Carrot cake was my mother's favorite dessert, though, oddly, I don't remember her ever, even once, making it herself at home. But she was quite the Gordon Ramsey when it came to the little white-icinged squares offered up by others at church bake sales and the like. The "F-bomb," of course, never passed my mother's saintly lips as she struggled to choke down the dry, box-mix offerings of the well-meaning but lazy, but even as a kid I could tell it was in there somewhere, pressing like hot lava against the capstone of her frozen smile… The perfect, moist squares of the worthy, on the other hand, elicited deep sighs of pleasure, happy head-bobbing, and the scraping of the bottom of her luggage-sized purse in search of Michelin stars to award…
Mom's criteria for judging carrot cake was simple: "moist good, dry bad…"
This vegan carrot cake recipe is moist, indeed… And oh, so simple! I want my Michelin star!
The cake:
Ingredients:
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup vegan margarine
1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1/4 cup plain, unsweetened soy milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup agave syrup (which, amazingly, is now a standard grocery store item almost everywhere. Even my rural Wal-Mart Superstore carries it!)
1 cup carrots, finely grated
1 cup walnuts, chopped
Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease and flour a 9-inch square baking pan.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine applesauce, vegan margarine, salt, cinnamon, agave syrup, flour, and soy milk. Mix well.
4. Stir in the carrots and walnuts until they are evenly distributed throughout the batter.
3. Spread evenly in the greased baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
The icing:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegan margarine
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
Directions:
1. Thoroughly combine the powdered sugar and margarine in a mixing bowl.
2. Add lemon juice a little at a time, until you're happy with the consistency and flavor of the icing. Using less than 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice is fine.
3. Once cake is out of the oven and has completely cooled, top with icing and chopped walnuts.