, the preeminent if you will, part of the carrot cake is not the cream cheese frosting. My god. THE FROSTING. I froth that stuff, always have and always will. It's just so damn good! Like, give me jars of that stuff to spoon feed myself with for the rest of my life and I will be a lady most happy!
You might be wondering how in the world one's makes vegan cream cheese. Well, me too, and I don't actually know the answer to that question, but what I do know is that a lovely company called Tofutti have gone ahead and done exactly that and the great upshot of that is that now we can have vegan cream cheese frosting on our carrot cake and my god nothing has, or will, ever made me so happy in life. This icing will mess you up in all the good ways that you didn't know you could be messed. I ate it by the spoonful from the mixing bowl, and truth be told I'm surprised I had enough left to put on the actual carrot cake. Yah. It's THAT good.
In other relevant news, this cake is probably the best vegan cake I have ever made. The consistency is 10/10 and you genuinely would not know that it was missing any of the usual baking ingredients (ergo, eggs). It's light and fluffy, and decadently moist (ooooooooo yeah I went there) all at the same time and basically I consider this cake and this frosting my gift to the world. My work here is done. HAPPY DAYS!
Ingredients;
The Cake
2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
2 carrots, grated
1 cup brown sugar (lightly packed)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 chia 'eggs' (2 tbsp chia seeds soaked in 1/3 cup water for 5 mins)
2 tbsp date syrup (available in the health foods isle at Woolworths in Australia)
1 cup soy milk
1 cup pecans/walnuts, roughly chopped
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (fan-forced).
2. In a small bowl, combine the chia seeds and 1/3 cup water and set aside.
3. Take a large mixing bowl. Add in the sifted flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.
4. Add the grated carrot into the dry mix along with the brown sugar, chia eggs, date syrup, olive oil and soy milk. Mix well using a spatula/wooden spoon (NOT an electric mixer!). The mixture should be relatively solid, though runny enough that it will pour (albeit slowly) if you tip the bowl to one side. If it's still a little sticky, add in a little extra soy milk.
5. Add in your roughly chopped nuts, then mix well.
6. Take a lined loaf tray (presumably a regular cake tray will also work if you want, but I'll confess I've not tested it, so no promises!!) and pour your carrot cake mixture in, using the spatula/wooden spoon to smooth over the top.
7. Place in the oven and bake for approximately 60 mins, or until the cake is firm to the touch (I find smell is often the best indicator of how cooked this cake is - your kitchen should start to smell utterly fantastic when it's nearing being finished!). A skewer inserted in the centre of the cake is also a good test - it should be clean when it comes out.
8. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling tray. Allow to fully cool before icing.
Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
200gm vegan cream cheese (I used Tofutti, available at the Cruelty Free Store in Australia)
1/4 cup vegan butter (I used Nuttelex)
1 cup icing sugar
1. In a mixing bowl, combine the vegan cream cheese, butter and icing sugar. Mix together using an electric mixer for a few minutes until you have a completely smooth, mindblowingly delicious frosting.
2. If you can resist eating it straight out of the bowl (difficult task), scoop out onto your cooled carrot cake and spread evenly.
Voila! The words most delicious vegan carrot cake! Enjoy!
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