This vegan carrot cake is incredibly moist and deliciously flavored with maple syrup and warm spices. It’s frosted with a simple vegan lemon buttercream frosting and topped with fresh figs, flowers and sage.
Fall vibes people!! I used to be a spring person but now fall is my favorite. I think because I love baking and baking in fall is pretty much THE. BEST. Apples and pears and pumpkins and all the warm cozy spices. I know you’re with me on this.
The garden has not faired so well this fall because of all the wet weather we’ve had from tropical storms headed up the Atlantic coast. The whole island seemed to be under a thick fog bank for 2 weeks straight which caused lots of rot. That said, the root veggies have survived. We dug up a row of carrots from the garden last week so the obvious priority was to bake a maple spiced carrot cake.
This carrot cake is super moist and rich thanks to coconut milk. Coconut milk is a dream for vegan baking. So creamy and rich and it really make a difference in taste and texture compared to other plant-based milks. I used maple sugar in this recipe because I just love the flavor of maple especially in fall season recipes. It is a bit pricey but you can sub it for whole cane sugar (rapadura/panela) or coconut palm sugar.
I topped it with fresh figs because they are sexy AF and are in season right now. I’ve probably spent a small fortune on them in the last few weeks because there is nothing like a ripe fig, so get them and enjoy them as much as you can while you can.
There’s not many edible flowers left in the garden, thank you fog, so I snipped a few cosmos and coreopsis for looks only and gorgeous sage leaves which are perfect for the season, but might be a little strong tasting if you try to eat them with this cake, hehehe. It’s the little things in life, right?! So bake yourself a pretty fall cake this week!
xx Kaity
Recipe after the jump…
More Delicious Vegan Cakes
- Vegan Chocolate Cake with Whipped Coconut Ganache Frosting
- Olive Oil Honey Cake – Vegan Friendly
- Vegan Semolina Plum Cake
- Vegan Blood Orange Yogurt Cake
- German Chocolate Cake | Vegan
- Vegan Chai Spice Poached Pear Cake
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Vegan Carrot Cake with Lemon Buttercream
Ingredients
Cake
- 1-1/2 cup all purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour
- 3/4 cups maple sugar or whole cane sugar/coconut palm sugar
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
- 1/2 cup canola oil or olive oil
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon orange zest finely grated, from 1 whole orange
- 2 cups shredded carrots
Buttercream
- 1/2 cup vegan butter 113g, 1 stick
- 1/4 cup full fat coconut milk
- 1 lb powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest finely grated, from 1 whole lemon
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt omit if the vegan butter is salted
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350˚F.
- Grease two 6″ cake tins with vegan shortening or oil and line the bottoms with cut-out parchment paper rounds.
- Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg in a mixing bowl.
- Whisk together milk, oil, maple syrup, vinegar, vanilla, and orange zest in a large measuring cup or another mixing bowl. Stir shredded carrots into wet mixture.
- Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Do not over-mix.
- Spread batter evenly into the cake pans and bake at 350˚F for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center of cakes come out clean.
- Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Run a butter knife along edge of cake to loosen sides if needed. Invert pans onto a cooling rack. Cakes should come right out. Peel away the parchment and allow cakes to cool to room temperature before frosting.
- Frost cakes with lemon buttercream, (recipe below) and top with fresh figs and flowers.
Frosting
- Cream shortening or butter in a stand mixer fitted with a beater attachment or with a hand held beater.
- Add 1/2 of sugar, salt, lemon juice and zest, and vanilla. Beat on low gradually increasing the speed. Add all of coconut milk and continue beating. Then add remainder of sugar and whip until smooth and creamy.
- If mixture seems too dry add a splash more milk, if it seems to wet add a bit more sugar until you reach the desired consistency.
- Use an offset spatula to spread buttercream onto bottom layer of cake. then place second cake on top. Spread more buttercream on top and sides of cake. Use edge of offset spatula to scrape away frosting from the sides for the "naked cake" look. Enjoy!
Notes
- Store leftover in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
Kaity Farrell
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