Whole Foods Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe

Refined Sugar Oil And Gluten Free Vegan Carrot Cake

This luscious Plant Based Refined Sugar and Oil Free Carrot Cake is going to WOW your taste buds! My family just loves carrot cake but your typical carrot cake recipe is loaded with refined sugar and oil. It has been my mission to create a Plant Based carrot cake that is not only good for you, but tastes fantastic too! This is it folks!

No need to feel guilty diving into a piece of this cake or even going back for seconds. This is full of Plant Based goodness that is going to make your belly and you happy! Serves 12

Assemble The Carrot Cake

Once your cake has cooled completely, take your cashew frosting out of the fridge. Make sure the cake has cooled completely so you dont mess up the result!

Using a spoon or spatula, spread the cashew frosting onto your carrot cake. You can do so before slicing it into bite-sized pieces or decorate the pieces individually!

Top with crushed walnuts and a sprinkle of cinnamon if you like!

Ripen Bananas In 30 Seconds

Also, I learned that If you dont have ripe bananas, you can microwave them for 30 seconds to ripen them up! Thats what I had to do this last time because my banana was slightly green. Make sure you poke holes all over the banana with a knife. I did 2 rounds of 30 seconds in the microwave on high.

My youngest isnt a fan of walnuts, but I am and of course he needs to eat them for the healthy omega-3s, so I chop them up super fine so he doesnt even notice.

Definitely go easy on the cloves. I think I did a little bit bigger pinch that I should have this last time, as it was very strong! Still good though!

It keeps for up to 5 days in the refrigerator, although it will probably be gone before then!

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Serving Suggestions & Substitutions

• Gluten Free- This vegan carrot cake is not gluten-free, but this link to the Minimalist Baker will help adjust it for those that want to give it a try.
• Soy Allergies- For those avoiding soy, you might try using cashews as a substitute for tofu in the glaze.
• Cupcakes- Want to make cupcakes instead of cake? I make cupcakes all the time with this batter. Just use a muffin pan and reduce the cooking time to 20-25 minutes.

Whole Food Carrot Cake

by Kai | May 23, 2020 | Recipes, Sweets

If there is one cake that is popular almost anywhere, then it is carrot cake. The combination of the juiciness of ground carrot with a good seasoning of warm spices is hard to resist. No wonder, as the warm spices perfectly match the juicy texture of cake and carrots. This whole food carrot cake comes with health benefits on top.

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Vegan Mini Carrot Cakes

Easy to make – the recipe demands little more than giving everything a good stir this method produces delightful mini carrot cakes that are dense and moist with wholemeal flour laden with spices and generous quantities of grated carrot, chopped walnuts and sultanas.

But dont just make these in Veganuary – decorated simply with just a sprinkling of linseed or slathered with lemon frosting, this recipe is perfect for every month of the year.

Makes 12

Making Your Own Fresh Shredded Carrots

I highly recommend using organic carrots. They really do taste better. I dont buy a ton of organic fruits & vegetables, but I do for the carrots. Hopefully you have a food processor so you can shred the carrots really easily. I always peel mine and cut off the tops and then throw them in the processor with the shred disk. Any extra shredded carrots I dont use for the recipe, I keep in a ziplock bag for salads!

I dont recommend buying the bags of shredded carrots you see in the salad section. Those are dry & not very fresh. This will affect no only how moist your cake is, but also the nutrient density!

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No Sugar No Oil Just Whole Foods

Like most cakes, classical carrot cake is also packed with a lot of processed stuff like sugar, white flour and margarine or butter. Thats not quite the best treat out of the perspective of healthy eating. Luckily, there are ways of replacing all the unnecessarily unhealthy stuff with some really beneficial components.

The principle is pretty easy. You kick out all the highly processed stuff and replace it with whole foods. Dates replace the sugar, flour and oil have to make room for oats and nuts. If you work like this, any cake can be part of a balanced diet.

This way of baking exists in tons of variants out there on the web and you can make use of this type of dough in so many ways. Swap carrots and spices for cocoa and berries to make a chocolate cake. Add banana, add apple. Theres many ways of creating a good whole food cake.

Make The Cashew Frosting

Drain your soaked cashews and add them with all the other ingredients for the frosting to a high-speed blender.

Should you work with a non-heavy-duty blender, soak the cashews overnight.

Blend until creamy and smooth, adjusting the components for the perfect texture and flavor as wanted.

We like to make this frosting while the cake is baking and place it in the refrigerator to chill and thicken a bit!

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Time To Feel Good About Eating Cake

I LOVE cake but I dont want to eat unhealthy ingredients like sugar, white flour or margarine.

Neither do I want to feel guilty after eating a big piece of cake.

Or feel like I have to do extra exercise to deserve it.

I dont want to feel bad for giving my family unhealthy food.

And Im guessing you dont either!

Heres the good news you dont have to. Actually you can feel good about making and eating this cake.

I usually get a sinking feeling when I look at cake recipes. All that sugar. You can forget its there when you havent made it yourself. But when you make it you cant escape the facts.

This recipe is the opposite. With every ingredient that you add youll feel lighter and happier knowing youre making something good for you. It just so happens its completely gluten-free too.

Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting

We make vegan cream cheese frosting by whisking together dairy-free cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon zest or lime zest.

Note: different countries have different brands of dairy-free cream cheese. In the US some good ones are Kite Hill, Daya, or store brands like Aldi and Trader Joe’s.

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Healthy Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe

I think my favorite part of a nutritarian diet is that I can have my cake and eat it too. In other words, I can eat dessert and STILL lose weight and improve my health. I dont have to feel guilty because it is made from whole food plant based ingredients! It makes it really easy to stick to this way of eating for life knowing that I can really enjoy DELICIOUS foods and especially dessert!

As you may know, being vegan does not necessarily equate to good health. The term vegan refers to not eating meat or dairy products. A vegan can eat processed foods and oils and not have as much health benefit. However, a whole foods plant based diet is focused on eating the most nutrient dense foods whole foods. No meat or dairy and no processed foods including oils. This recipe does not contain any butter, eggs, white flour, or sugar. Instead it uses banana, dates, raisins, and oat flour as its base. It tastes great and wont raise your blood sugar like regular carrot cake!

My oldest son is my pickiest eater, but he loves this carrot cake recipe. It makes me happy that I can get some vegetables into him without a fight! My husband tried it last night for the first time and he said he was very surprised at how good it was. Score!

Healthy Vegan Carrot Cake

A stunning and delicious oil-free plant-based and vegan carrot cake. Perfect to celebrate holidays and birthdays. *Adorn with cream cheese frosting, ermine frosting, buttercream frosting, coconut whipped cream, or pwdered sugar and fresh flowers. This cake is my favorite way to celebrate International Carrot Day, which sometimes coincides with Easter. Eat your veggies!!

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Add The Grated Carrots

Add in the grated carrots, and give it another quick mix.

Then add 50 grams or half a cup of crushed walnuts and 50 grams or ¼ cup of raisins.

These two ingredients are optional but add a nice touch of natural sweetness and healthy fats.

Don’t worry if the batter seems too thick the carrots contain lots of water that will come out while baking, making the cake super soft and moist.

Make Oat Flour From Old

This post may contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I LOVE and its what keeps this blog going!

This recipe calls for old-fashioned oats to be ground in your high powdered blender. Old fashioned oats are also called rolled oats. Dont use quick oats or steel cut for this recipe. I have a Vitamix blender and it takes literally seconds to do this! Its really easy to do, but you could always buy oat flour in your local grocery store baking aisle as well. You could also try using a food processor, but personally havent, so let me know in the comments if you do and it works.

Youre going to love the icing, too. It is SO yum! Feel free to use the icing recipe on any dessert recipe you have! The coconut flour can be left out if you want to have to a vanilla only flavor.

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Best Vegan Carrot Cake

Incredibly moist and packed with grated carrots, this secretly healthier version of Vegan Carrot Cake guarantees you will never miss the extra calories.

When I first created this glazeddairy-freecarrot cake, my husband couldnt stop talking about it. He said that absolutely anyoneplant-based or notthat tried it would agree that its fabulous. It has become one of my familys favorite plant-based recipes.

Made with banana, raisins, walnuts, whole grain flour, and applesauce theres just something charmingly delectable about this culinary masterpiece.

What Makes This Vegan Carrot Cake Special

Its such a unique version of carrot cake that I was sure to include it in Dreenas Kind Kitchen .

Often applesauce is used as a default for oil-free baking. But this isnt always best, as Ive mentioned in other posts.

In this healthy carrot cake, in that it uses frozen mango to add natural sweetness, beautiful color, and moistness to the cake.

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Bake The Vegan Carrot Cake

Once the ingredients are combined, transfer the cake batter to a prepared pan lined with parchment paper.

You can use a round one, a squared one, or a rectangular one. You can even use a muffin pan if you like.

Here we use a rectangular baking dish that is 28 x 18 cm or 11 x 7, but we also tried using a 23cm or 9 round one.

Bake in the oven at 340F or 170C for about 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes clean.

And now the hardest part of making carrot cake. We must wait for the cake to cool down completely before eating it or applying any frosting.

Let the cake cool on a bakingrack for at least three hours. This time will allow the excess moisture in the carrots to escape and a light, soft crumb to form.

If you dont wait, the cake will be too moist to be enjoyable. I like to take the cake out of the baking dish to speed up cooling.

Healthy Carrot Cake: The Frosting

Ive opted for a coconut butter-base for this frosting, as it is very reminiscent of a traditional cream cheese frosting to me. If you prefer not to use coconut butter, you can absolutely substitute cashew butter instead .

I think this is just a beautiful cake to serve on Mothers Day. Look how beautiful it is!

Id love to hear what you think of this healthy vegan carrot cake.

We love it, and I hope you do too! x Dreena

• 2tsplemon juice

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Vegan Carrot And Walnut Cake

This weeks recipe of the Week comes again from our Instagram style master Meg Phillips. Having a Vegan diet herself, Megs recipes are always free of animal products as shes mastered the art of cooking without eggs. This cake is super moist and delicious, enjoy.

Ingredients:

3 cups of gluten free self raising flour

1 tablespoon gluten free baking powder

1 cup organic coconut sugar

3/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1 and 3/4 cups almond milk

4 carrots, peeled and grated

a handful of chopped walnuts plus additional to garnish

Method:

For the Icing:

2 cans of coconut cream chilled in the fridge overnight

1 cup coconut sugar

3 tablespoons of cacao butter, melted

Method:

Gluten Free | Dairy Free | Vegan

Preparation Of Whole Food Carrot Cake

This cake itself is prepared in just a couple of minutes. It goes well on its own, but can be further improved by adding a creamy frosting. Calculate one hour soaking time for the cashews. The actual making of the frosting is done in no time.

For this carrot cake, you need an oven and a food processor. As measure, I want to keep it as simple as possible and just use a Mug for measure. If you follow the recipe as described, you will produce enough dough for a 17 cm Ø spring form pan enough to share with some couple of friends, but not too much to occupy fridge space for days.

If you can, pick whole spices and grind them in a mortar. The flavour they then leave behind is way more fresh and intense and brings the cake to the next level. If not, powdered spices do the trick as well. If you absolutely want to go cheap, replace the spices with some gingerbread mix and you should be good.

Preheat the oven to 180° C / 350°F. Give all ingredients, except for the carrots into your food processor and blend a chunky but sticky mass. Grate the carrots and add them to the mix. Slowly fold them in, before adding everything into a baking form. Bake for 20 minutes and your whole food carrot cake is ready.

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Why This Is The Best Gluten

Just because a recipe is VEGAN does not mean it is HEALTHY. Vegan recipes can still be full of sugar, oil, white flour and margarine. Theyre just skipping on the animal-based ingredients like eggs and butter.

Thats where whole-food plant-based comes in. Whole-food plant-based recipes not only miss out the animal-based ingredients they only use healthy ingredients which are good for us.

Storage & Serving Suggestions

Any leftovers can be stored on the counter for about 3 days and in the fridge for up to 5 days. We suggest that you keep the cake in the refrigerator because the cashew frosting might become runny when its too warm!

This carrot cake is also freezable for a few months we recommend you separate the carrot cake squares into appropriate servings before freezing so you can defrost them more easily when the time comes.

Serve on its own or alongside a cup of tea, almond milk or vegan vanilla latte!

Its a great dessert, lunchbox addition or vegan brunch idea.

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