Carrot Cake With Everything

Carrot Cake: Ovo Lacto Vegetarian or Vegan With Pineapple, Coconut, Walnuts, and Cream Cheese Icing

I developed this luscious, but substantial carrot cake recipe when my kids were young, as a nutritious, but not overly sweet celebration cake. It showed up regularly at birthday parties, and recently appeared at our daughter's wedding. Young and old party goers love it. In spite of the many ingredients and steps, it's an easy recipe to make, and hard to mess up. The large sheet cake takes 45 minutes to bake.

This recipe converts easily to a Vegan Version. We also made a sugar free version, using a diabetic friendly sugar substitute supplied by a guest. Powdered stevia would work well too. For a healthier version, half the sugar, substitute half whole grain flour, and leave off the icing. At that point, you could make muffins or quick bread and call it brunch.

For this recipe, you'll need a large sheet cake pan, approximately 11x14 inches. It also makes a nice layer cake, using three round layer cake pans. You can also use loaf pans or a large tube pan, or muffin tins - but it will cook best when baked in relatively thin layers. You'll need to adjust the time too if you use different sized pans. Double the icing recipe for a layer cake.

Ingredients

• 3 cups unbleached white flour (substitute half whole wheat or spelt flour if desired)
• 1 Tblsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ginger
• 4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cloves
• 2 cups grated carrot, packed (3 - 4 medium carrots)
• 1 15 oz can crushed pineapple, well drained (reserve juice)
• 1 cup dried unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup soft butter, veggie sticks, or vegetable oil
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 3 eggs, well beaten, or egg replacer + 1/3 cup pineapple juice
• 1 cup soft butter or veggie sticks
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup light molasses (NOT blackstrap)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, oil the pans.
2. Line the bottoms of the pans with waxed paper if you want to turn the cake out of the pans after baking.
3. Get out the butter and eggs, and cream cheese to warm up to room temperature
4. Measure and combine the flour, spices, salt and baking powder in a bowl
5. Peel, grate and measure the carrots
6. Drain the pineapple and reserve the liquid
7. Measure the coconut
8. Chop and measure the walnuts
9. Combine the carrots, walnuts, and coconut
10. Using a large bowl, cream the butter or veggie sticks, add sugar and mix well, then stir in the beaten eggs, or egg replacer and juice.
11. Stir in the drained crushed pineapple and molasses.
12. Add the carrots, walnuts and coconut.
13. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
14. Spread the mixture in the oiled pan(s), and bake for 45 minutes for a large cake, and about 1/2 our for smaller pans, 20 - 25 minutes for muffins.
15. Cool in pans on wire rack, for 10 minutes. Turn out on rack if necessary. Cool completely before icing.

Cream Cheese Icing

• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• Grated rind and juice of one lemon
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 4 cups icing sugar
• Cream the cheese and butter together
• Add the lemon rind and almond extract
• Gradually sift and mix in the icing sugar.
• Add more icing sugar to thicken, or lemon juice as needed to thin.
• Spread on completely cooled cake.
• Optional: sprinkle top with finely chopped walnuts or toasted coconut

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