This vegan ruby carrot cake with beetroot is a lovely variation on the usual carrot cake. It has striking fiery red and orange flecks and is studded with equally fiery little chunks of crystallised ginger.
At its heart is a very simple, very reliable carrot cake recipe, with a soft crumb and lots of flavour. (Simply replace the beetroot with more carrot and add sultanas and chopped walnuts instead of ginger for a traditional carrot cake.)
The inspiration to add beetroot to this recipe was the dramatic scarlet hue of ‘cole’-slaw made from carrot and beetroot. In fact, that’s where the recipe starts – with carrot and beetroot slaw.
In the course of baking alongside alkaline raising agents, the anthocyanins that give the beetroot its beautiful colour will diminish somewhat, but I find that mixing the beetroot really well with the carrot helps to preserve the ruby tones.
You can achieve a cake that is redder still by using more beetroot, but these quantities will produce a cake that is a distinctive colour without compromising on texture – beetroot is a wetter ingredient than carrot and behaves differently in baking.
ruby carrot cake with beetroot…
Ingredients
- 185 g roughly grated carrot
- 40 g finely grated beetroot
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 140 ml light olive (or other mild-tasting) oil
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 160 g golden caster sugar
- 150 g self-raising wholemeal flour
- 50 g white self-raising flour
- 1 scant tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 50 g desiccated coconut
- 30 g chopped crystallised ginger
for the coconut icing
- 25 g coconut oil
- 180 g icing sugar
- a few drops vanilla extract
- a little non-dairy milk
- cinnamon for dusting
Method
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F and line or lightly oil a suitable tin (the pictured cake was made in a 10″ square tin).
- Mix the ground flaxseed with two tablespoons of water and set aside.
- Mix the grated carrot and beetroot together with a fork. Take a few minutes doing this to ensure that there are no clumps of beetroot and the colour is an even, deep red.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flaxseed, oil and sugar, then add the lemon juice and the carrot and beetroot mixture. Stir until thoroughly mixed together.
- In a separate bowl, sift the flours, baking soda and spices before adding these to the carrot mixture together with the coconut and chopped ginger.
- Stir lightly until it is well combined, but don’t over stir. If it feels very thick, you can add a tablespoon of water – it should be a fairly sloppy dropping consistency.
- Transfer to the baking tin and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until it is moderately risen and firm to the touch. (If you have used a tin with a smaller surface area, the cake may take a little longer to bake.)
- Allow to cool before icing.
- To make the icing, simply melt the coconut oil and beat this with the other ingredients in a small bowl. Add a few teaspoons of milk as necessary – remember the coconut oil will set hard again once it cools, so the icing needs to be very soft when you ice the cake.
- Dust the iced cake with a little cinnamon.
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