Carrot & Orange Cake With Cashew Cream Icing

Submitted by Chef Joey Z.

"My DH is supplementing his diet with more raw foods and he asked me to make him a carrot cake with icing. I found this recipe on the Raw Chef site and tweaked it a little to suit my tastes. Its really good, and a little goes a long way as holds true with most raw foods. The reason raw food goes further then cooked IMHO is that the enzymes in the food are "alive", and because of this the ability for your body to process and digest them is better. You get the full nutritional benefit from the food when its raw. The satisfactory factor goes up when you eat raw. Please use organic where ever possible. NOTE: I didn't include the soaking time for the dates and the setting up time for the cake and icing in this recipe."

 

• Ready In: 35mins
• Ingredients: 16
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• FOR THE CAKE

• 3 cups carrots (finely grated)
• 2 cups pecans (ground in a food processor)
• 1⁄4 cup dried apricot (chopped rough and unsulpherated please)
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons mixed spice (see mixture below in the directions)
• 1 cup dates (soft and made into a paste)
• 1⁄2 cup orange juice
• 1⁄2 teaspoon celtic sea salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon lemon zest (you could use lime or orange)
• 1⁄2 cup desiccated unsweetened coconut

• FOR THE CASHEW CREAM ICING

• 1 1⁄2 cups raw cashews
• 1⁄2 cup filtered water
• 2 tablespoons agave syrup
• 3 tablespoons cocoa butter or 3 tablespoons coconut butter
• 1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract
• 1⁄4 teaspoon celtic sea salt

directions

1. FOR THE SPICE BLEND:

2. 3 tablespoons cinnamon.
3. 1 teaspoons each ground cardamom and carraway.
4. 1/4 teaspoons each nutmeg, ginger and cloves.

5. FOR THE DATE PASTE:

6. If your dates are hard, soak them for about 20 mts. in the orange juice. If your dates aren't soft in 20 minutes leave them in the juice until they are. This is important. Once soft process these in a food processor so that you have a nice paste.

7. ASSEMBLE THE CAKE:

8. In the bowl of a stand mixer slowly mix all the ingredients. Either shape into individual cakes or press into an 8x8" glass pyrex dish.
9. Put into the fridge and let set up for at least 2 hours or *you can also dehydrate this by placing on a dehydrator sheet for 8-12 hours at 115'F.

10. FOR THE FROSTING:

11. Blend all the ingredients in a high speed blender such as a Vita Mix, until smooth.
12. Place the frosting in the fridge to thicken up, then ice your carrot cake. You can do this all at once of add a little to each piece. Its up to you.
13. Garnish the cake with ground nutmeg.
14. Bon Appetit!

Reviews

[Glori-B]

Loved it, loved it, loved it!!! I made this exactly as written and it was perfect ... even before I finished it and topped with the icing! We'll be making this often! Thank you for posting!

 

[free-free]

LOVED IT...Great recipe, love the spice blend...used my nut/seed grinder and the old mortar and pestle to get the caraway seeds I buy in bulk to the right grind grade to my liking...used my food processor to do the mixing at the start and went in with the wooden spoon and elbow grease to finish off...placed it in a shaped mold pan (i like to do that with RAW cakes ...it helps my presentation in case the cut pieces aren't "perfect" in a "martha" way... however this cake slices nicely :))...decorated the top with nuts and dried fruit...THE ICING IS HEAVENLY!!!! -THANKS so much Chef JoeyZ. for a superb recipe!! NUM-YUM!!!!

 

[Messy Girl]

I went to a friend's for dinner yesterday and she served this for dessert. It is fabulous! She sent the recipe home with me and I'll definitely be making this one often.

 

[jajabarton]

I made this recipe as cupcakes and then took them to a college class to expose the students to raw foods. Two people asked me for the recipe! This is a delicious dish to serve to people trying raw food for the first time. They were very surprised to learn the icing was cashews and not cream cheese!

 

[mliss29]

This is really tasty and the frosting is totally wow! (probably the coconut butter!) The texture isn't cake-like, but it really tastes good. (Maybe expecting "cake" to have a cake-y texture is a raw foods newbie mistake?) I made half a batch and only wanted to use as much spices as truly needed. I used 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp cardamom, and about 1/16 tsp each of ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Oh, and I used honey because I don't have agave. Thanks for the great recipe! I made it for my birthday cake! :) (Also it was a tag for Healthy Choices ABC.)