Healthy carrot cake recipe perfect for Easter

Make time: 1 hour + component recipes | Setting time: 30–40 minutes | Serves: 10 | Equipment required: blender, food processor.

Instead of mini cakes, you could make one larger layer cake or the old-school square one. These stay beautiful and moist in the refrigerator for about a week.

Thanks to Little Bird Organics & The Unbakery, this recipe along with other Easter treats will be available on The Unbakery App the week before Easter from April 7 2017, just in time to plan your Easter un-baking.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups dried activated almonds
• 1 1/4 cups cashews
• 2 1/4 cups dried coconut (one cup will be used to make flour)
• 1 1/2 cups almond pulp
• 2 medium carrots (approximately 1 1/2 cup grated)
• 1 cup currants
• 1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 pinches sea salt
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 3/4 cup date paste
• 1/3 cup organic maple syrup, raw agave, or raw honey
• 1/4 cup melted cold-pressed coconut oil

Lemon frosting

• 1 cup fresh young coconut flesh
• 1/2 cup raw agave or organic maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp nut cheese (if you don’t have nut cheese add more lemon juice)
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Method
Blend almonds, cashews, and 1¼ cup of the dried coconut separately in a food processor until they resemble a ‘flour’ consistency.

In a bowl, add the nut pulp, ‘flours’, dried coconut, carrot, currants, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, sea salt and lemon zest and fold together with hands.

Blend the lemon juice, date paste, sweetener and coconut oil in a food processor or high-speed blender and set aside.

Now add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and mix together with hands until it sticks together.

Line your mini cake, cupcake or regular cake tin with plastic wrap (note: you can get biodegradable versions of this).

Divide the mixture into however many layers you would like in the cake. We usually do three layers as pictured.

Then divide the first layer between 10 mini cake tins or just make one layer in a regular cake tin.

Do the same with your frosting mixture once it has become firm.

Alternate the layers of cake and frosting in the cake tin, finishing with a layer of the lemon cream cheese frosting.

Dust with cinnamon and serve.

Lemon cream cheese frosting:

1 cup melted cold-pressed coconut oil

Drain the soaked cashews and rinse thoroughly. Put cashews, coconut flesh, agave, nut cheese, lemon juice, vanilla extract and sea salt in a high-speed blender, adding enough filtered water to blend until smooth (approximately 1/2 cup). If using maple, the cream will be a darker colour.

With the blender still running, slowly pour the coconut oil in at the end.

Leave to set in the refrigerator or freezer for 40 minutes to 1 hour before using.