My Recipe: Vegan Carrot Cake

I went on a little baking spree last weekend. We had a bag of carrots sitting in the fridge and I decided the best way to use them would be to (clearly) make carrot cake! 

With school last semester I literally had hardly a moment to spare and I missed baking. I was so excited to try a new recipe, and of course had to document it. 

You want to start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.You're going to let the cake bake for about 40 minutes, or until it's nice and golden and a toothpick comes out clean. The ingredients are below.


Wet Ingredients:

- 3 cups grated carrot

- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup

- 3/4 cup almond-coconut milk (or any non-dairy milk of your choice)

- 1/3 cup vegetable/canola oil

- 2 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

- zest of 1/4 of an orange

 

Dry Ingredients:
- 1 cup all-purpose white flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- a pinch of salt





Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately. Sift the dry ingredients into the carrot mixture in thirds and gently fold until you get something that looks like the picture below! I've greased the sides of the loaf pan and cut a piece of parchment paper for the bottom (this really helps you get your cake out with nothing stuck to the bottom of the pan).

 

 


This is what the cake should look like when it's done.

I topped mine with an orange glaze and crushed walnuts! This is optional, but I would recommend it since it's so delicious.

The glaze is also ridiculously easy. Here's what you need:

- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- freshly squeezed orange juice (1/4 of a large orange, 1/2 of a small orange)
- 1 tsp orange zest (optional)

Just whisk together the above ingredients and your glaze is ready to go.

I let the cake cool for about 15 minutes, poured the glaze on top, finally sprinkled it with the crushed walnuts, and voila!

So my dad asked me to make a pear dessert...

We had four quite mushy Bosc pears and while my dad was cutting them he told me to make a pear treat out of them. I Googled some ideas and settled on trying to make a pear cake. It was dense and delicious and my sister said it tasted like something you would find at Starbucks so I was quite flattered. It was easy and if you are looking for something sweet (and vegan) give this a try!

Ingredients:

4 Bosc pears cubed (4 cups)
2 cups unsweetened apple juice
1 (or 1.5- depending on how sweet you want it) cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon crushed cloves
1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1.5 teaspoons salt
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Boil the first 7 ingredients together. Once they begin to boil simmer for 7-10 minutes.
3. Let the mixture cool till near room temp.
4. Mix together the flour and baking soda.
5. Fold in the pear mixture with the dry ingredients.
6. Lightly grease/spray a 9 or 10 inch cake pan.
7. Smooth the mixture into the pan (it gets quite gooey!)
8. Bake for about 40 minutes; it should be brown on top and a toothpick should come out clean. 

I made a caramel glaze as well (2 tbsp soy milk, 1 tbsp earth balance/vegan margarine, 1/2 cup brown sugar- bring it to a boil on the stove and let it boil for about 2 minutes) and poured it over each slice. I topped them off with some crushed walnuts.

Unfortunately we didn't have any quinoa flour at home today, but I will definitely be trying it next time!

Happy Baking :)

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Hey guys!

It was my dad's birthday last month, and my mom made a cake that was friendly for his diet. I found this chocolate cake recipe here and it was fantastic!

The glaze was quite sweet, and the cake is so good it doesn't even need a glaze. However, if I was topping it with the glaze I would add less sugar next time. We added the raspberries for decoration. You could add whatever berry you like best and I think it would taste great.

Happy Baking!