These are delicious vegan and/or gluten free, so go ahead and play!!
I don’t yet have a recipe for a vegan frosting — please send me one if you have it!!! I do have a cream cheese frosting below.
INGREDIENTS (Various substitutes listed in parenthesis)
½ cup date sugar (can substitute maple crystals, or even cane sugar if you must)
½ cup agave syrup (can substitute maple syrup or honey – probably rice syrup would be good too)
½ cup safflower/sunflower oil (can substitute ½ cup of another vegetable oil, butter, or vegetable shortening)
2 eggs (beat together first) (Can substitute Ener G egg replacer) (I used EnerG for one egg, and a *flax mix for the other and it was great)
1 cup grated carrot
8 ounces crushed unsweetened pineapple, drained
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup sifted whole wheat pastry flour (**GF didn’t sift – 1/2 cup brown rice flour, 1/2 cup tapioca flour, AND up to 1/4 cup coconut flour)
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
OPTIONAL (either or both)
¼ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup raisins (62 carbs)
*EGG SUBSTITUTIONSEnerG Egg Replacer (for leavening) I have subbed 2 servings of this for both eggs many times, and it was delicious (to kids, too!).Flax seed/water/baking powder mix (for binding): Use two tablespoons ground flax meal plus 1/8 teaspoon baking powder blended with 3 tablespoons of water for each egg called for in recipe. You will need to increase leavening a bit to compensate. In this recipe I added another 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder to the dry cake ingredients, but I probably could have added more, too.
**GLUTEN FREE (GF) SUBSTITUTIONS
If you like, you could probably substitute GF oat flour or sorghum flour alone for the 1 cup of whole wheat flour that’s called for, but I didn’t have any on hand to try…….. yet.
Coconut flour sucks up moisture, so I added it at the end when I saw the batter was too runny (see below).
I might also try adding 1/4 cup ground flax seeds either instead of coconut flour, or after cutting the equivalent in rice and tapioca flours down. I’ll keep you posted.
MIXING INSTRUCTIONS
Mix sifted flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda together and set aside.
In a large and separate bowl, cream butter (or oil) and sweeteners together. Add and continue mixing in eggs/replacers, carrot, pineapple and vanilla. When this is thoroughly mixed, slowly add in the flour mixture, making sure to mix well until all the flour is well blended in. Batter should be think but pourable. IF YOU ARE DOING THE GF RECIPE – I added 1/4 cup coconut flour to the batter to get the consistency right when I noticed it was too runny, as the tapioca and rice flours are not as heavy.
BAKING INSTRUCTIONS
CAKE
Pour into a greased 8” x 8,” 9” x 9,” or round 8” or 9” cake pan. (Greased and floured pan works well, too.) Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. If you double this recipe, you will need a 9” x 13” pan, and about 10 minutes additional cooking time. Allow to cool thoroughly before frosting.
CUPCAKES
Fill cupcake papers about 2/3 – ¾ of the way. Bake at 375 (you might be able to go to 400) for about 20-30 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center of each should come out clean. This should yield between 12 and 18 cupcakes, depending on how high you fill the cups.
I baked mini cupcakes at 400 degrees for 13-15 minutes (tray of 24). But I’m also not trusting my oven to be as hot as it says it is.
THE GLUTEN FREE (GF) cupcakes didn’t rise as much, so you can fill the papers higher if you like.
APPROXIMATE CARB TOTALS - (I calculated this for a friend who’s son has Type 1 Diabetes. Please calculate your OWN numbers with YOUR particular ingredients to be sure the numbers are accurate.
When using agave and date sugar, with no raisins, and no nuts:
At 2/3 cup full, 18 cupcakes, Carb total about 21.5 per cupcake
Frosting (from recipe below with agave) carb per cupcake – about 2 per cupcake
Total: about 23.5 carbs per cupcake
CREAM CHEESE FROSTING (total carbs for batch of frosting – 32)
¼ cup Unsalted Butter (softened)
8 ounces Cream cheese (softened)
1 1/2 Tablespoons Vanilla Extract
3 Tablespoons Agave syrup (can use maple syrup or honey)
Cream all ingredients together until completely smooth. Sometimes you need to re-refrigerate the frosting if it got too runny in the mixing process. The texture should be like a smooth, spreadable cream cheese. Sometimes you need to refrigerate or slightly freeze the cake/cupcakes before frosting so it goes on better.
Top frosted cake or cupcakes with shredded carrots, raisins, and/or walnuts to decorate. (Crushed walnuts are nice for the sides of the cake.)
