Name: Vegan Carrot Cake with Orange Icing
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 55 min
Total time: 70 min
Ingredients: 2 medium carrots (about 200g); 200 g plain flour; 1 tsp baking powder; 1 tsp baking soda; 1/4 tsp salt; 120 g light brown sugar (white sugar works as well); 1 tsp vanilla extract; 175 ml soy milk; 60 g applesauce; 60 ml oil (I used sunflower oil); 160 g icing sugar; 1 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice; 1 tbsp soy yoghurt; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 1/2 tsp zest of orange

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If you are looking to bake a healthier cake, this vegan carrot cake with orange icing is the one you should try! It’s moist and delicious with carroty and orangey flavour. You only need basic ingredients that you might already have in your kitchen. This cake is perfect for serving as a dessert after dinner or for house parties with guests.

I didn’t add so much sugar to the cake as the icing is quite sweet, I don’t want cakes that are too sugary. Also, I reduced the amount of oil by adding some applesauce for health reasons. However, I personally wouldn’t skip oil completely as it adds moisture to the cake. You could replace the oil with more applesauce but it may come out crumbly and can dry up quicker.

What you need to make the Vegan Carrot Cake with Orange Icing

For the cake, you need 2 carrots, plain flour (all purpose flour), baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, vanilla extract, soy milk (or any other plant based milk), applesauce and non-flavoured oil such as sunflower oil. If you don’t have applesauce, you can replace it with more oil. You could add mashed banana instead of applesauce as well but I haven’t tested it yet so please let me know if you tried it.
For the icing, you need icing sugar, yoghurt, vanilla extract, freshly squeezed orange juice and zest of orange.

How I make the Vegan Carrot Cake with Orange Icing

For the cake

Grate the carrots and set aside
In a large mixing bowl, mix the salt, brown sugar, soy milk, vanilla, applesauce and oil then stir with a whisk.
Sift the flour, baking soda and baking powder over the wet ingredient and mix with a folk or a whisk and until combined. Fold in the grated carrot.
Pour the batter into a baking tin and bake for 55 to 60 minutes at 177°C (gas mark4) or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Let the cake to cool down completely before putting the icing on.

The making process is very simple. Just be careful not to overmix the batter when you combine the dry and wet ingredients. Every oven is different so please use the baking time here as a guideline but check your cake when you think it might be done.

For the icing

Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl and whisk for a minute or two minutes until white and creamy.
Pour the icing over the cooled cake and spread over the top surface evenly with a spoon.
Leave for a little while to set before serving. (I left mine for about one hour)

Instead of orange, you could use lemon as well, though I think orange makes a good combination with carrot. I used Greek style soy yoghurt as it was what I had but you can used any plant based one.

Other things that you could add to the cake

Nuts
Dry fruits such as raisins or sultanas
Desiccated coconut
chocolate chips
Spices such as ground cinnamon, ginger or nutmeg

Instead of this orange icing, you could make vegan butter frosting. It goes really well with the cake. I have been avoiding to use vegan butter/margarine for frosting for health reasons. I also recommend you to take a look at my Vegan Spinach Muffins for coconut icing, which uses less amount of sugar.

Got some carrot? Fancy making a cake? Try this recipe today and treat your family and friends☺