Vegan and GF Carrot Cake

I have made this cake 4 times since we unpackaged our Thermomix TM6, just a few weeks ago. We have used it so much for so many of the cookidoo recipes but this has become one of my faves to make. I have altered the ingredients to make them vegan and gluten-free and the outcome is a tasty, moist – sorry, cake! I have found cutting down on the amount of orange used, thickens up the icing and if you are using a fan oven, turn down the temperature around 10degrees. The preparation only takes 15minutes in the Thermomix and I haven’t tried this manually but I couldn’t not share my adaptation!

Cake – Ingredients

• Your choice of oil, for greasing
• 300 g carrots, peeled and cut in pieces (3 cm)
• 3 bananas with 1 cup of water
• 350 g brown sugar
• 50 g vegan (free from) cream cheese
• 160 g vegan butter – I like to use flora
• 250 g Gluten Free flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp fine sea salt

Cream cheese icing – Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
• Half of an orange, thin peelings of skin only
• 300 g cream cheese
• 15 – 30 g agave syrup
• Orange skin shavings for decoration

Preparing the cake

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a round cake tin (Ø 20 cm) with baking paper and grease the sides.
2. Place carrots, bananas with water, sugar, cream cheese, butter, GF flour, bicarbonate of soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt into a mixing bowl and mix until fully mixed. The Thermomix does this in around 10 seconds! You should be left with a watery batter
3. Transfer batter to prepared cake tin and bake 60-75 minutes (180°C) – cover cake with aluminium foil after 45 minutes if it begins to get too dark. The cake is cooked if it springs back when pressed with a fingertip. Cool in tin for 30 minutes then remove and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Preparing the cream cheese icing

1. Grind half an orange in a mixing bowl then add the sugar and mix.
2. Add cream cheese and honey then mix until all ingredients have mixed.
3. Whisk until thick.
4. Once the cake is completely cool, spread icing over the top.
5. Grate orange peelings onto the top until the desired effect is achieved.
6. Cut in slices and serve.

Enjoy! x