Plantain Carrot Cake

It was my husband’s birthday this week, and he loves carrot cake. I’ve always used Dr Joel Fuhrman’s nutritarian carrot cake recipe in the past, but this time around I decided to try my hand at a plantain cake? Why? Because I had 2 beautiful plantains ripe and ready to go… and my daughter had used up all the flour, making pretzels!

The texture of a plantain cake is quite different to regular cake – more like a firm pudding. Neither my husband nor I like overly sweet foods, and this cake had just the right amount of sweetness for us. If your plantains are not particularly ripe, or if you have a sweeter tooth, you may need to add a small amount of sweetener to the recipe, such as 1/4 cup of date sugar*.

Ingredients:

Cake

4 tbsp ground flaxseed/linseed
240 ml water
2 large, ripe plantains (mine weighed 420 g after peeling)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce**
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1 cup finely grated carrot

Icing

50 g pitted dates
50 g raw cashews
1/2 cup plant milk yoghurt^
100 g firm tofu
Juice of 1 lemon

 

Method:

Cake

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 20 cm cake tin with baking paper, or use a silicon cake pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk linseed with water and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken.

Blend all ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender until smooth.

Stir in grated carrot.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until firm and lightly browned. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before removing from pan.

Icing

Blend all ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender until smooth and creamy. Spread on top of cooled cake, allowing some to drip down the sides.

 

* I buy date sugar from iHerb; you can use the coupon code UTE208 to receive a discount on your first order.

** iHerb also sells unsweetened applesauce. I make my own by whizzing unpeeled apples in my Thermomix with a small amount of water, cooking for 15 minutes at 100°C on speed 1, then blending again until smooth. Unsweetened apple purée (sold in the kids’ lunchbox snack section of the supermarket) or baby food apple purée can also be used.

^ I make soy yoghurt using Bonsoy and non-dairy yoghurt culture

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