Cosmic Curl Girl's Vegan Carrot Cake

This is a recipe from the Vegan World Fusion Cusine.  I'm very excited the way this cake turned out.  I'm getting much better at this vegan baking thing.  It does take practice.  I think the biggest challenge is judging the consistency when replacing sugar with other sweeteners like agave or stevia. Replacing eggs in recipes is a bit difficult too at first.  Are the eggs making it more dense or fluffy? Making up for what they add can be a challenge. Should I use bananas or baking soda?   I've learned it depends what type of flour I'm using whether I should use baking soda, yeast, or baking powder.   I've spent a long time taking recipes we grew up with from our dear friends Betty Crocker and Julia Child and veganizing them.  Some things work most do, but the beauty of plant based cooking is that I just call it something else, there are no mistakes.  A cake that doesn't rise is now mousse. Burnt the quinoa, it's now toasted.  You get the idea.

This was a successful carrot cake.  No "veganizing" required.  I made the ginger juice myself.  Burnt out the juicer with it too. But we got it at Goodwill pretty cheap, I'll find another.  I was ready to make fresh carrot juice, but not without a juicer so the carrot juice was not fresh, but it was organic.  The carrots are compliments of the garden.  The only change I made was to use toasted Brazil nuts on the topping instead of walnuts.  I also used whole wheat pastry flour instead of spelt flour. It came out dense, but not too dense, and very tasty.

Cosmic Curl Girl's Carrot Cake

     Vegan World Fusion Cuisine, pg 160 

Dry

31/4 C Spelt flour

     2 C Sucanot

     2 C Carrots, shredded or grated

11/2 C Raisins

1 TB Baking soda

3/4 tsp Cinnamon powder

1/4 tsp Sea salt, or to taste

1/4 tsp Allspice powder

Wet

13/4 C Carrot juice, fresh

  1/2 C Filtered water

  1/3 C Ginger juice, fresh

  3/3 C Safflower oil

2 TB Apple cider vinegar, raw

1 tsp Vanilla extract, alcohol free

Loving Preparation

1.  Preheat oven to 350º.  Place all dry ingredients except carrots and raisins in a large mixing bowl and whisk well.

2.  Place wet ingredients in a small bowl and whisk well.  Add wet to dry, along with carrots and raisins, mix well.

3.  Pour into a well oiled 11” spring form pan and bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry.  All ovens vary, I think I baked mine for about 5-10 minutes longer.

Cashew Creme Frosting

1 C Cashews, soaked two hours or longer, drain well.

2/3 C Coconut milk, or more to achieve desired consistency

1/3 C Dates, or to taste (I used about seven and soaked them until soft)

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract, alcohol free or the seeds from 1/2 a scraped vanilla bean.

Place cashews, dates, and vanilla in a blender or food processor with 1/2 C coconut milk and process until smooth, adding coconut milk as necessary until mixture is smooth and still thick.  

Place in refrigerator for 20 minutes or more before frosting cake.  Please wait until cake is completely cooled before frosting.  Topped with shredded carrots and some roasted nuts.

Looking forward to that piece waiting for me in the refrigerator.