I’d like to start off by saying… that… don’t even go to the Recipe for the icing. It was horrendous. It actually didn’t taste half bad (after deviating from the recipe), but the texture; I still have nightmares about it sometimes. I knew choosing a vegan recipe would be a gamble but corona times and lock-down limitations means an extremely limited availability of dairy products for me.

Although, I wonder, did I do something wrong? I’m no skilled baker, it would be a completely plausible explanation that I royally messed up somehow. But oh well, it was my duty to warn you and so I have. Oh and, another thing the icing did? Prevented me from clicking a decent picture of the Cake and therefore, from uploading a decent picture of the cake.

So why am I even uploading this post? Because the cake was fucking amazing, mouthwatering, delectable, delicious.. I could exhaust the dictionary looking for ways to compliment this cake. And the best part is that if I can make it, so can you. But mostly this is a way for me to never lose the recipe because I know that 200 years later, I still want my great great great (how many greats would it be in two centuries?) grandchildren to be baking and eating this recipe.
And why am I not uploading just the recipe of the cake and not the icing? Well, maybe some of you want to try it out for yourselves and tell me whether the icing is irredeemable as a recipe or I am irredeemable as a baker. Does the icing suck or do I? That is the question. 

I took the recipe for the cake from Inspired Taste. They have their own recipe for a cream cheese frosting, in case you’d rather go try that. The recipe for the icing was taken from Loving It Vegan.

Time:

Prep: 30 minutes + Cook: 20 minutes = Ready in: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

∼Carrot Cake:

• 2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cups (295 ml) canola or other vegetable oil
• 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 cup (200 grams) lightly packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups (300 grams) grated peeled carrots (5 to 6 medium carrots)
• 1 cup (100 grams) coarsely chopped pecans and walnuts (optional)

∼Icing:

• 3 and 3/4 cups (450g) Powdered (Confectioners) Sugar
• 3 Tbsp Butter
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 3–4 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
• Apple juice (optional)

Instructions:

∼Carrot Cake:

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176C). Grease two 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper then grease the top of the paper. Or, grease and flour the bottom and sides of both pans.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and the cinnamon until well blended.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, sugars, and vanilla. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, until combined.
4. Switch to a large rubber spatula. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl then add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, gently stirring until they disappear and the batter is smooth. Stir in the carrots and nuts.
5. Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans. Bake until the tops of the cake layers are springy when touched and when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes.
6. Cool cakes in pans for 15 minutes then turn out onto cooling racks, peel off parchment paper and cool completely. (If you find that a cake layer is stuck to the bottom of the pan, leave the cake pan upside down and allow gravity to do its thing).

∼Icing:

1. Add the powdered sugar, vegan butter, vanilla, apple cider vinegar and 3 Tbsp of lemon juice to an electric mixer bowl.
2. Start mixing on low speed.
3. If your frosting is too thick then add in more lemon juice a drop at a time as needed to get your frosting mix to the perfect consistency. If your frosting ends up too thin (which is never going to happen), add more powdered sugar.
4. At this point, we noticed that we couldn’t possibly add more lemon juice without comprising on the taste and the texture resembled pebbles. So we started putting in apple juice, two-three tablespoon at a time. After some time, and many (I’m not sure how many) tablespoons of apple juice later, the consistency started resembling that of wet send, which was as good as it was going to get. 

And there you have it! An amazing cake and a not so amazing icing. If I’m being honest, I kind of do want some of you to prove me wrong with the icing. It can’t REALLY be that bad right? Try it out for yourself and let me know in the comments below! 

Have a good day baking!