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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