Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is my husband's favorite dessert, and I have worked on perfecting a vegan carrot cake recipe forever. This recipe finally checked all of the boxes for carrot cake. It is moist but not oily (some vegan carrot cakes have this problem), sweet with a hint of warm spices and classic carrot cake flavor. The coconut milk does not add coconut flavor - letting the carrot cake remind you of ones from past omni-days.

Vegan Carrot Cake

Cake Ingredients:

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

2 cups grated carrots (4-5 medium sized carrots)

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
pinch of nutmeg

1 cup of coconut milk (full fat, mix before measuring)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup of water

Cake Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking dish.

Cover the raisins with hot water, and set aside to plump up while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Peel and grate the carrots.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients. You want to mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg.

In another bowl mix the wet ingredients. These are the carrots, coconut milk, vegetable oil, vinegar, vanilla, and water.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just mixed. Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes.

Let the cake completely cool in the pan and then frost with your favorite vegan cream cheese or vanilla frosting.

This is the frosting that I like.

Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting

Frosting Ingredients:

1/4 cup vegan cream cheese (Tofutti and Daiya both have good cream cheese)
1/4 cup vegan margarine
Pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups natural powdered sugar
1 - 2 tbsp water

Frosting Directions:

Set out the margarine and the cream cheese to let them come to room temperature. Put them in a bowl and add the vanilla, 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar, and 1 tbsp of the water. Beat with an electric mixer until it is smooth and well combined. Add more powdered sugar a 1/2 cup at a time and continue to beat with the mixers until the sugar is incorporated and the frosting is light and fluffy. Add a little water as needed to get the consistency you want.