Week 15 Dish 1: Vegan carrot cake with cashew cream cheese frosting

Ahhh this week has been a bit boring... I'm on my ENT placement and it's really not an area I'm interested in. I've spent the week looking up noses, in ears and down throats - lovely. Thankfully it's only a week long so it's over. But of course, it hasn't put me off my baking!

This week my netball team had a team dinner, and though I couldn't make it (very sad) I contributed with vegan carrot cake! You really can't go wrong with carrot cake, everyone finds it yummy, so I though it would be perfect. I've been told that everyone loved it, and hopefully they weren't lying, so it's definitely one to try out! Other than the faff of grating the carrots, it's easy peasy...

Ingredients

For the cake

3 1/2 cups out flour (made by grinding oats in a food processor)

3 tbsp ground linseed

1 tsp heaped cinnamon

1 1/2 tbsp baking powder (though the cake doesn't really rise much)

2 1/2 cups soya milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp orange juice

1/2 tsp orange zest

1/4 cup melted vegan margarine

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup raisins

2 1/2 cups chopped grated carrots (use a food processor to further chop the grated carrots)

For the frosting

2 cups cashews, soaked 4 hours (use chopped cashews in warm water to make this faster)

3 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp liquid coconut oil

1/3-2/3 cup maple syrup/ honey/ golden syrup

Water as needed (use as little as possible)

Decorations as preferred - I used finely chopped walnuts and orange zest

Method 

1. Preheat over to 180 degrees C and line a 13x9 inch cake tray with grease proof paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix the oat flour, linseed, cinnamon and baking powder.
3. Fold I'm the soya milk, vanilla extract, orange juice and orange zest.
4. Melt the margarine and add the sugar to it. Melt it further if necessary to make a thick paste and add this to the bowl and combine.
5. Finally, fold in the carrots, nuts and raisins and pour the thick batter into the preparers cake tray. Bake for 40 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
6. While the cake is baking, prepare the frosting. Blend all the ingredients in a blender until completely smooth, adding as little water as possible. You will have to keep stopping to give the ingredients a stir to encourage the blender.
7. Once the cake is completely cool, you can frost it using a palette knife and decorate as you like! 

Originals recipes: Vegan carrot cake, cashew cream cheese frosting

Week 6 Dish 1: Vegan carrot raisin walnut muffins

It's my last week at my current placement. I'm quite sad because it's so close and convenient, and I feel like I've gotten to know the team so well! But I must move on...to surgery, with early mornings and a longer commute. Ah well!

This week I've started with more muffins! I love my muffins, fairly healthy, easy to take to work and quite filling too. I've been wanting to make these for a while but I keep buying exotic summery fruits that I have to use before they go rotten! Now that there's nothing exotic left (or not for a reasonable price anyway - I'm a student after all) I thought it's the perfect time for carrots to make an appearance. Again, an easy recipe with yummy results!

Makes 12
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup soya milk
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins
2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line a muffin tin.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon.
3. Make a well in the centre and add the milk, applesauce and vanilla. Mix until just combined.
4. Add the carrots, raisins and nuts, and fold until uniform.
5. Put the batter equally in the 12 muffin cups and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Again these are really moist so store in the fridge after a couple of days if they haven't been eaten :D