Carrot Cake with Blood Orange Cream Cheese Icing

If you have been following this blog, you’ve probably noticed a pattern to the content of my recipes that goes something like this: Veggies. Veggies. Veggies. Meat. Veggies. Veggies. Veggies. Cake. Repeat. So, here we go again! After three straight veggie recipes, I feel almost morally bound to offer you some meat or some cake! Today, we’re going cake.
The other pattern you may have noticed is my increasing fixation with aquafaba, aka chickpea liquid. I am allergic to eggs, so I’m curious about this awesome, natural alternative to egg whites. I’m compelled to test old recipes and invent news ones to take aquafaba to its limits. It’s early on, but I have been really impressed.
So, let’s review. Lots of patterns going on here. Pattern 1 is cake,  pattern 2 is aquafaba, let’s call pattern 3 vegetables. So what does that all add up to? Vegan Carrot Cake! And pattern 4 is my fixation on orange, the colour, the fruit, and the flavour. So all of the patterns converge and we have: Carrot Cake with Blood Orange Cream Cheese Icing.
The Carrot Cake is nice and moist, aided by the addition of both pureed peaches and pineapple. A blood orange reduction replaces the traditional butter in the cream cheese icing. This results in more of a honey-ed orange flavour than a strong orange flavour. You could use regular orange juice, or you could use additional peach puree instead. Or, you don’t even need to ice this cake at all. Lots of options!
PS – This uses a lot of chickpea liquid. Here are some yum ways to use up the chickpeas: Lemon Spinach Hummus and Cauliflower, Sweet Potato, Spinach, and Pineapple with Curry Ginger Cardamon Cream Sauce. I have another chickpea-based recipe in progress too.

December 13, 2016. My tester bowl of carrot cake.

Carrot Cake

Dry Ingredients

• 3 cups cake flour
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
• 2 1/4 cup brown sugar

Wet Ingredients

• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup pureed peaches (from can, drain the juice before pureeing). I was inspired to use pureed peach after looking at the luscious Peach Carrot Cake over at callmecupcake.
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups shredded carrots
• 1 1/2 cup raisons
• 1 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1 1/2 cup crushed canned pineapple
• 1 1/8 cups of chickpea liquid, aka aquafaba (There was more than enough liquid from two 19 ounce cans of chickpeas. Save the chickpeas for other recipes.)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients.
2. In a medium sized bowl combine all of the wet ingredients except the chickpea.
3. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry.
4. In a medium sized bowl, whip the aquafaba until soft peaks form.
5. Fold the aquafaba into the other ingredients.
6. Pour into 3 greased 9 inch cake pans.
7. Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes or until fork in centre comes out clean.
8. Ice with the Blood Orange Cream Cheese Icing and garnish with sugar sprinkles or American Saffron (aka Safflower).

Blood Orange Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients

• 500 grams of cream cheese, or vegan sub
• 1 cup of freshly squeezed blood orange juice. You could use regular orange juice as well, or you could just use some pureed peach, blended into the cream cheese. You would obviously not be able to reduce the pureed peach, so skip step 1 below if that’s the case.
• 2 cups of icing sugar (You will need more if you are using pureed peach)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

Instructions

1. In a small saucepan, over medium heat, reduce the orange juice to 1/4 cup. Let cool.
2. With a blender or mixer, combine the cream cheese, cooled orange juice, icing sugar and vanilla until smooth.
3. Ice that cake.
4. Try it! You’ll like it! Scroll on down to the comments section and tell me about it!

Carrot Cake with Blood Orange Cream Cheese Icing