Carrot Cupcake – Raw, Vegan and Gluten Free

Moist, raw and delicious carrot cake!

This tastes pretty much like a baked carrot cake but is raw!  Yep, no baking!  This also has no dairy, no flour and no sugar making it Vegan, Gluten Free, Paelo and Raw friendly.    It is not Low Carb though as it has dates in it.  The dates and carrots together give the cake sweetness and moistness.  It is a very moist cake and was just a surprise at how nice it was.  For the topping, I thought that I would keep it vegan too and made a cream cheese topping out of cashews.  Yes, that’s right, cashews!  Very tasty and the Chief taster seems to prefer it to the regular cream cheese topping too, so that’s a big thumbs up!

I’ve been playing around with a few raw food recipes recently and liked the sound of the carrot cake.  I played around with two versions, this is one and the other is more low carb (yah!).  It is quite amazing what you can produce using vegetables and nuts and I am totally intrigued at producing a cake that is uncooked.  The tasters of this declared it like the “real thing” so give it a try and see what you think!

INGREDIENTS

2 cups grated carrot (squeeze the moisture out)

1 cup walnuts

1 cup dates

1 tspn cinnamon

1/2 tspn ground ginger

1/4 tsn ground nutmeg

3/4 cup raisins

TOPPING

1/4 cup cashew nuts (unsalted)

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 1/2 tblspon coconut oil

1 tblspn Agave Syrup

1/2 tspsn Stevia

Who needs an oven! Raw cake!

METHOD

• Put the dates and walnuts in a food processor and blitz until blended.
• Add the carrots and spices and blend until a smooth dough (or like cake mixture!).
• Remove from the blender and add the raisins
• Press the mixture into a muffin tin and place in a refrigerator for an hour to firm up.  (They will still be sticky but more of a cake shape by then.
• For the topping, place the cashew nuts into a food processor and blend until finely ground.
• Add the other ingredients and blend into a paste.
• Spread over the cupcakes.
• Eat and enjoy!