Raw carrot cake cupcakes

This cake is basically a salad…..so don’t feel guilty eating it!

This was my first attempt at raw baked goods….are they still even called baked goods if they are raw?? Let’s stick with just raw desserts, then?? Anyway, I was pretty nervous to make a cake that didn’t require baking. Sounded more like a science experiment. Nevertheless, I gathered all the ingredients I needed to make a raw carrot cake. I was inspired by my favorite cake from my favorite restaurant, Great Sage in Clarksville. Great Sage is a vegan restaurant that serves a to-die-for vegan, gluten-free carrot cake, or what my friend Alex likes to call “Mandy-friendly” food – I am allergic to eggs and I also have gluten sensitivity, so this cake at Great Sage blows a hole through the universe and fulfills all my fantasies of a cake come true! (Alex was my maid of honor in my wedding and she planned my bachelorette dinner at Great Sage…..she knows me so well!) Great Sage’s carrot cake is NOT raw, it’s a regular baked cake without gluten or any animal products (and how they make this cake so incredibly delicious will continue to stump me for the rest of my life); however, I was inspired to make my own vegan, gluten-free carrot cake, and I decided to make a raw version.

I’ll be honest, even though there was no actual cooking involved, this sure was a time-consuming feat! My poor hubby waited on the couch for me, with the false hope, “I”ll be finished soon, honey,” for about an hour and a half. As soon as I thought I was close to having all my ingredients prepped and ready to mix together, there was one more thing I had forgotten to do or add. Let’s just say you need a lot of dried dates, a lot of cashews, and a lot of patience!

This recipe is not for the faint of palate. If you like carrot cake, I suggest you give it a try; if you’re not a carrot cake fan, you probably will not enjoy these since you wouldn’t even like a regular otherwise delicious carrot cake. If you like vegan or raw food, you will also probably like these; but if you’re really not in to vegan or raw foods, stick with your traditional carrot cake or rather something smothered in chocolate.

Again, in my usual Mandy-manor, I researched some raw, vegan carrot cake recipes and came up with my own version. Bless my hubby’s heart, he was more than willing to try my “salad cakes,” and he actually liked them too! My extended family on the other hand, not so much. No one was brave enough to even try them at our Easter dinner. Maybe serving a raw dessert for their first taste of veganism was a little too ambitious?? Next time, I’ll try something a little less “earthy.” I guess a cupcake that is basically a salad doesn’t sound all that appealing after all. I happened to think my bunny-loving carrot cake cupcakes were DELICIOUS! But then again, there’s seldom a dish of mine I don’t like, so perhaps I am biased.

Raw Vegan, Gluten-Free Carrot Cake Cupcakes

For the frosting: (this makes a lot of extra frosting, so you can save half for another recipe)

4 cups raw cashews, soaked overnight, then drained
2 cups dried dates
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2-1 cup cashew milk, as needed

For the cake:

3 cups grated carrots
2.5 cups rolled gluten-free oats
1 cup homemade, unsweetened apple sauce
1.5 cups dried dates
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 Tbsp. chia seeds
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1.5 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. allspice

First, in the food processor make the frosting. Place the cashews, dates, lemon juice, vanilla extract and 1/2 cup of cashew milk in the food processor. Depending on how large your food processor is, you may need to blend this up in batches. Add more cashew milk as needed to achieve a smooth, but firm frosting-like consistency. Set aside and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the cake, first grind up the rolled oats in the food processor with the cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, ground ginger, and allspice. Blend into a coarse grind. Pour the dry mixture into a bowl and set aside. Next, in the food processor, blend up the applesauce and dried dates until you have a thick, smooth paste. Pour into another bowl and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, mix together with a spatula the grated carrots, coconut, and chia seeds. Then add in the applesauce-date paste. Once that mixture is homogeneous, add in the oat mixture, and mix until everything is evenly distributed and all one texture. This is the base of your cake.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake papers. Scoop out about 2-3 tablespoons of cake “dough” into each cupcake paper and press down gently on each one to flatten out the mixture. Once each muffin slot is filled with carrot cake, take the cashew frosting out of the refrigerator and top each one with a generous portion of frosting. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to eat! 

**I made my carrot cake into muffins, but you can certainly make this into a cake, with one or two layers, depending on how large your cake is. If you intend to make this into a cake, line a 6 or 8-inch cake pan with plastic wrap before placing the cake mixture into it, then gently press the mixture into the cake pan, as you would with the cupcake papers. The plastic wrap enables you to easily remove the cake from the pan once it is set. Invert it onto a plate, then just peel off the plastic wrap and frost the cake with your cashew frosting.