Vegan Carrot Cake

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

To make your vegan cream cheese, soak the raw cashews in hot water for 1 hour. Add the cashews to a bowl, pour boiling water from the kettle over it, cover with a cloth and leave to soak for 1 hour.

Step 2

Then drain the cashews and add to a blender jug with the lemon juice, coconut cream, salt and white vinegar. Blend. If you have a stick attachment for your blender then use this to push the mixture down onto the blades as you blend for easier blending. If you don’t have this attachment, then just be patient, and stop regularly and scrape down the sides, give it a stir and carry on until you have a smooth texture.

Step 3

Transfer the cream cheese from the blender to a storage container. Now you’re ready to make your cream cheese. Weigh out 8-ounces (226g) of the cream cheese and place it into the bowl of a stand mixer.

Step 4

Then add the vegan butter, sift in the powdered sugar and add the vanilla extract. Starting at slow speed gradually increase speed until the frosting is thick and smooth.

Step 5

Place the bowl of frosting in the fridge to firm up before using, or use it right away and then place the cake into the fridge for the frosting to firm up on top of the cake. The frosting is a little on the soft/runny side when first made but firms up a lot in the fridge. You can also add more powdered sugar if you want to, but this will effect the flavor balance.

Step 6

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray two 7-inch cake pans or two 8-inch cake pans (see notes*) with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.

Step 7

Sift the all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix together.

Step 8

Add the light brown sugar and grated carrot to the mixing bowl.

Step 9

Prepare your flax eggs by adding 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed meal to a bowl with 6 tablespoons of hot water. Let it sit for a minute to become gloopy.

Step 10

Add the flax eggs, oil, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar and chopped walnuts to the mixing bowl.

Step 11

Mix everything together. If it seems like it won't come together and the mix is too dry then step away from the bowl for a couple of minutes and then come back to it. The carrots will have released more moisture into the batter allowing it to come together into a thick batter.

Step 12

Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans.

Step 13

Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.

Step 14

Frost the cake and decorate the top with chopped walnuts.