Vegan Carrot Cake

Well let me first start by saying Thank you so much for all your warm  and encouraging comments on my previous blog entry.  Each one, honestly made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, so thank you truly.

I have made a decision to close the doors to the cafe on Mondays.  So today which would ordinarily be a big cook and preparation day for the beginning of the week has been a much appreciated day off.  This morning I had a long lie in bed, a walk along the canal, house work! and right now catching up on a little blogging.  I also have a new recipe to share with my fellow readers: a vegan carrot cake.  I have a number of carrot cake recipes on my blog: including those made with Rainbow Carrots; and a  Carrot Orange Cake; but I have not got round to sharing the vegan version until now. 

As you can imagine, I have been cooking and baking non-stop since opening Hunky Dorys and one of the home bakes that has been proving very, very popular is the Vegan Carrot Cake - in fact I sold out of it last Saturday. 

This carrot cake is light, sweet and moist.  You can keep it just pure carrot orange in both flavour and in colour, but I wanted to add some raisins to mine for additional burst of flavour and speckled effect .  I used to make this vegan carrot cake in a 8 inch by 8 inch square baking tin , but now for the cafeteria make them in individual mini loaf pans. 

Recipe to follow.
Vegan Carrot Cake
Serves 8 - 10
Ingredients
2 cups self raising flour
1 cup of golden caster sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of baking soda
2 tsp of cinnamon
3 cups shredded carrots
3/4 cup ofvegetable or sunflower oil
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup of golden raisins or sultanas
Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x9 inch square pan with oil.
Mix together the flour, sugars, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon until thoroughly combined. Add the shredded carrots and the oil to the dry ingredients and mix well with a spoon.
Add the orange juice and mix again, then fold in the nuts, raisins and coconut.
Put the batter into pan.
Bake for 45 minutes or until knife/toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the centre.
Let cool before slicing. I found this cake is best made a day in advance. Adapted from Group Recipes