Vegan Carrot Cake, Low Fat
- COOK
25 Mins - PREP
10 Mins - TOTAL
35 Mins
Every Thanksgiving my Mom makes a carrot cake. And before I became vegan I couldn't resist chowing down on it. A true guilty pleasure. Why so guilty of a pleasure? Besides it not being vegan, my mom's cake has 1 & 1/2 cups of canola oil, 2 cups of sugar, 3 eggs. And 2 packages of cream cheese and a stick of butter for the frosting. My low fat veganized version cuts the canola oil down to only 2 tablespoons. Quite a difference in fat. I have also managed to cut some of the sugar and bump up the flavor in the process.
Because of the carrot and pineapple in the cake, this cake stays very moist.
This cake freezes well and can be made in advance.
The calories, fat and other nutritional information provided does not include the icing.
| Nutritional Facts |  |
| Servings 12 | Serving Size 1/12 Of Recipe |
 | | Calories | 313 |
| Fat | 9g |
| Carbohydrates | 56g |
| Protein | 3.4 |
| Fiber | 2.50g |
| Sugar | 30g |
| Sodium | 356mg | | |
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 2 1/2 Cups Cake Flour
- 2 1/2 Tablespoons Unprepared Energ Egg Replacer Powder
- 1/2 Cup ZSweet Sweetener (or Sugar)
- 2 Tablespoons Ground Flax Seeds
- 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 2 1/2 Teaspoons Cinnamon
- 2 Cups Coarsely Grated Carrot
- 3/4 Cup Chopped Pecans
- 1/2 Cup Shredded Sweetened Coconut (Optional)
- 4-oz. Can Crushed Pineapple
Wet Ingredients
- 1 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Apple Sauce
- 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Flavoring
- 2 Tablespoons Canola Oil
- 2/3 Cup Hot Water
Directions
Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare 3 round 8 inch cake pans by spraying them with nonstick cooking spray and lining the bottom with parchment paper. I trace around the cake pans with a pencil and cut about a 1/2 inch away from the pencil mark to make the parchment paper for the bottom.
You can also put this into a regular 13 X 9 rectangular cake pan or make cupcakes instead.
In a large mixing bowl mix together dry ingredients until well incorporated. On top of the dry ingredients add carrot, 1/2 cup of the pecans (save 1/4 Cup to decorate the top), coconut and pineapple. Mix together with the dry ingredients.
In a separate smaller mixing bowl mix together all of the wet ingredients. The hot water should be almost to a boiling point when you add it to the rest of the wet ingredients. Adding it will cool it down some.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a hand mixer quickly. Don't over mix it.
Pour into cake pan(s) and place into oven. Bake 25 minutes.
Let cool completely before putting the cake together. For the icing I recommend my Cream Cheeze Frosting. I used 1 & 1/2 recipes to create the 3 layer cake in the photo. After you've iced the cake, sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of pecans on top of the cake.
