Thursday, February 19, 2015

Moist & Delicious Vegan Carrot Cake With Almond Breeze

#CoolerWithAlmondBreeze

If eating healthier is one of your new year's resolutions, cutting back on desserts may well be one of your chosen strategies. With all due respect to those who eliminate sugar from their diets (more power to you!) I like to indulge my sweet tooth by making healthier-than-store-bought homemade snacks and desserts. While they may contain sugar, I can also add more nutrient-dense and natural ingredients. One of the primary benefits of making desserts yourself is knowing exactly what's in your food!

This Moist & Delicious Vegan Carrot Cake is a good example. It contains all-natural ingredients such as light spelt flour, flax, carrots, raisins, walnuts, cinnamon and ginger. It also gets a lot of its moist deliciousness from the addition of Almond Breeze non-dairy almond beverage.
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#CoolerWithAlmondBreeze

One other big plus of this Moist & Delicious Vegan Carrot Cake is that you can whip the whole recipe up in one big bowl! Less clean-up required. Bonus.

#CoolerWithAlmondBreeze

I chose to use the refrigerated variety of Almond Breeze in unsweetened vanilla. It is low in fat, free of cholesterol and has 30 per cent of your daily calcium in one cup. One serving also has half of your day's B12 requirements and 45 per cent of your vitamin D. And Almond Breeze is made with non-genetically engineered ingredients. It is free of peanuts, lactose and gluten.

#CoolerWithAlmondBreeze

Nutrients and all that good stuff aside, this carrot cake is also just plain yummy. It is versatile too - it would make a great selection for a weekend brunch and, dusted with a little bit of icing sugar (powdered sugar), it makes a simple yet tasty dessert that's company-worthy. I like to make this vegan carrot cake in a bundt pan to dress it up a bit.



#CoolerWithAlmondBreeze
As my (very modest) title for this recipe implies, this carrot cake is both moist and delicious. It has light hints of ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon with a lovely sweetness (that's the sugar, baby!).

Be sure to check out the Cherry Berry Chocolate Smoothie that I made with Almond Breeze last week too. Follow #CoolerwithAlmondBreeze on Twitter for more recipes incorporating almond milk.

What's your favourite dessert to make?



Moist & Delicious Vegan Carrot Cake

by Joann MacDonald
Cook Time: 30 to 35 minutes
Keywords: vegan carrots almond milk cake

Ingredients
  • 2 1/4 cups light spelt flour
  • 1 cup organic sugar
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup almond milk
  • 3 tsp vanilla
  • 3/4 cup light olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp ground flaxseeds whisked together with 1/4 cup water
  • 3/4 cup shredded carrots
  • 1 Tbsp ginger paste
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1/4 cup walnut pieces
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a bundt pan.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
Add almond milk, vanilla, oil, flax mixture, carrots, ginger paste, raisins and walnuts.
Stir together until just mixed.
Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until a knife or toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Let cool before turning out of pan. Dust top with icing sugar (powdered sugar) if desired.


13 comments:

  1. That looks great Jo but I would rather have the fattening cream cheese frosting instead of powdered sugar.

    Love you

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    Replies
    1. I like it without the icing, because then it can be considered breakfast food! ;)

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  2. This looks absolutely delicious and I'm a big fan of carrot cake - it's so moist and tasty, and you can trick yourself into thinking it's healthy.

    I would try to find a vegan alternative to that delicious icing that comes with carrot cake though, I'm not sure I would enjoy it as much without it.

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    Replies
    1. I think it IS healthy! Am I tricking myself? ;)

      I have definitely seen vegan cream cheese frosting recipes and I bet it would be delicious that way too. But this cake is tasty enough to stand on its own. And, as I said in reply to the comment above, it is versatile without the icing. You can eat it any time!! :)

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  3. So delicious!! We love some Almond Breeze in this house (my youngest is lactose intolerant, and frankly I just prefer the flavor). Carrot cake was always a favorite when I was a kid-- definitely going to have to give this a try!!

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  4. Oh lovely cake! Sounds so delicious and looks very good!

    Would you like to follow each other? I'd be so happy! :)

    http://vkusnosbety.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  5. This sounds delish, but I'm surprised you didn't change out the oil for apple sauce. I never use oil in my baking anymore.

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    Replies
    1. While I totally respect your choice to use apple sauce, I'm fine with oil. I don't cook with much fat and we don't have any unhealthy meat in our diets so we use some healthy oils in baking.

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    2. Also I have growing children who need some fats.

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  6. This looks great! I would like to make it this weekend. I was wondering about ginger paste?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Michelle! I buy ginger in a tube sometimes because I am too lazy to grate it, but you could use fresh grated ginger too. Let me know how it goes. :)

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  7. I think I will make this on the weekend😊

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