Raw Carrot Cake

Last week saw a belated Mother’s Day celebration at my daughter’s school. To spread the word on healthy eating the school had set up a Cookery Competition for Kindergarten 1 mums, the theme was ‘cooking without fire’. I thought the idea was terrific and wanted to do something more than a salad or sandwich kind of thing. We’ ve all been reading about the raw food movement and how rawtarians are recommending that to get maximum benefits out of food we must not cook it. Cooking is believed to diminish the nutritional value and life force of food. Ofcourse I like to think that everything in moderation is a good idea, so generally strive to include raw foods along with cooked foods into our family diet.

But this was a good time for me to experiment with something that I have been dying to take a shot at for some time now – Raw Carrot Cake. I found a good source at The Raw Chef: Carrot Orange Cake. I adapted the recipe with what ingredients I had on hand, I also used fresh whipped cream to ice the cake. Very very nice cake, its the kind I would like to take a bite into once in a while.

The cake won the 1st prize at the competition. Look at the table for the winning recipes, there’s nothing left of my cake, it had been demolished! sans a cupcake wrapper someone was too polite to remove

Ingredients
4 Carrots, finely grated
1 c Raisins, soaked
¼ c Dried apricots, chopped
½ c Mixed peel
½ c Date purée *
2 c Almond flour
1½ c Desiccated coconut
1 tsp Ginger powder
1 tsp Cinnamon powder
5 cloves

Method
1. Pulse carrots, raisins, date paste & spices in a blender.
2. Drop in the chopped apricots, and mixed peel and pulse a couple of times.
3. Remove the mixture into a large bowl, along with the almond flour and desiccated coconut.
4. Mix well, press into place in a large cake pan, and refrigerate uncovered till it sets.
5. Cut into bite sized squares, frost it with whipped cream or roll them into balls and dust with desiccated coconut.

* Make the date purée by grinding 1c soft dates and 1/2c orange juice in a food processor until smooth.

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