Vegan Carrot, Coconut & Orange Cake

There is a “National Carrot Cake Day” and it is celebrated on the 3 February (I missed the boat here). The jury is still out on the origins of carrot cake as there are some recipes that date back to the early 1827 and the oldest known carrot cake recipe dates from 1892 in a book of housekeeping school of Kaiseraugst (Canton of Aargau, Switzerland) and according to the Culinary Heritage of Switzerland, it is one of the most popular cakes in Switzerland –especially for kiddies birthdays.

According to food historians – the modern day carrot cake could have descended from the Medieval carrot puddings enjoyed by people all over Europe. Due to lack or cost of sugar and other sweeteners in Britain – carrots were commonly used as sugar substitutes in years gone by. The carrot cake may have been invented in Europe – but the Americans gave the carrot cake its amazing cream cheese frosting.

And like all of my recipes – my recipe was modified from a recipe that contained eggs – but in desperation to eat a carrot cake I started experimenting with this and eventually it turned out amazing and for years I have been following the modified recipe with great success – until – I got a bit more adventurous and decided to modify it even further – making it healthy (to an extent) and vegan.

I have to admit that this vegan carrot cake is amazing – I however I am not going to be making it on a regular basis – simply because I can’t keep my hands of it.

 

 

Vegan Carrot, Coconut & Orange Cake

175 ml castor sugar

200 ml coconut oil

125 ml coconut milk

4 medium carrots – finely grated

100 ml chopped walnuts/pecan nuts

125 ml flax seed meal

100 ml desiccated coconut

10 ml orange rind

250 ml cake flour

5 ml bicarbonate soda

10 ml baking powder

250 ml whole wheat bread flour

7 ml cinnamon

5 ml mixed spice

100 ml fresh orange juice

 

Method

1. Beat oil and sugar, till thick, then beat in the coconut milk
2. Add the grated carrots, nuts, flax meal, coconut and orange rind – mix so that it resembles a thick batter
3. Sift dry ingredients into mixture and mix well, before adding spices and orange juice and once again mix to ensure ingredients are well combined
4. Pour into well-greased and lined baking pans
5. Bake at 180 for 45minutes-remove and allow to cool
6. The cake can be iced with a mixture of vegan cream cheese and icing sugar and topped with more chopped nuts – I just dusted icing sugar and sprinkled some desiccated coconut

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