Vegan Carrot Cake with Cranberry jam
A Vegan Carrot Cake with cream cheese and cranberry jam. This plant based carrot cake uses almond butter and chopped almonds for a wonderfully nutty, moist sponge.
Servings: 8
Ingredients
For the carrot cake
- 250 g plain flour
- 100 g whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 175 g brown soft sugar
- 150 ml sunflower oil
- 180 mls oat milk unsweetened
- 50 g almond butter
- 1 tbsp vanilla paste
- 300 g carrots grated
- 40 g almonds roughly chopped
- 10 g toasted flaked almonds
- Winter berries to decorate
For the cream cheese frosting
- 200 g vegan cream cheese
- 120 g vegan butter *see notes
- 500 g icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornflour
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
For the cranberry jam
- 300 g cranberries
- 150 g granulated sugar
- 160 mls water
- 1/2 tsp orange zest
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Pre heat the oven to 200C / 180C fan. Grease 3 x 20cm cake tins and line with parchment paper.
- To a large bowl, add sieved plain flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and the spices.
- In another bowl, pour in the brown sugar, sunflower oil, oat milk, almond butter and vanilla. Use an electric hand whisk on high and whip until the mixture is smooth.
- Add the wet ingredients, grated carrots and chopped almonds to the dry ingredients. Fold gently until the ingredients are just combined.
- Divide the mixture equally between the 3 tins. Smooth over with a spatula and place in the oven for 20 minutes. The cake is baked when it is brown, springy to the touch and pulling away from the sides of the tin.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes in the tins, then turn out onto wire rack and allow the sponges to cool completely.
- Prepare the cream cheese frosting by using an electric whisk to cream the vegan butter and vegan cream cheese. Add the sifted icing sugar in thirds, mixing for a minute in between each addition. Whisk the buttercream on the highest setting, the frosting should pale in colour. Once well mixed and smooth, add the cornflour and lemon juice and mix for a further minute. Place in the fridge until ready to ice the cake.
- For the jam, add the cranberries, sugar, water, orange zest and vanilla to a large saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue to heat over a moderate/high heat for 5 minutes. Stir the mixture occasionally. The cranberries should pop and burst and the mixture should become sticky with less liquid. Pour into a heatproof bowl and place in the fridge to cool and set. Once cool, add the jam to a food processor and blitz until smooth.
- To assemble the cake, level off the 3 sponges with a serrated knife. Place one sponge on a cake stand. Add 3 tbsp of jam and 3tbsp of buttercream. Spread over the sponge, allowing the jam and cream to mix. Layer over the second sponge and repeat the spreading of the jam and cream. Layer over the third sponge. Apply a thin layer of icing over the top and sides of the cake. Place in the fridge to set for 30 minutes.
- Remove the cake and spread over the second layer of buttercream and smooth over with a palette knife. Decorate with toasted flaked almonds and winter berries of your choice.
Notes
Use a solid vegan butter/baking block, not margarine. Trex and Stork are brands found in most UK supermarkets and work well in vegan buttercream/ icing.