Carrot Cake with Spiced Cashew Icing

Meet the latest recipe creation just in time for Easter – the best vegan, gluten-free, low-sugar carrot cake you’ll ever make… This one is perfect for Easter but you can also enjoy for birthdays, celebrations and any other time of the year. The cake itself is moist, rich and full of flavour with spices like nutmeg and cinnamon combined with a hint of zest from oranges. Instead of the classic cream cheese frosting, we opted for a more wholesome approach and made our own spiced cashew cream – the result, a light, silky, nutty and creamy icing that will have you licking the bowl for sure!

Makes 2x cakes in 18cm cake tins or 1 cake in a larger cake tin.

Ingredients:

3 flax eggs (3 Tbsp flaxseed, 8 Tbsp water)
⅓ C light oil* or coconut oil*, melted
¼ C maple syrup*
½ C apple sauce
½ C brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp apple cider vinegar*
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
Pinch pink salt
1 ½ C carrots, grated
½ C raisins, soaked in orange juice or warm water
Zest of 1 orange
1 ½ C almond meal
1 ½ C gluten free flour, sifted
1 C nut mylk
Handful of desired nuts or seeds, to top cake once iced

Frosting ingredients: 
1 C cashews, soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes
¼ C maple syrup*
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp pink salt
1 Tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp nutmeg

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Prepare your cake tin(s) by cutting a circle out of baking paper and lining the bottom of the tin(s), then grease the sides. We used 2x 18cm cake tins.

Soak your raisins in a little orange juice or warm water for 5-10 minutes to plump them up. Drain.

Prepare your flax eggs in a large mixing bowl by adding 3 Tbsp of flaxseeds and 8 Tbsp of water into a bowl and mix. Let sit for a few minutes.

In another bowl, add almond meal, gluten free flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, spices and salt and stir to combine. Set aside. 

To your flax egg, add remaining wet ingredients (oil, apple sauce, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup), carrots and orange zest and whisk to combine. Add your drained raisins.

Stir your dry ingredients into your wet and combine but don’t over mix. 

Pour the batter into your prepared cake tin(s) and bake in the oven for approx 45 minutes. Make sure the cake is in the middle of your oven so it can bake evenly. Remove from the oven and let cool.

To prepare the frosting, soak your cashews in a bowl of boiling water for 30 minutes to soften. Drain, then place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Ice the cake once it’s completely cool and top with chopped walnuts, pumpkin seeds or your desired topping. If you have x2 cakes like we did, you might want to slightly level off the bottom cake with a knife so the icing and top layer can sit flat.

Best to store in a container in the fridge.

*Item not available online but is available in your local GoodFor store.

Photography by Sarah aka @thesaarahproject.

Printable recipe PDF here.