Baby Carrot Beet Cake with Cashew frosting – vegan

First birthday cakes are my favorites: I love finding a recipe that works both for the baby and for the rest of the family&friends.

As we are officially in spring, I think you will appreciate this lovely carrot & orange beet cake with cashews frosting. It’s super delicious! I would definitely suggest it for any birthday, at any age 😉

The cake is vegan, aka no dairy + no eggs. In addition to that is refined sugar free, I only used the natural sweetness of dried fruit and apple syrup (recently I’ve been using and loving the Dolcedi’ apple sweetener by Rigoni Di Asiago).

I recently fell in love with orange beets, I put them everywhere…and I added one to the cake mix too 🙂 I’m happy I did it because it very well balances the sweetness of the carrots.

The cake is super moist, you will be surprised. The reason behind are the almonds: they give moist and a lovely nutty touch.

The frosting itself should have a separate post 😉

I prepared a vegan cashews frosting. super simple and super creamy. it turned out so good that I spread the leftovers on some toast for breakfast, hi hi!

The overall combination (cake + frosting) is delicious.

As I was thinking about a 1st baby party, I simply prepared the cake in a rectangular shaped baking pan. I cut out a big square that I used to create a mini cake for the party boy/girl and I transformed the remaining cake in lovely cake bites for the guests 😉

Did I mention that the cake is super simple to prepare????

When you are organizing a 1st birthday (or any other birthday) party, the last thing you want to do is to spend one day preparing/decorating the cake 😉

Happy Birthday everyone!!!!

Baby Carrot Beet Cake with Cashew frosting – vegan
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 260gr.
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
  • 3/4 cup apple sweetener or maple syrup 170ml
  • ½ cup homemade unsweetened applesauce 130gr
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 cup finely grated carrots 2 medium
  • 1/2 cup yellow beet 1 small
  • 1/2 cup almonds 90gr.
  • 1/2 cup dried apricots 100gr.
Frosting Ingredients:
  • cups cashews 140gr.
  • cup coconut milk 50ml
  • ¼ cup apple sweetener or maple syrup 70ml
  • 4 tbsp coconut oil 40ml
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Decoration:
  • one carrot
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F/175C
  2. Grease a 9" x 12" cake pan with coconut oil and set aside.
  3. Peel the beet and the carrots, grate finely and set aside.
  4. Soak the cashews in warm water overnight or (if you do not have time) boil some water and soak them in hot water for half an hour.
  5. Place the almonds in a food processor, blend for 1 minute. Add the dried apricots, blend for 1 minute. Set apart.
  6. Prepare the frosting: add all ingredients in a powerful blender and process 5 minutes, you will obtain a thick cream. Place in the refrigerator to thicken even more.
  7. Prepare the cake: in a large bowl add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and mix.
  8. Add the apple sweetener, the applesauce, and lemon juice, combine.
  9. Add in the grated beet and carrots, than the almond/apricot mix, combine well.
  10. Transfer the batter in the cake pan. Level the top using a spatula to even out the surface.
  11. Bake in a preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes until the top becomes golden and a skewer inserted down the center comes out dry. Remove from oven and let it cool down completely.
  12. Once the cake has completely cooled, cut out a square, as big as you want your baby cake to be.
  13. With a knife cut out a round shape.
  14. Remove the frosting from the refrigerator, place the baby cake on the baby cake stand and start frosting the cake with the help of a knife.
  15. For the decoration: peel a carrot. Cut out a cylinder. Make a V cut. Cut out the sides of the heart. Cut out the sharp angles to give your heart a more soft shape. Slice as many hearts as you need.
  16. Decorate the baby cake and leave some hearts for the adult cake.
  17. Spread the remaining frosting on top of the adult cake
  18. Decorate with the carrot hearts and some grated carrots. Cut the cake in small bite portions. I like to serve the adult cake in the baking pan like in the picture 😉
  19. Enjoy and have fun at the party!!!

6 Comments

Did you make this recipe? Share the love, tag @buonapappa on Instagram and hashtag it #buonapappa I would love to see your creations!

  • Reply
    Jemayma
    April 4, 2017 at 11:57 am

    Hello. Just wondering if the whole wheat flour same as All purpose flour or? I just found your page,and your recipes sounds all healthy for kids,so im thinking i will give a go soon.

    • User Avatar
      Reply
      Barbara Lamperti
      April 7, 2017 at 10:05 pm

      Hi! welcome to BuonaPappa!!! I’m so glad you like my recipes 😉
      whole wheat flour and All Purpose flour are different. Whole wheat flour is darker in color (so the cakes will come out brownish and never pale yellow), has a more earthy and deep flavor, a higher protein content (14% vs 11%) and is more absorbent than all-purpose flour.
      If we want to be more specific, whole wheat flour is made by milling the entire wheat berry, not just the endosperm. I hope I was helpful!!
      ciao! b

  • Reply
    Anita
    April 17, 2017 at 12:40 pm

    Dear Barbara,

    this Easter I tried some Baby Carrot Beet Cakepops using your recipe. I simply crumbled the finished cake and mashed it with some cream cheese. Then I formed some egg shaped balls and rolled them in different toppings like shredded coconut, chopped nuts or candy pearls. It was so delicious and my two-year old loved it! I’d like to send you a photo of the treat. Thanx for steadily coming up with recipes like this one.

    bw Anita

    • User Avatar
      Reply
      Barbara Lamperti
      April 17, 2017 at 9:20 pm

      Awww, that’s a brilliant idea!! I love the Easter Egg Cakepops!! and I’m so happy your kid loved them 😉 looking forward to receive the picture!! or you can post it on Instagram or FB and simply tag me @buonapappa.
      Ciao!! b

  • Reply
    tasty treats
    May 7, 2017 at 3:03 am

    Do you mind if I quote a couple of your articles as long as I
    provide credit and sources back to your site?
    My blog site is in the exact same area of interest as yours and my visitors would definitely benefit
    from a lot of the information you provide here. Please let me know
    if this ok with you. Many thanks!

    • User Avatar
      Reply
      Barbara Lamperti
      May 8, 2017 at 11:40 pm

      Hi! sure, you are welcome to share with your audience. Thanks, b

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