RAW VEGAN CARROT CAKE with CREAMY CASHEW LEMON FROSTING

Yo, you beautiful human, you. In case you haven't seen it yet, my previous carrot cake recipe is pretty much my most popular. Check it out here. Everyone loves it, and that makes me wanna do a happy dance. I'd so DO a happy dance right now but I'm listening to very calming music thus the mood just isn't right at the moment. I'll make up for it tonight though - I'm going out with friends and we are going to boogie until the sun comes up, surrounded by glistening bodies, smoke machines, house music and trippy lights. Before that: organic brown rice sushi. Yes. Friday is here, people. 

Okay can we acknowledge that I went far off course in the above paragraph, and yet it flowed so naturally? Should I feel proud? I dunno. Probably not. Moving back to the real topic: CAKE OF THE CARROT. This recipe is fairly similar to my original one, but I adapted it slightly and more importantly took new photos which I wanted to share with you in a post. This recipe isn't better or worse than my other one, it's just different. I made this for a TV interview on Global BC (watch me wear a dress here) and the hosts loved it! This seems to be one of those recipes that everybody can enjoy, no matter what their diet preferences are. I hope you do too. Keep in mind this recipe makes much less cake than my other one, so if you want to feed more people; double the amounts given here, or use the original recipe instead. 

RAW VEGAN CARROT CAKE with CREAMY CASHEW LEMON FROSTING 

Cashew lemon frosting:
1 1/2 cups cashews
Juice from 1 lemon 
2 tablespoons liquid coconut oil
2 tablespoons coconut nectar 
1 teaspoon vanilla powder
Water, as needed 

Carrot cake:
3 large carrots, peeled and chopped into small chunks 
1 1/2 cups oats 
2 cups dates
1/2 cup dried coconut 
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 

To make the frosting: blend all ingredients in your high speed blender until smooth, adding water as needed. Taste it - mmm. Put in the fridge. 

To make the cake: process the oats into flour in your food processor then throw the rest of the ingredients in the food processor and process until it all begins to stick together. 

Assembly: press half the cake mixture into a small spring form pan (mine is about 4 inches). Gently take this out and put on a plate, then put in the freezer until it's solid. Do the same to the remaining half of the cake mixture. Spread about 1/3 of the frosting onto the top of one of the cake layers. Put it in the freezer until the layer of frosting is hard. Place on the other cake layer and frost the entire thing, I let it set in the fridge overnight. 

vanilla torte with chocolate "buttercream" frosting & maca slices

I fashioned this recipe after something called a Dobos torte. A reader asked me to make a raw version of it just as I was brainstorming what to make next... (fate or coincidence?) Whatever your beliefs, I think this turned out pretty yumtastically.
Yes, I do invent words.

Luckily most of you won't know what a Dobos torte is so I'm off the hook for not recreating it that well. It's supposed to be a vanilla sponge cake, thinly layered with chocolate buttercream and topped with hard caramel slices. I didn't make enough layers because (a) this cake doesn't need that many layers to make it filling and satisfying; I didn't want to make each slice a challenge to eat because it was too much and (b) I just didn't make enough cake or frosting. I'M NOT PERFECT, OKAY.

I chose to make maca slices on top because I couldn't think of anything to make a raw HARD caramel from. Date caramel is out-of-this-freaking-universe-delicious but it's not the right consistency for this. So maca powder blended with coconut oil, which turns solid here at room temperature (thanks, chilly Northern climates) did the trick and looks fairly decent, in my own subjective opinion. What say you?

If you'd like to use avocado instead of cashews, go ahead. I would have done that but my avocados chose to go rotten without telling me. What jerks. Just because they're sexy, beautiful and everyone loves them - they think they can do whatever they want. (Okay but actually I was just oblivious and let them go bad. Shut up.)

vanilla torte with chocolate "buttercream" & maca slices: 

Cake:

1 cup oats

1 cup buckwheat groats

1-2 cups dates

Seeds from 1 vanilla pod 

Frosting:

1 cup cashews (or 1 avocado) 

1/4 cup cacao

1/4 cup melted liquid coconut oil

1/4 cup maple syrup, date paste, or other sweetener

1/2 teaspoon vanilla 

Maca slices:
2 tablespoons each of maca powder, liquid coconut oil, and maple syrup 

To make the cake: pulse the oats and groats in your food processor until they are small crumbs. Add the dates and vanilla and process until it all sticks together slightly. Put in a bowl and set aside. 

To make the frosting: if you're using an avocado just throw everything in and blend. If not, pulse the cashews in your food processor until they become very fine crumbs, basically cashew butter. Add all the other ingredients and blend until smooth. Put in a fridge. 

Make the maca slices: blend the ingredients together then spread into a circle the same diameter as your cake. Let it harden in the fridge, this might take an hour or so. 

Assemble the thing: on parchment paper, press about 1/3 of the cake mixture into a thin circle layer with your hands. You can use a pan to help you shape it or draw a circle and use that to guide you. Transfer this carefully onto your presentation plate. Spread on 1/3 of the frosting evenly. Make another layer on the parchment paper and transfer it onto the first layers of cake and frosting. Continue until you run out. Cut the maca circle into eight slices and place on top of your cake. THEN EAT IT.

happy father's day

sorry in advance: i haven't posted in awhile, this isn't raw, and the pictures are bad. BUT ANYWAY...

i hope your dad enjoyed his day! mine did. it was sunny here for most of the day, some friend's visited, greg made a great breakfast, we bought a new barbeque and grilled veggies, and i made him a cake.

oh... and he got to eat meat -.- hmph! seriously though, if this was 2 years ago... the fact that my dad eating meat on father's day was a big deal and a treat for him would be pretty much unbelievable. i'm so happy we've come this far. i'm very proud of my family.

anyways - cake.

two of my dad's fave things are marzipan and chocolate (two others are beer and BMW motorcycles). so i made him a chocolate cake with marzipan and chocolate frosting. it's baked, but i used organic whole wheat flour and raw sugar. yay!

it was... very good. if you love cake - make this! :) i used a recipe that was already on the blog.

Chocolate Cake (with chocolate and marzipan frostings): makes 1 cake

2 cups cashew milk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup cane sugar/brown sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract 

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup cocoa/cacao 
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp (or more) each of cayenne, ginger and cinnamon powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients from first list together, and let sit for 5 minutes. Sift in other ingredients and mix until smooth. Taste it... yes. Orgasmic, probably because of the straight-up sugar. 

Pour evenly into two circular cake pans and bake for about 30 minutes, but check it yourself every few minutes after 20 minutes or so. (while they're baking, make the frostings)

When they look done, do the tooth-pick test to see if it comes out clean. Let them sit out in the pans for 10 minutes or so, and then naked on a cooling rack for like 5 minutes.

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Chocolate frosting:

1 cup cashew milk

1/2 cup softened Earth Balance 

2/3 cup cocoa/cacoa 

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2/3 cup peanut butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

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Marzipan frosting: 

1/4 cup cashew milk

1/2 cup softened Earth Balance 

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 cups marzipan

1/2 teaspoon salt

(Make each frosting in their own bowl.) mix all the ingredients together until smooth. Refrigerate until the cakes are ready to be iced. use the marzipan in the middle of the two cakes, then frost the rest with the chocolate frosting. yahoo! 

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in other news - check out this thing! it's called "cleanse america". it's a 10-day raw food (or liquid if you prefer) cleanse taking place from june 20th to june 29th and there's 1,000,000 americans participating! it's really exciting to see initiatives like that this one gaining followers. i think i'll take part too, even though i live in canada. but i think this will be the perfect preparation for my 21-day water fast. i can do a mainly liquid, 100% raw cleanse for 10 days, then my fast. 

gah im so stoked!!! i know my parents aren't particularly keen on my decision to do this but it's my life and i have a good head on my shoulders (thanks in part to mom and dad!) if i start to lose too much weight or anything else seems funny, then i will stop! 

simple as that.

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