This week we headed down to the beautiful Golden Valley for a relaxing week in front of a log burning fire and surrounded by stunning countryside. We have immersed ourselves in the Hay on Wye Food Festival and travelled to other weekly markets. Every where you look there’s home-grown produce, free range eggs and locally sourced meat for sale, it’s simply a food lovers dream.
After picking up a beautiful bunch of carrots the other day I decided to make a batch of mini carrot cakes with cashew and vanilla frosting. These cakes are my all time favourite. They are packed with the spicy flavours of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, with the crunch of the nuts, sweetness of the carrots and the delicious creamy frosting on top. What’s even better is that they are free from dairy, grains, gluten and refined sugar.
- 2 cups grated carrots
- ⅓ cup raw honey
- 2 tbsps coconut oil, melted
- 2 tsps cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 1 cup ground almonds
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts or mixed nuts
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 5 eggs
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Frosting:
- 1 cup cashew nuts (soaked in 2 cups water for 2 hours or over night)
- ½ vanilla pod (seeds)
- ½ juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tsps Raw Honey
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts
- ¼ cup water
- Place one cup cashew nuts in to a bowl with two cups water and allow to soak for at least two hours
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease muffin cases / cake tin
- In to a mixing bowl combine your dry ingredients: ground almonds, walnuts, lemon zest , cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, chopped walnuts and baking powder. Mix with a wooden spoon
- Add in the grated carrots and combine
- In to a separate bowl whisk your eggs
- In to a small pan add the two tbsp coconut oil and raw honey. Over heat allow them to melt and combine
- Pour mixture in to the bowl with dry ingredients and combine
- Add in the eggs, little by little until fully combined and a cake batter
- Separate in to the muffin cases / silicon moulds and then place in to the oven for 30 -40 minutes (keep and eye on the cakes) until a knife comes out of the cake clean
- Allow to cool for 20-30 minutes before frosting
- Frosting:
- Rinse the cashew nuts of the water
- In to a blender place the cashew nuts, lemon juice, honey, vanilla and ¼ cup water
- Blend for 2-3 minutes until creamy and smooth
- Place in the fridge whilst the cakes are cooling for 20-30 minutes
- Decorating:
- Take the cakes out of their cases and cut them in half
- Using 1 tsp cashew frosting place in the middle of the cake and smooth out
- Pop the cake halves together and place ½ tsp frosting on top of the cake and smooth out
- Sprinkle with chopped walnuts / grated carrot/ cinnamon
- These will keep for up to 3 days in a sealed container in a fridge.
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These will keep for up to 3 days in a sealed container in a fridge.
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These look so pretty, nothing beats a good carrot cake either. I love that they’re individual portions 🙂
These look great! I am guessing there is no reason why they can’t be baked in cupcake cases?
I have realised reading over you can use cupcake cases, but I note in the ingredients you say to use ground almonds, but in the method it states almond flour. Do I use both or was the ground almonds an error, meaning almond flour? 🙂
They are the same thing, ground almonds are slightly less fine than almond flour but it’s like for like in terms of measuring etc…. Most people done normally differentiate – i should change it to read ground almonds to keep it uniform though so thank you for raising that. I would recommend just using ground almonds as it’s much easier to pick up in a supermarket 🙂 and yes to using cupcake cases but do grease them first! Hope you enjoy them! Emi x