Hazelnut Carrot Cake

This carrot cake is my first contribution to a website I’m writing for www.zivim.hr and it was quite a hit! Also it’s one of my favorite baked cakes: so moist and dense and at the same time light and full of flavors.

For this type of vegan cake I always prepare dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then mix them together to make the batter. I use flax seeds for binding and reaction between apple cider vinegar and baking soda will “rise” the cake. I use either coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil and my favorite flour is rice, buckwheat and spelt. I try to avoid wheat whenever I can. In this cake I used rice and spelt flour.

I would love to hear from you if you try it:)  

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Ok, let’s do it guys:)

There are two steps you have to do in advance: roast the hazelnuts and soak cashew nuts for the frosting

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For 26 cm cake pan

Ingredients

Dry
1 cup rice flour
1 cup roasted hazelnuts (ground)
1/2 cup spelt flour (sifted to get rid of the skin)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tsp vanilla powder
Zest of one lemon
pinch of ginger

Wet
1,5 cup plant milk (I used hazelnut)
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup agave syrup
1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
2 tbsp golden flax seed
2-3 tsp lemon juice
1,5 cup grated carrot

Frosting
1 cup cashew nuts
4-5 dates
1/2 tsp vanilla powder
pinch of cinnamon
2/3 cup of water
pinch of salt
2 tbsp lemon juice
2-3 tbsp maple syrup

Method

1. Soak the cashew nuts and want to it’s a pinch of salt for at least three hours best overnight
2. Roast hazelnuts in the oven on 150° 7 to 10 minutes, until the skins start to crack and the nuts get slightly browned. Easiest way to skin them is to put them in a clean cloth and rub until they fall off.
3. Turn on the oven 180°
4. Mix the milk and cider vinegar and lead to stand
5. Ground the roasted hazelnuts and mix them in the bowl with all other dry ingredients
6. Ground the flaxseeds and mix them with twice as much water. You will see that what you get will look a lot like a beaten egg
7. Mix oil, agave syrup and lemon juice
8. Grate the carrot and squeeze the extra liquid out. This will prevent the cake from getting mushy but still it will be very moist
9. Mix flax and oil mixture with a spoon into dry ingredients, then add milk and mix again. Do it gently, do not over mix it because if you do it too harsh the cake could turn out chewy.
10. Mix in the carrot. The batter should be fairly thick but still pourable
11. Pour it into the lined pan and bake for 30-40 minutes
12. Test the cake with the tooth pick. When the cake is done it should come out clean
13. Prepare the frosting: blend all the ingredients in a high speed blender until very smooth. Refrigerate to cool.
14. When the cake is cooled down and frosting has firmed up, you can assemble the cake

Notes
– You can substitute hazelnuts with almonds or walnuts
– golden flax with brown flax seeds
– Make your own plant milk. Find the recipe here.
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For more cake recipes check out Raw Almond Chocolate Mini Cakes and Almost Raw Hazelnut Chocolate Cake.