Carrot cake is one of England’s favourite desserts, it’s actually a quickbread (a bread made with no yeast) and very tasty and sweet.
This recipe for easy vegan carrot cake (The Veg Space) is super-simple to make, with easy-to-find ingredients, topped with a cream cheese icing.
A few people with hypothyroidism (or pollen allergies) may need to avoid carrots. Mash carrots for children or swallowing difficulties. Keep recipes away from pets due to unsafe ingredients (like nutmeg). Read more on food safety for people & pets.
Carrots are easy to find and cheap to buy. Rich in beta-carotene, carrots are normally orange but can also be purple, yellow, white or red. After potatoes, these root veggies are the most widely eaten on earth, and the green tops are also edible (try them in soups or salads).
How to Buy and Store Carrots
Look for carrots in season (May to September) and choose organic, you’ll be amazed at the taste difference. Good carrots have firm unblemished bright orange skins, and young carrots should have feathery greens still attached.
Most supermarkets let you leave plastic packaging at the store, transfer carrots to reusable produce bags. Farm shops tend to sell loose produce (and carrots are more likely to be organic and locally-grown). Rinse and recycle plastic bags at kerbside recycling (or supermarket bag bins).
Once home, store carrots in the fridge after washing and removing (and composting) the green tops. If you change the water every few days, keeping them in a silicone container helps them last longer. To freeze carrots, chop first then freeze on a tray then transfer to a silicone freezer bag (they will keep for a good few months, you can cook straight from frozen).
Young carrots only need the tops and tails removed and a quick wash with a veggie brush, but invest in a good peeler for older carrots (most nutrients are under the skin – a good peeler saves hours of prep time and be used for potatoes, other root veggies and making ‘ribbons’ for carrot salad).
A Gluten-Free Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe
This gluten-free carrot cake (Ela Vegan) is super-simple to make. Finely grated carrots are mixed up with flour, ground almonds, spices, canned coconut milk and maple syrup, bound with a ‘chia egg’ (mix ground chia seed with water) and topped with a homemade frosting (use organic powdered sugar to avoid egg).