Vegan Carrot Cake

Ingredients

For 12 portions

• 🌾 300g flour
• 🧂 1 Tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 🍚 2 Tsp baking powder
• 🌿 2 Tsp cinnamon
• 🪴 1 Tsp ground ginger
• 🌿 0.5 Tsp nutmeg
• 🧂 1 pinch salt
• 🍚 220g brown sugar
• 🏺 180ml sunflower oil
• 🥛 200ml soy drink
• 🍋 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 🥄 1 Tsp vanilla extract
• 🥕 300g carrots
• 🍇 75g sultanas
• 🌰 100g walnuts
• 🧈 100g plant-based spread
• 🍚 300g white confectioner’s sugar

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Grease a 23 cm square or round cake tin and line it with baking paper.
2. Toast the walnuts in a dry pan for 3–4 minutes, then roughly chop them. Keep a handful back for the top.
3. In a large bowl, mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.
4. In another bowl, whisk the brown sugar, sunflower oil, soy milk, 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and the vanilla until smooth. The lemon juice reacts with the bicarbonate of soda to help the cake rise without eggs.
5. Finely grate the carrots. Stir them into the wet mixture with the sultanas and the chopped walnuts.
6. Fold the wet mixture into the dry until just combined, scrape into the tin and level the top.
7. Bake for 40–50 minutes, until risen and a skewer pushed into the middle comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
8. For the frosting, use a firm, block-style plant-based butter. Beat it until creamy, then beat in the icing sugar a spoonful at a time, followed by the rest of the lemon juice, until thick, pale and fluffy.
9. Spread the frosting over the top of the cooled cake and scatter with the reserved walnuts.