Cracking the recipe for vegan carrot cake

The exact origins of carrot cake are unclear. Some food historians believe it originated from carrot puddings eaten by Europeans in the Middle Ages, when sugar was scarce and expensive. Carrots made an acceptable alternative. (Apparently, the first sugar was recorded in 1099.) Certainly, recipes for carrot cake have been around since the early 1800s, with recipes published by esteemed chefs in Paris, London and Switzerland. In fact, carrot cake is an extremely popular cake in Switzerland, known as Rüblitorte. In the UK, carrot cake made a comeback during the second world war rationing, when carrot was again used as a substitute for sugar.

I’ve always thought carrot cake to be somehow synonymous with ‘healthy eating’, though I’m sure healthy eating and cake is somewhat an oxymoron. Back in the later 1970s it was the staple of slightly hippy cafés, despite the cream cheese topping, which was de rigueur. Carrot cake is always in demand at Twilight fundraising events - I once sold three before we’d even opened the stall!

The most reliable traditional recipe that I’d found, and used many times, was from the BBC, but inevitably it’s not vegan. I did have a vegan carrot cake recipe of unknown source in one of my recipe collection books, but it used a massive 300g of sugar! Although I’d had feedback that it was actually better than the non-vegan version, I was looking for something a little healthier. What are the characteristics of a good carrot cake? Unctuousness, lightness and with a slightly sour, frosted topping.

I started researching all my usual recipe sources. Raising agents seemed to be the issue with some traditional recipes including as many as four eggs. Not much chance of replacing that with flax egg. There were plenty of vegan alternatives, ranging from Minimalist Baker, which offers a gluten-free alternative (unfortunately, this calls for some pricey ingredients like coconut oil, almond flour and GF flour, so it’s unsuitable for a bake-sale cake), to the BBC’s own vegan recipe, which was even higher on the calories scale than my original (25% of RDA in one slice!). It was also a huge cake with a massive cake list of ingredients, including a whole jar of coconut oil and 200g of creamed coconut. Another that would not be cost-effective for fundraising events.

Eventually, I tracked down a great recipe from one of my very favourite vegan bloggers, VeganRicha. The snag was the cake was baked in a loaf tin. Hmm … I don’t know why, but I tend to make carrot cake in the round. Of course, loaf cakes are much easier to slice for sales, but perhaps not as visually appealing. The recipe was a little bit more fiddly (read: generated more washing up) than usual, but only needed a few tweaks to ‘frenchify’ it. The result was a great cake that baked, spot-on in an hour. The recipe produced quite a substantial amount of mixture, so I reckon it will split between two eight-inch round tins. I’ll just have to modify the cooking time. The official VV cake tester insisted on a topping, which I made from two cups of sucre glace, half a tablespoon of vegan spread, one tablespoon of plain soya yoghurt and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Carrot Cake

1 ½  cups grated carrot

¼ cup agave syrup

⅔ cup brown sugar

¼ cup oil

2 tsp lemon juice

2 tbsp ground flax seed

¼ cup applesauce

⅓ cup chopped carrot

½ inch fresh ginger

½ cup orange juice

2 cups T55 flour

3 tsp levure chimique (1 ½ packets)

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

½ cup sultanas/raisins

Step one - into bowl add: grated carrot, agave syrup, oil, lemon juice; mix well

Step two - into blender/liquidiser add: flax, applesauce, chopped carrot, ginger and orange juice. Whizz until really well pureed. Then mix into the bowl.

Step three - into a large bowl add all the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, levure, spices and dried fruit.

Step four - pour the wet mix into the dry, mix well. The batter should be quite stiff, if it is too wet add another tablespoon of flour.

Step five - pour batter into lined 2lb loaf tin. Bake at 180C for exactly an hour. Cool in the tin.

(adapted from Vegan Richa)