Raw carrot cake with vegan cashew nut frosting recipe

Raw carrot cake with vegan cashew nut frosting is healthier version of a classic carrot cake. If you’ve never tried a raw cake, this is a great place to start. This vegan carrot cake recipe is delicious cut up into squares and shared - plus, everyone will be able to eat it! It's so easy to make and will take just 30 mins to prepare. Most of the ingredients are blitzed so make sure you have a good food processor or a high powered blender.

Ingredients

For the raw cake:

• 125g mixed nuts, such as walnuts, pecans or almonds
• 4 carrots, grated
• 100g oats
• 200g raisins
• 50g dried pineapple (optional)
• 100g desiccated coconut
• 1tsp ground cinnamon, plus extra for dusting
• 1tsp ground ginger
• ½ orange, zested

For the frosting:

• 400g cashew nuts
• 250ml almond milk
• 4tbsp raw honey or maple syrup
• 1tbsp coconut oil

To decorate:

• ½ lime, zested
• ½ orange, zested
• 25g walnuts, finely chopped

Method

1. The day before you make the cake, put the cashew nuts for the frosting into a large bowl and cover with cold fresh water.
2. Line a 20cm square loose-based baking tin with baking paper.
3. To make the cake, place the mixed nuts into a food processor and blitz until they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Add the grated carrots, oats, raisins, dried pineapple, dessicated coconut, cinnamon, ginger and orange zest and pulse until the mixture comes together. It should be a bit sticky.
4. Tip the mixture into the lined tin and press it down with the back of a spoon until flat. Place in the freezer.
5. To make the frosting, drain the water from the soaked cashew nuts and tip them into a blender. Pour in the almond milk, honey and coconut oil. Blend for at least 5 mins or until really smooth.
6. Spread the cashew cream over the raw cake, smooth with a knife and place it back into the freezer to chill for 1 hr. Remove the cake from the tin and take off the baking paper. Using a sharp knife dipped in hot water, slice the raw cake into pieces. Sprinkle each square with a little grated lime zest, orange zest and walnuts.