We're all a little food orientated at The Natural Life Shop. We do love a good bit of cake! That said, we'd be shooting ourselves in the foot if we didn't 'walk the walk'! So, as we're so often advising our lovely customers on ways to make delicious food in healthier ways we thought it was high time we started sharing some of our favourite recipes here for you to enjoy too!
This is Angie's carrot cake. It's a moist, flavour filled cake that you can enjoy with or without icing and it's full of protein, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals, fibre and a portion of veg. Basically a full, balanced meal!
You will need:
2lb loaf tin
300g Sultanas, Raisins or Mixed Vine Fruit
180ml oil - you want it as unflavoured as possible - Angie uses rapeseed, sunflower can also work
4 tsps Dried ginger*
2 tsps Allspice*
1 level tsp Baking powder
4 Medium sized carrots, grated
Optional Addition:
*You can substitute these for your preferred spices. If you like cinnamon, clove and nutmeg then use them, experiment and find what you like best!
Method:
Soak your dried fruits in boiling water, just sufficient to cover them in the bowl. Add your spices in and leave to stand for at least 2 hrs.
Pre heat your oven to 160◦C and grease or line your loaf tin.
Grate your carrots, add the soaked fruit including the water, the oil and give it a good stir together. Add your nuts in now if using.
Sift your chickpea flour and baking powder in to the carrot mixture and mix thoroughly.
Tip in to your prepared tin and cook at 160◦C for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes reduce the temperature to 130◦C for one hour.
Leave to cool in the tin. Once cool you can wrap and store in the fridge. Keeps well in a sealed container for up to 1 week.
You have several options for icing if you want to ice it!
Option 1 - although the cake itself is vegan friendly, there's nothing stopping you from making your favourite cream cheese icing! If you wanted to keep it free from refined sugar then you can substitute the icing sugar for erythritol icing sugar.
Option 2 - if you're keeping it vegan friendly you can always substitute the cream cheese for a vegan cream cheeze, we recommend Sheeze Original Cream Cheeze!
Option 3 - for the least processed vegan option you can use a nut based cream cheeze like cashew or almond. Nush cream cheeze is a great option here for an almond based version, for a cashew one try one from Tyne Cheese Co. This will add another great protein source too!
Have you tried out this recipe? Let us know how it went for you in the comments below!