Carrot Cake

Having an electric oven for a few days has meant that I can bake away merrily at more or less regulated temperatures with no fear of the fuel running out - well, global warming and all that acknowledged.

One of the first things I made in the UK was this carrot cake, to use up some of the wonderful carrots from France and also because I had a jar of expensive Japanese rice malt syrup that needed finishing up pronto.

This recipe is based on one in the Encyclopedia of Vegetarian Living by Peter Cox (isbn 0747518068). This is a really great book for the beginner vegan, full of interesting recipes and ways of getting your nutrients from vegetable sources. The book was first published in 1994 and could do with some updating as the health information is good but there has been a lot of research done since then. Now out of print it's still worth buying if you can find a copy.

400g wholewheat flour
100g desiccated coconut
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
500g carrots, grated. (the worst bit in my opinion!)
100g light flavoured vegetable oil
150ml hot water
400g barley malt syrup (or use whatever malted syrup you have. I had 200g malted rice syrup and made up the rest with Tate and Lyle's golden syrup but all malt is nicer)
100g currants
Zest and juice of one lemon.

Preheat oven to 180C. Oil a tin, either 23cm diameter or anything up to 23x33cm rectangle.

Measure and mix the dry ingredients into one bowl.

Blend the oil, syrup and hot water (use the hot water to rinse out the jar!) together in another bowl, then add the carrots, currants, lemon zest and juice and stir well.

Tip the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir to combine. Spoon (or pour) the batter into the cake tin.

Bake for 35 - 40 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack to finish cooling.

I didn't make a fancy icing for this, just a little icing sugar with enough orange juice and zest to make it spreadable applied thinly and then dusted with more coconut and hundreds and thousands but if you want to make a huge production with soy cream cheese, lemons and icing sugar don't let me stop you.