Saturday, September 24, 2011

A-Mazing Carrot Cake with Coconut Cream Frosting


Last week I was tasked with making dessert when some relatives came for dinner. Hmmm...I've made so many batches of peanut butter cookies and a ton of pies in the last few months that I really wanted to make something new. After a bit of hunting online and a lot of pondering, I decided to try making a carrot cake. And what's a carrot cake without frosting, you ask....well, at least that's what I asked. HA! In the "good ol' days" (i.e. when I could have dairy and soy), I usually topped my carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. That was definitely out. So a bit more searching, and I found an alternative - coconut cream frosting. Yum!

The cake and frosting turned out great, and I would definitely make both again. The cake was very moist, and the frosting has a really nice whipped cream type consistency. Not exactly diet food, but we're taking dessert here, so whatever. HA!
I will caution you on the frosting though - you must chill the cake and keep it in the fridge, or the frosting will melt.
OK. Enough talking, here's the recipe. Let me know what you think!

Carrot Cake
Adapted from Ashley Skabar's About.com recipe
  • 2 cups white flour
  • 1 ½ t. baking powder
  • 1 t. baking soda
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • ½ t. salt
  • 1 t. cinnamon
  • ½ t. ground ginger
  • 2 cups grated carrots
  • ½ cup canola oil
  • ¼ cup applesauce
  • 3 large egg whites
  • 1/4 cup plain rice milk (plain)
  • 1 T. apple cider vinegar
  • 1 t. vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly oil and flour a 9” Springform Pan, tapping out the excess flour.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon, ground ginger and salt.

3. In another bowl, combine canola oil, applesauce, egg whites, rice milk, vinegar and vanilla until well combined. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and stir in the carrots until evenly incorporated.

4. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake, until a tooth inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool completely, and frost with coconut cream frosting (recipe follows).


Coconut Cream Frosting
Adapted from CassidyS' recipe

  • 2 cups coconut milk, refrigerated at least 24 hours** (note that I used the Thai Kitchen brand that CassidyS recommended, and only chilled for about 2 hrs - worked great)
  • 1/2 cup soy/dairy free margarine
  • 1 Tbs vanilla
  • 1/2 - 1 cup powdered sugar, to taste
  • 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

Beat butter on high until smooth. Scoop out the coagulated cream from the coconut milk and beat with the butter until smooth (the longer you refrigerate the coconut milk the thicker your icing will be). Add in the vanilla, powdered sugar, and lemon juice.

Wait to ice the cake until the cake has cooled completely, to avoid melting your frosting, and keep the cake refrigerated. Best to serve the cake after refrigerating for at least and hour, to ensure the frosting has set up.

** Imperial Dragon brand coconut milk from Wal-Mart is not recommended, as it can be hard to get it to separate. The Thai Kitchen brand works great and requires only a few hours of refrigeration.

Finally, if coconut isn't your thing, you could try this dairy-free buttercream frosting recipe - although I haven't tried it yet, so I can't vouch for it. If you try it, I'd love to hear what you think!

13 comments:

  1. Hi Amy,
    Thanks for sharing the recipes! My two month old is also dairy and soy intolerant, so this helps. My friend and I started a blog as well, hope you will check it out http://dairysoyfreebaby.blogspot.com/
    Hope your baby is doing great!!
    Sherry

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi! I'm also a diary-free soy-free mama. I'm looking forward to more posts from you. I'd also like to share my own some time.
    Thanks for making this public.
    - L

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Amy - I just stumbled upon your blog while looking for a dairy/soy free homemade bread recipe. I've already found a few great ideas in about 45 seconds of poking around - thank you! I wanted to ask you though, what products do you recommend for d/s free margarine/butter and for d/s free cheese? Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I found this on Pinterest! My niece is allergic to dairy and soy among other things and it gets pretty discouraging for her when she has to bring her own food to family functions. I'll be checking out your other recipes too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Made this and it is delicious!!!! I almost wish I hadnt made it because now Im eating a piece everyday. Tastes just as good as if it had dairy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fabulous Cake! I have a 2 week old with reflux too. What a great way to spoil yourself when you can't have ice cream and Chocolate. I used coconut butter in the frosting, it was the only non-dairy and soy free spread I could find. Turned out perfect! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Just found your blog and I love it! I hope you continue to post!
    Ive recently discovered that I am severely allergic to all forms of soy. It has been very difficult to become soy free as it is in almost everything! I'm trying to become more knowledgeable on how to cook and eat soy free so that I can feel better and all my horrible allergic reactions stop.
    Your blog has some great recipes and tips that are already helping me! Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's Amazing cake. It's consist of carrot and coconut that's exciting. It some different from other cake and I think, it's very challenging to make. The dessert look like very nice, and the icing has a really awesome pulled lotion kind excellence. It's a great own food for family functions. I really like your blog. Excellent job, Keep it up to sharing another article. Company Information

    ReplyDelete
  9. thanks for your blog. just found it due to 11 year old daughter apparently sprouting food allergies over night. :( i appreciate your information so much. she was so excited to see your recipes and pictures on here.

    ReplyDelete
  10. thank you so much for this blog my husband is soy and dairy intolerant and its so very hard to find food for him, this site is going to fabulous help.

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's Amazing cake. It's consist of carrot and coconut that's exciting. It some different from other cake and I think, it's very challenging to make.
    Non Dairy Creamer

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great article, thanks for sharing this information with us Cake with coconut cream

    ReplyDelete