Our Family's Favorite Carrot Cake Veganized!!

Our favorite carrot cake for years has been our modified version of "Sam's Famous Carrot Cake" from allrecipes dot com. I've managed to veganize it by eliminating the eggs and buttermilk, and it is fantastic!! Double the recipe for a layered cake. Next time I'll use oat flour to make the cake gluten-free. This uses a sifter; it may be fine without one. Click HERE for frosting recipe.

9" cake pan lined with parchment paper
Pre-heat oven 350 degrees F

Ingredients in sections this time according to steps of preparation:

In medium bowl, sift together dry ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour (I used white wheat this time)
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp salt

For egg substitute, mix together:
1. 5 T ground flax seed
3 T water

For buttermilk substitute:
5 T soy milk
2 tsp lemon juice
(can sub white or apple cider vinegar)
Stir together and let sit for 5-10 min to curdle






In large bowl, beat together:

the egg and buttermilk substitutes above
6 T light olive oil
3/4 cup of sugar (ideally natural, unbleached sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract


THEN add the dry ingredients from the medium bowl to the large bowl and mix well.









In medium bowl, stir together:

1 cup shredded carrots (about 2), lightly coated with lemon juice
1/2 cup organic shredded coconut*
1/2 cup raisins*soaked in 2 T of warmed orange juice
1/2 cup pecan pieces
4 oz crushed pineapple, drained

✓ Fold the fruit/veggie/nut mixture into batter

*Warm about 2 T of orange juice and soak raisins in it for a few minutes. You can do this at the beginning of the recipe, too, for plumper raisins.

If your coconut is dried out too much, add 1-2 more T of oj and soak the coconut in that, too. Start with the raisins, first, though.

Fruit, veggie, nut mixture.
The colors are beautiful!
The photo doesn't do it justice :(

✓Pour the batter into lined cake pan
✓Bake in pre-heated oven for 35 minutes
✓Check doneness by testing with toothpick poked in center of cake comes out clean
✓Remove from oven (turn oven off *cough*)
✓✓Let it cool completely before removing cake from pan

Line pan with parchment paper
(this helps to remove cake easily)

✓Get a cutie to sing Happy Birthday to you

Banana Bread

Egg-free, gluten-free. This is a family-favorite that is gobbled up very quickly. I usually make two batches. This is the veganized version of my favorite banana bread recipe I've been adjusting and using for 25-30 years. Although this has flax seed, oat flour, and bananas, this is not a "health" food (or whole-food) because of the processed oil and sugar. I would classify this as a dessert or breakfast treat.

(conversions ARE verified by my kitchen scale, Feb ‘20)

Ingredients (I separated the list into groups according to the steps)

2 ripe bananas about 6 inches (15 cm) long

1 cup (207 g) sugar (I actually use about 7/8 of a cup nowadays, ~175g)

1/3 c (77 mL) water

1/3 c (77 mL) light olive oil

1 2/3 cup (250 g) oat flour (sometimes I use whole wheat, but it won't be GF)

1    tsp (4.8 g) baking soda

1/2 tsp (2.4 g) baking powder

1/2 tsp (3 g) salt

1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) vanilla extract (or powder...which I use and love!)

2    tsp (9.5 g) ground cinnamon

1    tsp (4.8 g) ground ginger

dash of ground cloves

2 T (14 g) ground flax seed (you can purchase it already ground up)

3 T (45 mL) water

1 tsp (5 mL) apple cider vinegar

Directions

-pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C)

-oil the bottom of bread pan

In large bowl:

-mash peeled bananas

-add sugar, water, and oil

-mix (hand mixer works best for me, but I used to use a large spoon when I didn't have a mixer)

In medium bowl:

-add the floor, baking soda, baking powder, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, cloves

-stir

In small bowl:

-mix together the ground flax seed and water

-let it sit for about 5 min while you do the next step

-Slowly add the flour mixture into the large bowl. Beat on low setting until all flour has been added

-Mix in the gelatinous flax and beat on medium to high until smooth

-Add in the apple cider vinegar and beat on high

-pour batter into bread pan

-bake on center rack for 1 hour

-remove and set on cooling rack for maybe 15 min

-loosen sides of bread from pan and remove bread from pan, set bread on cooling rack

-allow bread to cool about 45 min to an hour or longer, cutting into it too soon before it has had a chance to set may cause the center to collapse (still yummy, just a little gooey like a banana brownie)

Mash bananas, add sugar, water, oil.
Mix well.

Flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt,
cinnamon, ginger, cloves, vanilla powder

Slowly mix the flour mixture into
banana mixture

Egg replacers:
-Use 1 T ground flaxseed + 1.5 T water per egg,
(2 "eggs" for this recipe),
it will form a gelatinous consistency
-Adding 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar to batter with
1 tsp baking soda is also beneficial to the texture

Cool on rack

Continue cooling after removing from bread pan

This is a recipe for banana muffins my
daughter made. Also very good.

"Kitchen Snippets"
My grandfather's lunchbox and my grandmother's gravy bowl.
I grew up seeing that gravy bowl during all holiday dinners at
my grandparents' home. I selected it to keep after she died.
It broke. I glued it back together and now use it as decor.

Something else I didn't know:
In nature, hens lay 10-15 eggs per year and mate naturally. To meet consumer demand, the egg industry has artificially bred hens to lay 200-300 eggs per year, which is very taxing on a hen's body and can result in painful complications. The industry has tricks to manipulate more egg production which includes intermittent starvation. Commercial egg production packs their hens into rows of tiny crates with other hens, cutting off the tips of their beaks to prevent pecking and eating their own eggs. "Organic" and "free-range" are marketing terms and don't mean the conditions for the hens are much better than the caged. Male chicks are of no-use to the egg industry and will either be ground-up alive or dumped into a plastic bag to suffocate.
The good news: We don't need eggs to survive. On the contrary, regular egg consumption is not good for us. The government-subsidized egg and dairy industries were sued and it is illegal for them to advertise that they are healthy or nutritious (nutrient-dense, yes, but not nutritious). Just like the tobacco industry lying to generations before about the benefits of smoking, the egg and dairy industry have also lied while using biased, industry-funded "studies" trying to show health-benefits so they can make money.

I used to cook eggs for my kids every single morning. Omelets, homemade eggnog, quiche, crepes: these were a regular part of our diet. Knowing what I know now, I am whole-heartedly happy to give those things up.