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Plantbased & Raw Carrot Cake with Turmeric & Lemon Cream

Posted on by Stephanie Jeffs
13
Jul

I’d really love you to create this absolutely stunning carrot cake at home: because it looks all cheffy and gourmet (it is) beautifully nutritious (cos it’s made with loads of awesome foods so it is) but most of all because it’s so very easy to make and it’s particularly helpful if you have some juice pulp leftover that needs using up.

We enjoy many cake varieties at my raw food holidays and classes – and I always work with the nuts and fruits that are available, seasonal and in my pantry. The added stress (which always seems to leverage a little more creativity!) is that at my holidays we have to use everything up before we fly home: the pantry has to be empty when we depart so we purchase carefully and use what we have playfully.

On one of our most recent Raw Juice Camps I invited Lauren Lovatt – Plant Chef and teacher and Plantlab Culinary to join me and help me pimp my plates for some of my much loved dishes. I just love sharing my kitchen with talented people so we can go crazy creating new things!

It was awesome!

We worked with my basic recipes and she added a little pizzazz, some great plating ideas and beautiful decoration! Here is my much loved carrot cake recipe pimped for Raw Juice Camp! It was not only beautiful but delicious and the added splash of Lauren’s lemon cream was sensational. Yum yum!

Ok so here’s the recipe we used for this batch – vary to your liking and availability of ingredients:

Cake ingredients

  • 1 cup prune paste (prunes soaked in good water overnight or for min 4 hours then blended)
  • 1 cup semi dried apricots (if dried then rehydrated with water)
  • 2 cups carrot pulp (from juicer) or grated carrots. If you use grated carrots then squeeze juice out with cheesecloth.
  • 1 cup chopped soaked walnuts (soaked in good water overnight or for min 4 hours, rinsed – discard water)
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • ½ tsp. fresh ginger
  • pinch nutmeg
  • pinch Himalayan salt
  • juice of one lemon
  • 1 cup juicy raisins
  • I cup goji berries (dried)
  • handful mixed chopped activated nuts and seeds: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds and so on
  • 1 tbsp. chia seeds
  • 1/2 cup poppy seeds

Cream Ingredients

  • 1 cup soaked cashews (soaked in good water overnight or minimum 2 hours)
  • 1/2 cup cashew milk (home made or store bought)
  • 1 probiotic capsule (of your choice)
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 tbsp turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp maca powder
  • 1 grind black pepper
  • 1 large tsp honey or maple syrup
  • 1 tbsp warmed coconut oil

Optional Decoration

  • lemon and orange zest
  • dried flowers
  • milled bee pollen
  • split activated almonds

Method

For the cake. Prepare your ingredients which may mean soaking and getting things ready the night before. Blend the prune paste in a blender and add the apricots. Using a food processor or cake mixer fold in the juice pulp. If you are using a machine you need to work quickly as you don’t want to create too much of a paste. Add the pulp slowly. The texture should be very rough and ‘bitty’ as this is a nicer eating experience. Once folded in transfer the mix to a large bowl to fold in the rest of the ingredients gradually. I do this by hand so I can really feel the mixture. If you find that your mix is too ‘wet’ try adding gluten free oats, buckwheat flour or milled sunflower seeds. Go with it and play with this recipe it’s a lovely one to explore!
When the mix is right for you (still relatively wet, like cake mix but does not ‘drip off the spoon’) use your hands to make cake balls the size you fancy (small golf balls for me) then flatten the top and bottom. Transfer to a baking tray (or dehydrator if you have one) and dry in the oven with the door ajar on 50f until they are warmed through, dry and tasty! This should take 3-4 hours. If using a dehydrator dry for 8-10 hours on 38.
For the cream you will need to make this the night before.
You don’t need to – but this is a fermented cream recipe which requires time. The benefits of fermentation are for great gut health, taste and presentation as you get a slight ‘bubble and foam’ with the cream which is absolutely delicious. If you are out of time and not able to do this overnight then just whip all the ingredients up in the blender. It will still be delicious but perhaps a little ‘heavier’ in texture.
Blend soaked cashews with cashew milk and one tsp or capsule of desired probiotic. Culture overnight by leaving in a bowl on the counter covered in a towel or plastic wrap. Do not put in the fridge and take care if your kitchen is very warm. Do not leave for more than 8 hours at high temperatures.
In the morning blend with all other ingredients and the cream is ready to go!

Tips on plating

Place a dollop of cream on the plate with a tablespoon or large serving spoon. Using the back of the spoon drag the cream across the plate swiftly to create a beautiful sweep. Place the cake on the main dollop and add lemon and orange zest, milled bee pollen, edible flowers and almond chards. When adding decoration consider the texture as well as the colour and arrangement. Splitting nuts will give you more to work with, and milling ingredients like bee pollen is much kinder to the tooth and makes a more friendly decoration.

I hope you enjoy bringing this recipe to life! Let me know how you get on in the comments and please share on social media!

Big loves

 

 

 

 

 

Stephanie Jeffs
Stephanie Jeffs

Raw Food Chef & Author. The juice behind Explore Raw, Raw Juice Camp in Portugal & Cookery School in London. Spokesperson and teacher of raw foods, host of award winning retreats, creator of a range of ebook recipe collections and author of 'Spiralize'. Recognised as an expert in her field and producer of the ProSpiralizer - a chef standard spiralizer for the home cook.

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