Raw Vegan Mini Carrot Cakes

I’m not sure about you, but for me, as a child in the 1980s, carrot cake always seemed a bit dodgy.  I truly thought it was all part of some ruse to get us kids to eat more healthy stuff.  My mum was pretty adept at throwing apricots in the chicken casserole and my aunty even managed to make a Sally Lunn using kumara.  But the carrot cake really took the biscuit- I mean a cake made of carrots. Really, who did they think they were fooling?

But times have a changed. Zucchini and beetroot are finding their way into kid’s birthday cakes and the little tyke’s kids are eating it. In fact, when I made these cute little cakes my daughter asked to lick the bowl.  Crazy.

So of all of the cakes and puddings and such like I have made, this really does take the cake ( excuse the pun). The subtle sweetness, the texture and the colours are amazing and the health benefits are even amazinger, hands down my best culinary achievement.

So the health benefits- carrots are full of carotenes- these are pigments which give an orange or red colour to fruit and veges. These antioxidant phytochemicals have lots of benefits including supporting healthy vision, boosting immunity and also promoting a healthy skin glow.

The other key ingredient in this cake is dried pineapple. This tropical treat contains the enzyme bromelain which is renowned both for dampening inflammation (which drives heart disease) and for promoting good digestion.

These are so jolly good and healthy and kid friendly that Im going to make some for my daughters school bake sale… mwahahahaha healthy cakes.

What’s in them?

Carrot Cake

• 1 .5  cups rolled oats

• 2 large carrots or 5-6 baby carrots  washed

• 1 cup medjool or dried dates

• 1 cup dried pineapple

• 1/2 cup desiccated coconut

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Icing

• 1 cups cashews,

• Juice of about 5 juicy lemons

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

• 1/3 cup coconut nectar, maple syrup or honey

 

How do you make it?

Cake: Cut the carrots up into smallish bits . Then put the carrots and everything else into your food processor and blend until it is all uniform and a nice orange colour.

To make the Icing: blend everything in your blender-( I have an Optimum and I love love love it!) until it’s smooth. Put in a bowl and set aside until later.

To assemble- Oil some muffin tins with some coconut oil. Half the carrot cake mixture. Press half of the mixture into about 6-8 muffin trays. Top with a thinish layer of lemon/cashew icing. Put them into the freezer preferably overnight to let them set. Layer on top of the set cashew cream the rest of the cake mix and then top with another layer of icing. I topped mine with some leftover dried pineapple and some marigold petals and they looked divine.

 

 Let them eat cake!