I keep getting carrots in my weekly organic produce box and even we like carrots here at Casa Yogamum, we just can’t seem to eat two pounds of carrots a week. So on Saturday, faced with even more carrots, I leafed through some of my cookbooks to find a carrot cake recipe. I ended up making this one, which is from Vegan With A Vengeance, and I was so thrilled that I happened to have all of the ingredients on hand (well, except macadamia nuts but that was easily rectified). I love this cake — it’s light and spicy and the coconut frosting gives it an unexpected zing, although a traditional cream cheese frosting would be lovely as well.

I still have a pound of carrots left. Looks like carrot soup tonight!

Ginger-Macadamia-Coconut-Carrot Cake

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground or freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped (I used walnuts)
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, chopped
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 cups carrots, grated

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease two 8-inch round springform cake pans, or one 9×13″ baking pan. (I actually made two 8×8 square cakes, one of which I gave away).

In a medium mixing bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground spices.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the pineapple juice, oil, sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and combine well with a hand mixer or strong fork. Fold in the macadamias, ginger, coconut, and carrots.

Divide the batter evenly between the two round pans, or spread in the rectangular pan, and bake for 40-45 minutes. Let it cool in the pans. Once it is cool, remove from the pans and put coconut icing (recipe below) between the layers and more icing on top. If you’ve used a rectangular pan, you can cut the cake in half to form the two layers, or leave it as one layer.

Coconut Icing:
1/4 cup margarine at room temperature (I used regular butter since I’m not vegan)
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Cream the margarine until light and fluffy. Add the coconut milk and vanilla and combine. Add the confectioners sugar and mix until smooth — a hand held mixer is recommended for this! Add the coconut, mix to combine, and refrigerate until ready to use.