Vegan carrot cake with delicate frosting

This cake is super easy to make and it does taste great even without the frosting. You are welcome to put some chopped nuts inside for an extra bit of texture (I sprinkled mine on the top instead). To get a moist (yet eggless) carrot cake, I used a homemade apple sauce (see Notes below on how to make it) as a cunning egg replacer. It took a few attempts to get the exact proportions right, but it does work a treat. The cake is moist yet light. Another thing I love about it is the smell of spices. It exudes warming aromas of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger, which magically transport your mind to an exotic spice market.

CARROT CAKE

Wet ingredients

• 1½ cup / 120 g carrots, coarsely grated

• 1/2 + 1/8 cup / 120 g brown sugar

• ½ cup + 1 heaped tablespoon apple sauce*

• 1/4 + 1/8 cup / 90 ml olive oil

Dry ingredients

• 1½ cup / 165 g sifted wholemeal flour

• 1 level tsp baking soda

• 1 level tsp baking powder

• pinch of salt

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• ½ tsp ground cloves

• ½ tsp ground nutmeg

• ½ tsp ground ginger

VANILLA-ORANGE FROSTING

• 75 g cashews, soaked overnight

• 6 tbsp silken tofu

• 1 orange (you’ll need 5 tbsp juice + zest of ½ orange)

• 4 tsp coconut oil, melted

• 1½ tbsp maple syrup or other liquid sweetener

• ½ vanilla pod, seeds scraped chopped pistachios, for decoration

Method

CAKE

1. Set the oven to 180° C. Line a 2lb cake tin (dimensions: 18,5cm x 8cm x 6cm) with a piece of baking parchment or grease it.

2. In a bowl mix together all wet ingredients. In another bowl, mix together all dry ingredients.

3. Slowly tip the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and incorporate everything together but, like with all batters, be careful not to over mix.

4. Spoon the batter (yes, it’s meant to be that thick) into a baking tin. Bake for 50-60 mins depending on your oven. It’s done when a toothpick comes out fairly clean.

ICING

1. Drain and rinse soaked cashews. Put them into a food processor to grind into a smooth paste.

2. Add in silken tofu and all other ingredients. Process some more.

3. Put the icing into the fridge for a few hours so that it thickens. It won’t be as thick as an icing made with margarine and icing sugar, but it will stay on the cake.

Notes

Volume measurement I use is 1 cup = 237ml

* To make an apple sauce, peel, core and chop 3 apples. Put them in a pot with a cup of water and spices and simmer covered until soft. I added the following spices to it: 1 allspice, 2 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick and ½ star anise. Once the apples are cooked, I pureed them with a hand blender. You can make a bigger batch and freeze it for another use.