Cooking With Dia

When I was a child I occassionally had the treat of carrot cake. The carrot cake I was first introduced to was soft, smooth and creamy. I loved it! So when I went out to a diner one night and ordered their carrot cake for dessert I wasn’t very happy with what had been served to me. Keep in mind I was only about 6 years old at the time. Much to my dismay this diner’s carrot cake was bulky, nutty, grainy and oh… it had carrots in it that were visible to the naked eye. “What?!? This isn’t carrot cake!!!” I proclaimed to my father. He said, “Yes, that’s carrot cake.” “But it tastes nothing like the carrot cake I have been eating, and look at all these carrots in it!!!” I grumbled. He said, “Dia, this is actually real carrot cake, the stuff you’ve been having at home was coming out of a box.” Ohhhhhhhhhhh. But still as I grew older I searched for a smooth and moist carrot cake not overwhelmed with nuts and grated carrots, but I never found one. Sigh. So, I just had to go and make my own.

Now, I have revamped this recipe especially for my nephew Rex who is just about 10 months old. He needed something softer, more like a British steamed pudding in texture, and I came up with this.

Based on the memory of my 6 year old palate, I do think children will enjoy this carrot cake.

 

© Cooking With Dia 2012

Recipe: Dia’s Gluten Free & Vegan Sticky Carrot Cake

Ingredients

For the Carrot Puree

20 Small or Baby Carrots washed and trimmed (not the fake baby carrots you find sometimes in stores that are immaculately peeled and teeny tiny, you need carrots preferebly that still have their stalks on.)
1/4 cup muscovado sugar
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
1/3 cup of rice milk
3 tsps cinnamon
2 tsps ground ginger

Flours

1/4 cup of potato starch
1/4 cup of tapioca flour
1/4 cup of rice flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 cup of caster sugar
3 heaping tablespoons of vegan spread
2 medium bananas
1/4 cup of cocoa powder

For the icing

1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon rice milk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 355 degrees F (180 degrees C)
Take out a grease proof baking tray or casserole dish and line up the carrots inside.
Sprinkle the muscovado sugar on top and then pour the maple syrup in.
Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until carrots feel soft.
Half way through the 35 minutes flip the carrots over (this is why I keep a bit of the stalk on, if you are careful you can grab onto the stalk and flip the carrot over).
Once the carrots are finished baking, cut off the stalks.
Place the carrots in a food processor with the rice milk, ginger and cinnamon.
Blend until they look smooth, not gritty.
In a mixing bowl place the vegan spread, caster sugar, baking powder and flour and mix until well combined.
Add in the carrot puree and mix.
Add in the bananas and cocoa powder and mix until it looks well combined.
Use two 5 inch round cake pans.
Divide the mixture between the two tins and evenly spread out on top.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Take out and cool for a few minutes, but because you want to eat this while it’s warm an easy trick (watch the video) to get the cakes out of the pan is to use a can underneath. If you didn’t bake them in cake pans with removable bottoms, this trick won’t work.
While the cake is cooling mix the icing sugar together with the rice milk and it’s that easy to make icing.
Sandwich the two layers together by spreading the icing out on top of one cake and placing the other cake on top.
Use the rest of the icing to pour on top of the cake and it will drip down the sides.

© Cooking With Dia 2012 www.cookingwithdia.com

Slice and serve!

© Cooking With Dia 2012