Eggless, Sugar-Free, and Dairy-Free Carrot Cake
This homemade carrot cake is vegan (egg & dairy-free), sugar-free and healthy, but still moist, sweet, and fluffy. The tasty icing is without cream cheese.
Useful equipment
- mini blender *)
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 400 g carrots
- 210 g pitted dates = approx. 20 dates
- 120 g (rapeseed) oil
- 1 lemon organic
- 2 oranges organic
- 2 tbsp flaxseeds whole
- 300 g flour see note
- 150 g walnuts ground
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon ground
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp oil approx., for the baking pan
- 1 tsp flour approx., for the baking pan
Cashew frosting
- 80 g cashews
- 1 lemon
- 1/2 orange
- 4 pitted dates
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (355 F) top and bottom heat
- Finely grate the carrots (if they are not organic, peel them beforehand if necessary) and set aside. I grate the carrots with my food processor.
- Grate the zest of a lemon and an orange, the outermost layer (excluding the white bitter one underneath). Put half of the zest aside for decoration.
- Then squeeze the lemon and both oranges. You need a total of 150 ml (5 oz or 0.65 cup) of juice. If it is still not enough, the rest can be filled up with (mineral) water.
- Blend the dates with the oil, lemon juice, orange juice, and flaxseeds (I do this with my mini blender). Pour the mixture into a bowl.
- Add lemon and orange zest.
- Add dry ingredients (flour, ground walnuts, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt) (I add them all at once when I use my food processor) and mix
- Add the grated carrots while stirring and mix well.
- Grease a loaf pan with a bit of oil and then dust it with flour.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan.
- Place the loaf tin in the oven (one level below the middle one) and bake at 180 degrees (365 F) for about 50 to 55 minutes. Do the toothpick test!
- Turn off the oven, open the door, and let the cake cool before carefully removing it from the pan.
While the cake is baking, the frosting can be prepared:
- Soak the cashews in hot water (cashews shall be covered in water) for about 45 minutes.
- Squeeze the lemon and half the orange. In total, it should be 80 ml (2.7 oz or 0.35 cups) of juice.
- Drain the cashews, then blend your soaked cashews with lemon, and orange juice, and dates until creamy.
- While the cake is cooling, refrigerate the frosting as well. The frosting is spread over the cake before serving.
- Decorate the carrot cake with the remaining lemon and orange zest.
Video
Notes
- The size of my loaf tin is 25 x 11.5 x 7 cm (9.8 x 4.5 x 2.8 inches). It is like an 1.25 lb loaf pan.
- Flour: you can make a 50:50 mixture and combine all-purpose flour with wholemeal spelt flour to make the cake a bit healthier.
- Instead of the dates in the cake, you can use 170 g (135 ml or 12 oz or 0.5 cup and 1 tbsp) maple syrup.
- You can use 125 g (4.4 oz or 0.5 cup) of applesauce instead of the flaxseed.
- Instead of baking soda, you theoretically could use a total of 2 tbsp. But in order that the cake does not run the risk of tasting too much like baking powder, I advise against this exchange
- You can be creative with the spices and use pumpkin spice or gingerbread spice instead of just cinnamon. Or add a little each of clove, allspice, nutmeg, and ground ginger (don't over-season)
- You can use the carrot peels for a homemade vegetable stock powder.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 carrot cakeCalories: 4791kcalCarbohydrates: 562gProtein: 87gFat: 271gSaturated Fat: 26gPolyunsaturated Fat: 120gMonounsaturated Fat: 113gTrans Fat: 0,5gSodium: 2749mgPotassium: 5421mgFiber: 72gSugar: 216gVitamin A: 67668IUVitamin C: 316mgCalcium: 1421mgIron: 32mg