Hello and happy Monday! I am super excited to be sharing an actual cake recipe with you all - something I haven’t really done in the past! Since I stopped baking full time and moved into the realm of full-time creative thinking, I have been dreaming a lot about the direction of this blog (and my life as a whole). So I have decided to go the whole hog and just share EVERYTHING that I am obsessed with - whether it is a recipe, a shampoo or an interior dream! I am also working on a bit of a rebrand at the moment, so the blog can align more with who I am as a person, rather than the look and feel of my Hello Duffymoon cakes. Everything will work out in time - just you wait and see!
Enough news - let’s get to the cake! This is the *perfect* cake to make for your first autumn treat, it is spicy, carroty and so warming. It warms you up all the way from the inside - also perfect for the Easter weekend! Fun fact…before we became vegan I was not really the HUGEST carrot cake fan - but now it is in my top two (chocolate cake will forever have my heart). This is indeed a vegan recipe, but it is better than any non-vegan carrot cake I have tasted! It is also really easy to make and the ingredients and easily accessible so you won’t need to go digging around health food shops to find them. I know not everyone spends their weekends digging around at markets and visiting health food shops as a hobby (guilty as charged).
Let’s get started:
- 2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 pinch of ground ginger
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 450g grated carrots
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 4 flax eggs (1/4 cup ground flaxseeds and 3/4 cup water - combined and left to sit)
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 tin coconut cream (refrigerated overnight)
- 1/4 cup icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- lemon juice to taste
Start by preheating your oven to 180 degrees celsius with the grid on the middle shelf. Next, sift together the self raising flour, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and salt - I used a whisk to combine them evenly. You can easily replace the flour with a gluten free flour substitute by adding 1 1/4 tsp bicarb and 1 1/4 tsp baking powder - it will work just as well! Pop your flax eggs, brown sugar, white sugar into your stand mixer and beat them until the are frothy…then slowly add the vegetable oil. After the wet ingredients are combined add them to your dry mixture and then tip in your grated carrots and mix everything with a rubber spatula. I have recently bought a really divine one from Le Creuset, you can find it online here. Lastly, stir in your roughly chopped pecan nuts and grease your cake tins. I use four 20cm cake tins to create a lovely layered cake, but you could easily just use two. Bake your cakes until a knife pulls out clean and the cake is pulled away from the tin on the sides - about 15 minutes if you are dividing the cake into four layers and about 20 minutes if you are only making two layers.
Leave your cakes to cool for about an hour in the tin before you turn them out and then leave them to cool for a further 30 minutes. While your cakes are cooling you can get going on your coconut cream frosting. Take your solid coconut cream and put it in the bowl of your stand mixer - leaving the liquid in the tin. You can then go full tilt with your whisk attachment until the cream is light and airy, slowly adding your icing sugar and then your vanilla essence. For a cream cheese kind of flavour whisk in a bit of lemon juice…and tada! Place your coconut goodness in the fridge until you are ready to ice your cakes. I did a 4 layer cake so I divided my coconut cream up and wedged it between the layers, using the rest to cover the top and sides, I then topped my cake with some edible flowers and chopped pecans. I am quite thrilled and obsessed with this cake, it is such an easy and wonderful treat to whip up for someone you love, including one’s self!
Thank you for taking a look at my latest recipe, if you want to see more of what I get up to on social media please take a look at my Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. if you want to catch peaks of cakes, cats, selfies, step-by-step vegan recipes, bits of Durban and lots of delicious food keep an eye on my Instagram story! OH! Please DO subscribe on the right (please)
Love,
Duffymoon