It is birthday time for a special friend in our lives, who I know likes carrot cake.  We are having dinner tonight at a local restaurant to support some other friends who are raising money for their chosen charities.  Long story short, I decided today was a good day to make a cake for my friend’s birthday and this is the one I decided to try.

For about 6 months, I have been on and off Vegan Before 6 (ala Mark Bittman).  I decided to make a vegan cake out of this wonderful vegan cookbook I have lying on my desk gathering dust.  I will star (*) where I strayed from the recipe since I just can’t seem to follow one to save my life or my cake, for that matter!

Preheat oven to 350°.

Sift in a bowl (or I used a flat whisk, same thing, right? The important thing is to distribute the leavening agents throughout the dry ingredients – namely the baking powder, baking soda and salt):

2 ½ cups of flour

*2/3 cup oatmeal (because the batter looked too wet after mixing and I love oatmeal; it is a whole grain!)

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. salt

2 tsps. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

Wet ingredients in another bowl, mix:

1 cup pineapple juice

*¼ cup oil (less than original recipe by ¼ cup)

*¼ cup Chia seed gel (see Chia seed post on how to make this)

*½ cup sugar (I buy 5 lb. bags of organic sugar at Costco)

*½ cup agave (she used maple syrup but I ran out)

*¼ cup pumpkin (to offset using less sugar)

2 tsp. vanilla extract

*¼ tsp. ground ginger (because I was sure that I had the ¼ cup crystallized ginger in the recipe until I came home from the store and discovered I didn’t!)

Gently mix wet into dry… add 1 cup shredded coconut (I get bags of organic, unsweetened coconut at Costco too) and 2 cups of shredded carrots (I used an already shredded blend of yellow and orange organic carrots from Giant.)

Spread in a 9×13 glass dish that is coated with cooking spray.  Cook for 35-40 minutes.  Let cool and top with frosting… it smelled amazing while cooking.

Here is where I veered off the vegan wagon, when I used cream cheese in my frosting.  I made this up from trial and error but it seemed to come out well.  I like to refrigerate cream cheese frosting so that it firms up before you cut it.  You can add more butter if you want more of a buttercream frosting.  I would add one Tbsp. of butter at a time until it looks and tastes the way you want it.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/3 cup whipped cream cheese (I used this because I think it incorporates better)

2 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. lite coconut milk or more if needed

3 cups powdered sugar (sifted is better but you can make it without that step)

1 tsp. vanilla

Using the whisk on an electric mixer, whisk vigorously until it looks fluffy and nice.  Frost the cake.  Refrigerate.

Lastly, I wanted to write on my birthday cake but I hate the kind of decorating frosting that you can get at the grocery store.  I always have trouble with it and end up frustrated and mad that I spent so much money on a little tube that runs out before I am able to decorate my desserts.  That said, I have never made my own decorating frosting but decided that today was the day to give it a try!

Decorating Frosting:

Recipe from http://www.food.com/recipe/small-batch-icing-to-write-on-cakes-458842

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
¼ cup shortening (Crisco bars that you can cut are easy and not messy. Currently, Crisco does not have trans fat)
1 ½ teaspoons water
¼ teaspoon clear vanilla extract (I have never heard of clear vanilla extract?  I used normal vanilla extract)

Blue food coloring

In a large bowl, combine sugar, shortening, water and vanilla (plus coloring.)  Beat on low speed to combine, then beat on medium speed for a full five minutes. It won’t look like Icing at first, but keep the mixer going for a full five minutes, and then you’re done!

I have a huge roll of 100 throw away plastic frosting bags that I bought when I thought I wanted to take a cake decorating class, along with a Wilson decorating tin with lots of different tips that someone gave me as a present.  You could use a ziplock bag too, just cut a tiny whole.

Final product! Super moist cake that was delicious.  I enjoyed making it and I was so happy to make my friend, Sunil, smile! I am hoping someday to bring him on as a guest mixologist because his cocktails are to die for!