Carrot Cake Part II

For Hannah and my fourth monthiversary, Valentine's Day and my birthday I made a recreation of my original carrot cake. I figured, what's a celebration when there is not cake, besides I had been craving cake for some time and really wanted to redeem myself at making carrot cake. I had also picked up some vegan cream cheese and really wanted to make the frosting that is so totally essential to a perfect carrot cake.

Because I didn't like my first carrot cake recipe, I again went to the internet to find a new recipe. This time I found a new recipie on what soon became one of my favorite vegan recipe websites. hellyeahitsvegan.com
In the morning before work I made my carrot cake. I was so impressed by my creation that I decided to share it with my coworkers. Unfortunately I placed the cake for my trip to the PATH station on the back of my bike and when I had gotten to the PATH station, my cake was no longer in the state it had started in. I was upset, but because it was so good I still offered it to them. But none of my coworkers wanted to try it, claiming that they ate with their eyes not with their mouths... I was sad that they would not try it because it was delicious! In the end it's their loss, it was soo good!

But enough from me and my woes of exploding cake. Here's the recipe from HellYeah ItsVegan:

Classic Vegan Carrot Cake

2 1/3 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt

6 tbsp flax seed meal
3/4 c warm water
1½ c sugar
1 c oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 c shredded carrots
1 c raisins

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz vegan cream cheese
¼ c margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350º. Line two 8×8″ pans with parchment paper. In a small bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour through salt). In a large bowl, whisk together flax seed meal and water. Beat in sugar and oil. Add vanilla and carrots and mix until combined. Add dry mix and stir until moistened. Fold in raisins. Pour equal parts into pans. Bake for 18-20 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pans 10 minutes.

For the frosting, beat together cream cheese and margarine. Add vanilla and powdered sugar; whip until smooth. (Don’t overbeat; in my experience, store-bought vegan cream cheese has a tendency to get runny.)
Use a knife to loosen edges of cake from pans. Using parchment paper, lift cakes out of pans. Carefully remove parchment paper from one cake. If you are making a layer cake and a large pan, cut the cake in calf, frost then stack and frost again.

Last Step, enjoy!

The cake was soo good. I gave it to Hannah and she nearly went crazy. You may remember a blog link I put up here a few posts ago, well it is exactly how Hannah acted after she tried the first tiny test bite. http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/10/god-of-cake.html