January has been re-branded Veganuary. It’s a time of year when people are making New Year’s Resolutions to lead a healthier lifestyle, whether that’s through fitness activities, dieting or a combination of both. In a bid to help combat climate change, many people are also incorporating meat-free days into their week and plant-based food is becoming increasingly more mainstream.
If you haven’t experimented with vegan food before, you may feel slightly daunted. But if you do the right research you’ll find a diverse range of vegan recipes out there that are full of flavour. Veganuary doesn’t need to be dull!
Here’s a recipe for vegan carrot cake that is sure to become a firm favourite with all those sweet-toothed cake eaters. You should be able to get 8 generous slices out of this one.
Start by setting the oven to 180 C, dig out an 18cm deep, loose-bottomed cake tin and some baking paper and gather your ingredients.
Ingredients
4 medium sized carrots
50g halved or chopped walnuts
75g sultanas
120ml almond, soya or other plant-based milk
250g plain flour
300g brown sugar
2 tbs flaxseeds
6 tbs warm water
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
2tsp vanilla extract
120ml vegetable oil
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
Pinch of salt
Zest of 1 lemon
For the icing:
80g dairy free butter (room temperature) plus extra for greasing
450g icing sugar
½ lemon
3 tsp vanilla extract
Method
- Grease the cake tin and lay baking paper in the bottom to stop the cake from sticking.
- Mix the flaxseeds and warm water until you have a smooth paste and set aside to thicken for 5 minutes.
- Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in a food processor.
- Add the milk, vanilla extract, vinegar, vegetable oil, flaxseed paste and salt and mix it all together until you have a smooth batter (this may take a couple of minutes).
- Grate the carrots and then, in a large bowl, fold the batter, carrots and sultanas together.
- Pour the cake mix into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 50-55 minutes (check that it’s cooked by inserting a skewer into the middle. When the skewer comes out clean, it’s ready to come out of the oven).
- Now it’s time to make the icing. Mix the butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract together in the food processor.
- Remove any pips from the lemon and squeeze the juice into a bowl. Add it to the icing and mix together until you have a thick, spreadable cream.
- Once cooled, cut the cake in half horizontally. Spread about a third of the icing on the bottom half before sandwiching the two halves back together. Spread the remaining icing on top and then decorate with the walnuts and lemon zest.
- It’s best to store this cake in the fridge and then eat within 3 days.
Why not bake a few cakes and scones and host a tea party to raise money for GAIN? Get in touch with the team for a tea party kit and help raise awareness of Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
