Debut: Vegan Carrot Cake

It took me a while to think of what dessert would be worthy enough to become my first post. Finally it hit me: mom's carrot cake! But of course, I had to change it a little. I decided to make it vegan. It was super easy to veganize this recipe because the only non-vegan ingredient in the cake was eggs. I had to do some reading on vegan egg replacers, so I went here: http://theppk.com/veganbaking.html. I decided on Ener-G Egg Replacer for this recipe and it worked great.

Pineapple Carrot Cake

For the cake:

• 1 cup vegetable oil


• 2 cups flour


• 2 teaspoons baking soda


• 1 teaspoon baking powder


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 2 teaspoons cinnamon


• 3 eggs (Ener-G Egg replacer equivalent: 4 1/2 teaspoons of replacer mixed with 6 tablespoons of warm water)


• 1 teaspoon vanilla


• 2 cups shredded carrot


• 1 8 ounce can crushed pineapple


• 1 3/4 cups brown sugar


• 3/4 cup flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 13x9x2 pan. Dust with flour. Sift flour/soda/powder/salt/cinnamon. Make well in center, add in order: sugar, oil, eggs/egg replacer, vanilla. Beat with wooden spoon until smooth. Stir in carrots, coconut, and pineapple. Blend well. Pour into pan. Bake for 45 minutes until center springs back. Cool in pan.

For the frosting:

• 3 ounces cream cheese (I used Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese)


• 1/4 cup softened butter (I used Earth Balance vegan margarine)


• 2 cups powdered sugar


• 2 teaspoons milk (obviously, soy/rice/almond is ok here)


• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

Beat cheese with the butter. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add milk if necessary to make spreadable.

A few tips about this recipe:

• Now, I have a friend who doesn't like pineapple in her carrot cake. In this recipe the pineapple is essential in keeping the cake moist. However, if you really really really really really don't want to use pineapple subsitute unsweetened apple sauce instead.
• This is for all cakes in general. If you noticed in the picture the frosting doesn't look quite set up. That's because I was really hungry and frosted the cake while it was still warm. Of course, the cake was extremely tasty still hot from the oven but the frosting will not set. You can decide whether or not you're ok with that.