My friend, Rachel, was one of my main inspirations for learning more about eating raw.
Last year she decided to give up cooked food and go raw for Lent. During the process, I was so impressed by her commitment to try tons of new raw recipes each week, and by the fact that she didn’t “cheat” a single time! More than anything, I was intrigued by how well she said that she felt when eating raw.
But a few days into our raw week, I was already bored and frustrated with smoothies and salads, mostly because I hadn’t made time to research raw recipes. So Rachel graciously sent us an amazing list of her favorites recipes, which was a huge relief and inspiration. She had everything from sprout burgers, to nori rolls, to lasagna and empanadas. But my eyes immediately locked on the words CARROT CAKE. My favorite. :)
Somewhat to my surprise, it was incredible!!! The “cake” was a breeze to make in the food processor, and once I threw in my favorite carrot cake spices and lots of fresh carrots, it tasted just like the real deal! The frosting was a little more of a stretch from the typical cream cheese frosting, but it was still sweet and “creamy” and paired well with the carrot cake. I opted to make mine bite-sized with my favorite mini cheesecake pan, but you could easily turn these into bars or normal-sized cake slices.
Definitely a winner of a raw recipe in my book! Thanks, Rachel!!
Raw Carrot Cake with Cashew Vanilla Frosting
Ingredients
Raw Carrot Cake Ingredients:
- 3 cups shredded carrots (about 1 lb.)
- 8 oz. (about 1 cup) pitted dates
- 1 cup raw walnuts
- 2/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- (optional) 1/2 cup raisins
Raw Cashew Vanilla Frosting Ingredients:
- 2 cups raw cashews, soaked overnight
- 2/3 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/3 cup water (use more or less to achieve desired consistency)
- 1/3 cup honey
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract, store-bought or homemade
- 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
- pinch of salt
Instructions
To Make The Raw Carrot Cake:
- Pulse together all ingredients in a food processor until well-blended. Press mixture into a mini cheesecake pan or mini 4-inch springform pans or an 8-inch springform pan, or just a simple 8-inch baking pan. Top with Raw Cashew Vanilla Frosting just before serving (recipe below).
To Make The Raw Cashew Vanilla Frosting:
- Pulse all ingredients together in a food processor until blended. Add extra water to thin to your desired consistency if needed.
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
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These look wonderful! I’m trying to avoid all added sugar, including honey, maple syrup, agave – do you have any ideas for a substitute for the honey? Maybe banana or more dates? Does the honey act only as a sweetener or also as a binder? Thank you!
do you need to keep them in the fridge? How long will they last? They are delicious!
Hey, Mel! I would keep them in the fridge. They will probably last about five days or so. : )
This is a WONDERFUL idea! I’m obsessed with the spice of carrot cake – I’ll definitely have to give this healthier alternative a try!
Is there anything I can replace the honey with for the frosting?
Thanks!
Blend up dates. They are amazing for a sweetener.
Made these last night and they turned out amazing! So delicious I can’t get over it. Thank you for sharing =)
My raw carrot cakes have been in the fridge for about 5 hours and they don’t look like cake, they r still very moist. What did I do wrong?
This recipe looks scruptious!!! :) But I have one question: what substitute, if any, can you use in place of cashew (I’m allergic) for the frosting? And is it necessary to even have any type of nut in its place? can you exclude it all together or do you have to substitute a nut of some kind? I’d love to make this just need to know what I can do about the cashew problem :)
If you have access to coconut cream, I think you can just blend it with a few other ingredients (like coconut sugar and maybe some spices, I believe) and use that as a topping. I’d imagine if it’s too runny you could use it as a dip if you make little carrot cake balls :)
Love this idea, yours look amazing. Mine, however didn’t work out so well. I wasn’t as well equipped as you are. I think a real food processor would be the key here, as opposed to my magic bullet which isn’t always as magical as I’d hope. I also didn’t want to splurge on dates so I tried to use raisins instead…I don’t think they hold together the mixture as well. I might have put too much liquid into the cake mixture because it is just not holding together as nicely as I hoped. The cashew icing is still delicious though.
I wondered if you ever find raw foods like these, made with lots of nuts, to give you digestion issues? I only soaked the nuts for about 6 hours, but I still feel like my stomach is having trouble processing (although there may be other confounding problems)
Thanks!
how do you store these?
I was raw back in 2006 and have fallen off the wagon, this recipe was the showstopper at our Easter Family Get Together. Absolutely incredible, I made a raw crust and added a bit of citrus to the frosting, absolutely incredible! Thank you, please post more, you’ve inspired me to post more of my raw recipes!