Baker Behind Award-Winning Vegan Carrot Cake Shares Her Recipe After 16 Years With VegNews Readers (2024)

FAQs

What is vegan carrot cake made of? ›

The vegan carrot cake recipe calls for shredded carrot, applesauce or pineapple, optional oil, white vinegar or apple cider vinegar, flour, pure vanilla extract, cinnamon, baking soda, sugar, and a pinch of salt. Spelt, oat, white all purpose, and some brands of gluten free flour will work.

Vegan baking and cakes are free from any animal products. For cakes, this normally means there are no eggs and no butter in the recipe, but all animal products have to be excluded for it to be vegan.

Carrots add sweetness and moisture to a batter. Carrot cakes have been around for centuries, but the modern carrot cake can be traced back to World War II when carrots were suggested as a way to add sweetness to cakes when sugar was being rationed, according to the World Carrot Museum of Skipton, England.

In 1824, Beauvilliers had published in London an English version of his cookbook which includes a recipe for "Carrot Cakes" in a literal translation of his earlier recipe. Another 19th-century recipe comes from the housekeeping school of Kaiseraugst (Canton of Aargau, Switzerland).

Some health benefits of choosing vegan cakes over regular cakes include: Plant-based products are healthier. Animal fats are definitely unhealthy and responsible for diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, etc. Plant-based fats have no cholesterol which is much healthier for you.

Carrots contain pigments that are sensitive to changes in pH balance. When the shreds of carrot come into contact with the alkaline baking soda, a chemical reaction takes place that causes the pigments to change color.

Rejected words included 'dairyban', 'vitan', and 'benevore'. They settled on 'vegan', a word that Donald Watson later described as containing the first three and last two letters of 'vegetarian'. In the words of Donald Watson, it marked “the beginning and end of vegetarian”.

The vast majority of flours are vegan, from white to oat and everything in between. Still, it pays to read your labels carefully and look out for bone marrow, bone char, cricket flour, and any other animal products.

Yes, flour is vegan. As long as we talk about those sourced from plants, not cricket flour. Most vegans avoid white flour, however, because of benzoyl peroxide or sodium benzoate that's used as a bleaching agent, which may be harmful. Some strict practicing vegans consider this as non-vegan flour.

Is it better to use butter oil in carrot cake? Normally I'm all about the butter, baby. But when it comes to homemade cakes, oil is typically the better choice. Vegetable oil produces a more moist, tender cake than butter.

Why is my carrot cake rubbery? ›

There's a big chance your butter and sugar will over-cream, meaning the butter will trap more air than it should. As the batter bakes, that extra air will deflate and leave you with an overly dense cake. It's all science!

This is because too much batter in one cake tin may result in the weight of the batter being too much for the cake to support, causing the cake to collapse and sink in the middle as it bakes. This is especially true for cake recipes which have a more softer, delicate structure to them, which many of my cake recipes do.

Texture Changes: When carrot cake starts to go bad, it may become excessively dry, crumbly, or develop an unappealing texture. This is a sign that the cake has lost its moisture and freshness. Off-Taste: If the taste of the cake is off, sour, or rancid, it's best to discard it.

Carrot cake is thought to have originated in England where housewives used sweet products (e.g carrots) to naturally sweeten their confections during World War II. In 1943, the Ministry of Food published a short recipe for carrot cake.

Carrot cake refers to a glutinous rice flour "cake" that's made from a white radish (or yam if it's yam cake) cut into cubes, wok or pan fried till crispy, then cooked into an egg omelette. The bits of radish cake taste mild and have a soft, pleasant texture.

Vegan cake is cake made without eggs, dairy butter or dairy milk. Each of these standard ingredients is easily replaced by plant-based substitutes, such as banana or flaxseed for eggs, non-trans fat margarine or oils for butters and plant milks for milk.

To put it simply, a vegan cake is a cake that doesn't contain any animal-derived ingredients, most notably eggs, milk, and other dairy products. In 'regular' cakes, eggs and dairy products are among the key ingredients used to create the sponge and icing, and often decorations, too.

Salt, cinnamon, and vanilla extract: Make our cake taste amazing, resulting in a lightly spiced cake. Eggs: This cake calls for 4 eggs, which add flavor, moisture, and give the cake structure. Carrots: Three cups of freshly grated carrots make this the best carrot cake!