Dairy Free Carrot Cake with Cashew Cream Cheese

    Ingredients:

    For a cake with 2 layers, you can use two 8-inch round cake pans.  I wanted to make cupcakes as well, so ended up making 12 cupcakes and a single layer 8 inch round cake.

    • 6 cups of grated carrots
    • 1 cup of brown sugar
    • ½ cup of finely chopped dates
    • ½ cup of dried cranberries
    • 1 cup oil
    • 2 tsp vanilla extract
    • 3 tsp of fresh ground cinnamon
    • 1 tsp of freshly ground nutmeg
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 2 tsp baking soda
    • 1 cup of blended pineapple
    • 3 cups flour
    • 4 eggs

    For the Cashew cream cheese, blend all the below ingredients together until you have a nice even creamy consistency:

    • 1 cup cashews, soaked overnight
    • 2½ tbsp melted coconut oil
    • 4 tbsp honey
    • ½ tbsp vanilla essence
    • 1½ tbsp lemon juice
    • ⅓ tsp salt
    • 3-4 tbsp water

    Top the cake with the frosting and enjoy!  P.S. You may have to hide it, or else it will be gone fast!

    Method:

    1. Pre-heat the oven to 180º Celsius (350 F).
    2. Grease and flour the cake pans using olive oil based butter.  Alternatively, use baking spray.  Use cupcake liners for the cupcakes.
    3. Aside from the dates and cranberries, blend all ingredients together using a hand blender.
    4. Once the mixture has an even consistency, add the dates and cranberries and use a low setting until sufficiently distributed.
    5. Pour the mixture into the pans and bake for no more than 40 mins so it stays moist.
    6. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for about 15 mins.