12 Aug Carrot Cake
By popular demand, we’ve decided to share the recipe for our famous carrot cake, taken from our first cookbook, Food to Make the Soul Smile. It has been a staple in our Hungerford branch for the past seven years and has been just as well received in Marlborough and Sunningdale. It is gluten, refined sugar and dairy free and delicious when topped with a cashew cheese or coconut milk frosting.
Carrot Cake
Serves 10-12
FOR THE CAKE:
approx 4-5 carrots (200g), grated
1 ripe banana, mashed
300g coconut nectar, plus a little extra
4-5 free range eggs
100g coconut oil, melted
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp mixed spice
150g raisins or sultanas
270g ground almonds (almond flour)
90g gram flour (chickpea flour) or rice flour
a pinch of Himalayan pink salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2-3tsp baking powder
To fit a small roasting tin (30cm by 20cm) or a 24cm(9″) round cake tin, lined with baking paper.
Start by mixing together all the wet ingredients and then add in the spices and dried fruit. Sieve in the gram flour (occasionally this flour can clump together so sieving is an essential step). Next, beat in the ground almonds, salt, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. If you have a food processor I would do everything in this; starting with grating the carrots then adding all the ingredients in order.
Test the cake batter for sweetness and add extra coconut nectar only if necessary.
Spoon the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven for approximately 35-45 minutes. The cake is done when the surface springs back when gently pushed or a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
When cool, spread with cashew cheese frosting.