• 2-1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or allspice
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cup light brown cane sugar
• 3/4 cup cane sugar
• 3 egg equivalent in Ener-G egg substitute
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup vegetable oil**

• 2 cups finely grated carrots
• 1 can (about 14 oz) crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 cup shredded coconut

• nuts and raisins optional

Faux Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 8 oz package of vegan cream cheese
• 1/3 cup vegan soy margarine (like Earth Balance), softened.
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups vegan confectioners sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, spice, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer combine sugar and egg replacer until creamy.  Add vanilla, then add vegetable oil or applesauce.

Mix wet and dry ingredients together and add carrots, pineapple, and coconut.

Grease pan. Smooth batter into pan. Bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Be sure to let the cake adequately cool before frosting.

For a thicker cake, use a 9×9 glass pan. For a thinner cake with more servings, use a 13×9.  You can also make them in a cupcake pan or 2 loaf pans.

Faux Cream Cheese Frosting recipe:

With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and margarine. Add vanilla, then add sugar.

This entire recipe tastes just like the real thing! It just made it last night and it is so delicious!

Makes: 9 servings, Preparation time: 20 minutes, Cooking time: 40 minutes

**Substitutions**

For the egg replacer – I used pineapple juice drained from the pineapple chunks instead of water.  I had it and I thought I’d give the cake an extra boost of flavor.

Again, I don’t use vegetable oil.  I subbed with applesauce as usual.

Since I had a young coconut in the fridge I used that instead of dried shredded coconut.  I just ran it through the shredder with the carrots.  I tried to run the pineapple chunks through as well, but that really didn’t work.  I ended up cutting up the pineapple chunks I had by hand instead.

I accidentally added 3 cups of carrots instead of the 2 called for – I mixed it up with another recipe.  It worked out pretty well though.

I also added 1 cup of chopped walnuts and 1/2 cup chopped dried cherries.

I don’t do soy-based cream cheese frosting.  Instead of that I used my trusty old standby Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting – wow, was it tasty!

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I am apparently in a baking mood today – zucchini bread and carrot cake back to back.  That or I’m just hungry   I found this recipe over at VegWeb.com where it was submitted by Tate.  I was looking at both this recipe and this one by Ina Garten so I’m sure that there are places other than just the extra cup of carrots that I merged them but I don’t recall them.

Just so you know, these muffins by no means need the frosting – and they are better for you without it – but what is a good tropical-inspired carrot cake without frosting?  I mean really.

So why did I pick a vegan recipe?  Well, I ran out of eggs but I have scads of egg replacer!  Shhh – don’t tell!

So yeah – that’s my version of this yummy cake!  And I would have to agree, next to the Oregon Farms boxed cake (now Sarah Lee), this is one of the best carrot cakes I have tried yet.  I’m still trying to duplicate that one though!  Yum…

Oh – and the kids LOVE it!

Yes, I am calling this a fruity carrot cake, because it tastes, well, fruity!  It’s also very moist, and very delicious.  It’s also kinda good for you, but I won’t tell if you don’t!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup almond meal or whole wheat flour (I did a combination)
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginge

• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 cup evaporated cane juice
• 1 cup buttermilk (or kefir, if you’ve got it)
• 3/4 cup applesauce
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extrac

• 2 cups finely grated carrots
• 1 cup (8 oz) drained, crushed pineapple
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup chopped dried cherries
• 1 cup flaked coconut (if desired)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter 3 (8-inch) or 2 (9-inch) cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper and butter it.  Set aside.

Combine the flours, soda, salt and spices.  Set them aside.  In your mixer bowl, combine the sugars, buttermilk, applesauce, eggs and vanilla.  Mix until well combined.  Add the flour mixture, carrots, fruit and nuts, stirring until just blended.

Pour the batter into the cake pans, spreading to the edges.  Bake at 350F for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from oven, and cool in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes.  Loosen the edges with a knife if necessary.  Lay a second rack on top of the cake pans and flip them over.  Remove the pans and parchment paper.  Allow to cool completely, covering with a towel if needed.

Spread your favorite cream cheese frosting in between the layers and on the top and sides.  A wonderful garnish is to use halved walnuts or pipe on some frosting carrots.

Cover and refrigerate overnight before cutting.

Enjoy

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So, since I was using a food processor to shred the carrots, I also tossed in the cherries and pecans (I didn’t have walnuts on hand).  They came out minced – not quite ground, more than chopped.  It worked really, really well – especially since I have a kid around here who hates nuts.  I personally don’t much like coconut, so I left it out, but since so many people like it, I left it in the recipe.

For the whole wheat flour part, I was pretty much out, so I used almond meal for about 1/2 cup of it, then added the little but of whole wheat that I had and it came out wonderful.  It holds up pretty well to substitutions.

Next time I may try it with kefir instead of buttermilk, because I always have that on hand.  Since I am making a few cakes this week, I bought the buttermilk – it’s also in the Red Velvet Cake.

I combined a few different recipes for this one… I found so many with the same basic ingredients, but I wanted something a little different.  I swapped cherries for the usual raisins and used pecans instead of walnuts (but just because that was what I had on hand).  I wanted to make it a little more healthy without sacrificing taste, so I went 50/50 on the flour.  It seems to have worked.  The pineapple is a must though – so yummy!

Oh come on… you actually thought I’d follow a recipe word for word?  Riiiiight.  Occasionally I do that the first time, but not usually.  After all, where is the fun in that?