I have always been both heavily obsessed, and inspired by DAMY & Clean Eating With a Dirty Mind both pages literally make me lick the screen – no joke!!! Those two blogs will just blow your mind with the amazingly naughty yet delicious creations that they come up with. Before I had Anya I used to love making raw desserts – especially raw cheesecakes and I guess I wanted to perfect my own raw & Vegan dessert. I guess that’s why I came up with this gorgeous raw carrot cake.
This recipe calls for some rather juicy and succulent dried pineapple to be used in the base instead of just plain old medjool dates, and as much as I love medjool dates I do feel that they can end up overpowering the taste of most recipes rather than complimenting the overall flavours. The whole cake is packed full of flavour and juiciness – even the frosting stays solid enough to not melt off unlike most cashew cream cheese frostings I have tried out before. In fact I actually think that this is better than regular baked carrot cake!
These Raw Paleo Carrot Cake Squares are a total doddle to make, you actually can’t go wrong; all you need is a food processor, a small brownie tin (I used an 8.5″ x 6.5″ tin), some clean hands and maybe a little taste tester to help along the way. This recipe will also require you to soak your raisins in some orange juice and also your cashew nuts in a bowl of water (for the frosting) overnight. It is best to do the same with your pecans and walnuts too but they will need dehydrating before use which can be done by transferring onto a large baking tray and cooking in the oven on the lowest heat until sufficiently dry enough. The choice is yours!
Yields: Roughly 6-8 squares
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Setting Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
For the base:
1.5 carrots (peeled & chopped)
1 cup dried pineapple
1/2 (packed) cup pitted medjool dates
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1 tbsp coconut oil
3 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt
3/4 cup pecans (activated)
3/4 cup walnuts (activated)
Juice 1/2 orange
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 carrot (peeled & finely shredded)
For the faux cream cheese frosting:
1.5 cups cashews (soaked overnight)
Juice 1 lemon
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut cream (solid part of a chilled can of coconut milk)
1/8 cup coconut oil
1/8 cup cacao butter (melted)
1/4 tsp vanilla powder (optional)
Optional toppings:
1/4 cup walnuts (crushed)
1/4 carrot (spiralized/shredded)
Method:
- The night before making place a can of coconut milk into the fridge and leave your raisins to soak in the orange juice overnight in an airtight container, be sure to store them in the fridge until needed. You will also need to soak your cashews in a bowl of water with 1 heaped tsp of Himalayan pink salt. Make sure that you cover them with enough water so that there is about an inch of water above the nuts. Cover with cling film and leave in a cool dry place overnight. In the morning drain and rinse your cashews thoroughly. Set aside until later.
- In the bowl of your food processor add all of the ingredients for your base except for your pecans, walnuts, and orange juice soaked raisins. Pulse the ingredients a few times before processing until smooth. Be sure to scrape down the sides frequently with a spatula to ensure that everything gets processed thoroughly.
- Add in the nuts and pulse until some of the nuts have processed smoothly and the rest have left small chunks.
- Stir in your orange juice soaked raisins and shredded carrot.
- Line a brownie or small cake tin (I used an 8.5″ x 6.5″ tin) with some greaseproof paper and transfer the mixture in. Using your hands ‘knuckle in’ the mixture until nice and even. Place into the freezer whilst you prepare your faux cream cheese frosting.
- Clean the bowl of your food processor and add in all of your ingredients for your frosting. Pulse a few times before processing and process until completely smooth. Make sure to scrape down the sides frequently in order keep your mix really smooth!
- Remove the base from the freezer and pour over your cream cheese frosting. Using a spatula spread out the frosting evenly. Sprinkle over your crushed walnuts and place the tin into the freezer, leaving to set for around an hour.
- Remove the tin from the freezer when set and carefully lever out the sides of the carrot cake using a large sharp knife. Cut into 6-8 large squares.
- Top each square with a small amount of spiralized/shredded carrot and tuck in!!!
11 Comments
Ayla Creed
8th March 2015 at 11:12 pmI might have to try this…
greensofthestoneage
9th March 2015 at 1:02 pmOooh go on you won’t regret it
Vanessa Jay
9th March 2015 at 3:05 pmYum!! These sound awesome!!
greensofthestoneage
9th March 2015 at 3:51 pmThanks Vanessa! I’m trying not to eat the whole lot!
grokgrub
10th March 2015 at 7:00 pmI saw these on Instagram and was like, “Wowwwwwww”!
greensofthestoneage
10th March 2015 at 10:17 pmHahaha! They really are wow! Thank you so much for the love
stacey
10th March 2015 at 10:15 pmGet these in my belly!!
greensofthestoneage
10th March 2015 at 10:17 pmHaha! I got them all in my belly! (Hangs head in shame)
Kristi
24th March 2015 at 2:57 amHi Georgie! I would like to try these. What are the measurements in the frosting? 1/8 teaspoon I am guessing? for coconut oil, cacao butter, and vanilla powder?
greensofthestoneage
24th March 2015 at 6:39 amHi Kristi, thank you for your question! I was changing a few things around on my site yesterday and must have accidentally deleted out the word ‘cup’ from the coconut oil measurement by accident – thank you so much for bringing this to my attention I would never have realised! The measurements are:
1/8 cup coconut oil
1/8 cup cacao butter
1/4 tsp vanilla powder
Hope this helps
50 Paleo Dessert Recipes - Paleo Recipes, Gluten-free Recipes and Grain-free Recipes
2nd June 2015 at 3:35 am[…] 27.] Raw Paleo Carrot Cake Squares […]