Carrots + Cake = Delicious goodness, who knew?!
Carrot cake is thought to have originated in England where housewives used sweet products (e.g carrots) to naturally sweeten their confections. Carrot cake is a tasty dessert I have fond of, made with carrots, spices and walnut pieces. It’s commonly topped with cream cheese frosting and marzipan carrots.
Now Chef Tom Walton’s Carrot, Pecan & Coconut Cake w Orange Cream Cheese Frosting may be my favourite. And this is how you can make it with your Vitamix Ascent Series blender.
This recipe makes 3 smaller 10cm cakes or 1 larger 24cm cake and can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Prep time 10 minutes | Cook time 25-30 minutes
Ingredients
Cake batter
1 cup pecans
3 medium carrots, peeled, roughly chopped
2 large free-range eggs, room temp
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup coconut yoghurt
1/3 cup desiccated Coconut
1/3 cup currants
1 1/2 cup gluten-free self-raising flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
1/2 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
Cream cheese frosting
250g cream cheese
1/4 cup pure cream
1/2 cup icing sugar
Zest 1 orange
Method
- Preheat an oven to 180C then grease and line cake tin/s with baking paper.
- Add the pecans to the jug of the Vitamix Ascent Series blender and blend on speed 1 just for 10-20 seconds to crush them but not to a powder.
- Tip them into a bowl then add the carrots to the blender and blend them on speed 2 for 30 seconds, to create a rough breadcrumb texture.
- Add the remaining cake ingredients and 2/3 of the ground pecans. Blend on speed 2 for just 20 seconds to combine everything.
- Spoon the cake mix into the prepared tin/s and smooth out the batter with the back of a spoon.
- Bake for approx. 25-30 minutes until the cake is firm in the centre and a dry skewer or small knife comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes then unmould and cool completely before covering with the frosting.
- For the frosting combine the ingredients in a clean jug of the blender and blend on speed 3 for 30 second, scraping down the sides and blend again for 20 seconds. Spoon this over the completely cooled cakes and finish with the remaining pecans.
