This was the chosen recipe for my birthday this year… which just happened to coincide with Mother’s Day. I love carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. So we made this paleo version with a vegan cashew cream frosting, using a recipe modified just a bit from The Detoxinista. Gluten-free, dairy-free and no refined sugar. So don’t feel bad eating the leftovers for breakfast.
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But I have to admit, If I’m splurging on carrot cake, I’d prefer the real frosting. I came up with a compromise… goat cheese. Not Paleo. But no cow’s milk. And crazy delicious. So if you tolerate a little dairy, I’d go this route.
Carrot cake
Ingredients:
- 1 cup coconut flour, sifted
- 1 cup maple syrup (I use organic grade B pure maple syrup)
- 3/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 8 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 Tb cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 Tb lemon juice
- 1 tsp baking soda (I like Bob’s Red Mill)
- 2 1/2 cups shredded carrots (about 4 carrots)
- optional – 1/4 cup raisins
- optional – 1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
- optional – shredded coconut for garnish
Process:
If you’re making the cashew cream cheese frosting, start there because you’ll need to soak the cashews and give the frosting a chance to cool before you frost the cake.
Preheat the oven to 350F and grease two 9-inch cake pans generously with coconut oil.
In a large mixing bowl, combine coconut flour, maple syrup, coconut oil, eggs, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, lemon juice and baking soda, and mix well. Mix in the shredded carrots. If using, add raisins and/ or walnuts. Mix to combine well. Add batter to your prepared cake pans and cook for about 35 minutes, until the center is firm. Allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Then use a knife to separate the cake from the edges of the pan and very gently invert onto a wire rack.
Meanwhile, whip up a batch of frosting. Click here for the Cashew Cream Frosting, which is dairy-free and vegan. The recipe for Goat Cheese Frosting follows.
Cover the bottom layer with cooled frosting. Then stack the cakes and frost completely (my daughter helped with this step). Garnish with shredded coconut if you’d like.
Goat Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
- 4 oz organic goat cheese, at room temperature
- 3 oz Kite Hill’s vegan cream-cheese style spread made from almond milk. (Daiya also has a dairy free cream cheese style spread, but I prefer Kite Hill in terms of flavor and ingredients)
- 1 Tb grass-fed unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (make sure yours is gluten-free)
- 1/2 c powdered sugar
Process:
Beat all of the ingredients for about 3 minutes, until well combined, smooth and fluffy.
Happy birthday… or whatever it is you’re celebrating.
