Baker Behind Award-Winning Vegan Carrot Cake Shares Her Recipe After 16 Years With VegNews Readers (2024)

FAQs

What is vegan carrot cake made of? ›

The vegan carrot cake recipe calls for shredded carrot, applesauce or pineapple, optional oil, white vinegar or apple cider vinegar, flour, pure vanilla extract, cinnamon, baking soda, sugar, and a pinch of salt. Spelt, oat, white all purpose, and some brands of gluten free flour will work.

Vegan baking and cakes are free from any animal products. For cakes, this normally means there are no eggs and no butter in the recipe, but all animal products have to be excluded for it to be vegan.

Since carrots are one of the sweetest and most accessible veggies out there, the use of carrots as natural sweeteners only made sense. The practice of using carrots in desserts started in medieval times. Cooks would make a type of “pudding” with boiled carrots, spices, flour and eggs.

In 1824, Beauvilliers had published in London an English version of his cookbook which includes a recipe for "Carrot Cakes" in a literal translation of his earlier recipe. Another 19th-century recipe comes from the housekeeping school of Kaiseraugst (Canton of Aargau, Switzerland).

Some health benefits of choosing vegan cakes over regular cakes include: Plant-based products are healthier. Animal fats are definitely unhealthy and responsible for diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, etc. Plant-based fats have no cholesterol which is much healthier for you.

Carrots contain pigments that are sensitive to changes in pH balance. When the shreds of carrot come into contact with the alkaline baking soda, a chemical reaction takes place that causes the pigments to change color.

Rejected words included 'dairyban', 'vitan', and 'benevore'. They settled on 'vegan', a word that Donald Watson later described as containing the first three and last two letters of 'vegetarian'. In the words of Donald Watson, it marked “the beginning and end of vegetarian”.

What types of flour are vegan? The vast majority of flours are vegan, from white to oat and everything in between. Still, it pays to read your labels carefully and look out for bone marrow, bone char, cricket flour, and any other animal products.

Yes, flour is vegan. As long as we talk about those sourced from plants, not cricket flour. Most vegans avoid white flour, however, because of benzoyl peroxide or sodium benzoate that's used as a bleaching agent, which may be harmful. Some strict practicing vegans consider this as non-vegan flour.

Carrot cake is oil-based, rather than butter-based. This keeps it moist and helps it last for days. Unfortunately, it also means you lose the leavening power that creaming butter and sugar would bring. (Creaming, or beating together the two ingredients on high speed, aerates the butter.)

Why is my carrot cake rubbery? ›

If too much of a closing agent, e.g. liquid, is used, the cake produced has a 'close' texture. That is, it is dense, tough and rubbery. After baking, the sides tend to collapse inwards forming a sort of 'X' shape called an 'X' fault.

The most common reasons a cake sinks in the middle include the following: The pan is too small. There's too much liquid. Opening the oven or moving pans during baking.

Texture Changes: When carrot cake starts to go bad, it may become excessively dry, crumbly, or develop an unappealing texture. This is a sign that the cake has lost its moisture and freshness. Off-Taste: If the taste of the cake is off, sour, or rancid, it's best to discard it.

Carrot cake is thought to have originated in England where housewives used sweet products (e.g carrots) to naturally sweeten their confections during World War II.

Carrot cake refers to a glutinous rice flour "cake" that's made from a white radish (or yam if it's yam cake) cut into cubes, wok or pan fried till crispy, then cooked into an egg omelette. The bits of radish cake taste mild and have a soft, pleasant texture.

Vegan cake is cake made without eggs, dairy butter or dairy milk. Each of these standard ingredients is easily replaced by plant-based substitutes, such as banana or flaxseed for eggs, non-trans fat margarine or oils for butters and plant milks for milk.

To put it simply, a vegan cake is a cake that doesn't contain any animal-derived ingredients, most notably eggs, milk, and other dairy products. In 'regular' cakes, eggs and dairy products are among the key ingredients used to create the sponge and icing, and often decorations, too.

Salt, cinnamon, and vanilla extract: Make our cake taste amazing, resulting in a lightly spiced cake. Eggs: This cake calls for 4 eggs, which add flavor, moisture, and give the cake structure. Carrots: Three cups of freshly grated carrots make this the best carrot cake!