RMO Carrot Cake Recipe
Resident Doctors’ Day One-Bowl Plant-Based Carrot Cake
A slice of carrot cake is one of life’s simple pleasures and always a crowd pleaser in the workplace. This recipe has been designed specifically with Resident Doctors in mind, a one-bowl wonder cake that’s easy to whip up the evening before a shift, ready to share with your hospital or community teams in celebration of Resident Doctors. It’s also plant-based/vegan (i.e. no $10 blocks of butter needed!), so more people can enjoy a slice. The cake is topped with a plant-based maple-orange cream cheese icing and luscious salted caramel – while the salted caramel takes this cake to the next level (and is very easy to make), feel free to leave this out if you’re short on time or energy.
This delicious recipe was created specially for the day—huge thanks to our fellow RMO and baker, Alby Hailes! Check out his website here.
Ingredients
Carrot cake
- 100g caster sugar
- 100g soft brown sugar
- finely grated zest of 1 orange
- 1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
- 225g plain flour
- 1 ½ tsp ground ginger
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 225ml non-dairy milk (e.g. soy, oat or almond)
- freshly squeezed juice of 1 orange (approx. 60ml)
- 75ml canola oil
- 200g grated carrot (from about 1-2 medium-large carrots)
Salted caramel
- 150g caster sugar
- 50ml water
- 80ml coconut cream
- 40g vegan butter or spread (e.g. Nuttelex)
- ½ tsp sea salt
Maple-orange cream cheese icing
- 240g vegan cream cheese (I prefer Angel Food dairy-free cream cheese)
- 80ml maple syrup
- finely grated zest of 1 orange
To decorate
- chopped roasted pecans or walnuts (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan-forced (or 180°C conventional). Grease with oil and line a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper.
To make the cake, to a large bowl add the caster sugar, brown sugar, orange zest and grated fresh ginger. Using your fingers, rub the orange zest and ginger into the sugar until deeply fragrant. Add the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk together to evenly combine. Pour in the milk, orange juice and oil. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry to form a smooth batter. Add the grated carrot and fold through evenly. Spoon the cake batter evenly into the lined cake tin. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, before removing from the tin and placing upright on a wire rack to cool completely.
As the cake bakes, make the salted caramel (if using). Place the caster sugar and water in a medium heavy-based saucepan. Swirl the pan so the water evenly coats the sugar. Place over medium-low heat, melt the sugar into the water until fully dissolved, then increase the heat to medium-high. Do NOT stir beyond this point. Bring to the boil and cook until a deep amber colour is reached, about 5-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and while stirring, carefully pour in the coconut cream (stand back as it will bubble like a cauldron). Return over a low heat and stir until smooth. Add the vegan butter and sea salt, stirring until the butter has melted into the caramel. Remove from the heat and using an electric hand mixer, beat the caramel on high speed for 3 minutes – this helps the caramel to cool quicker and make it incredibly smooth. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate to fully cool and thicken (to speed this up, you can place in the freezer). You want the caramel to be thick enough that it holds its shape on the cake, but can still be easily drizzled.
For the icing, place the cream cheese in a medium bowl and using an electric hand mixer, beat on high speed until smooth and whipped. Add the maple syrup and orange zest. Beat for a further minute until evenly mixed through the cream cheese.
To assemble, once the cake is fully cooled, place on a serving plate and spoon the icing on top. Using a cranked palette knife or the back of a spoon, spread the icing evenly over the top of the cake. Drizzle with the salted caramel (you will have a reasonable amount left over), then finish with a scattering of chopped roasted pecans/walnuts, or any other decoration you wish (eg flowers).
Recipe Notes
If you only have a 20cm round cake tin, no worries! This recipe can also be baked in a 20cm cake tin, the bake time will be about 5-10 minutes longer (eg 45-50 minutes). As always, test with a skewer, and if it comes out clean, it’s ready.
Feel free to swap out the spices for others you have on hand – e.g. cardamom, mixed spice, allspice, nutmeg will all go nicely with this cake.
If your cake doesn’t need to be vegan, feel free to use regular cream cheese in the icing.
You can also fold through some chopped roasted pecans or walnuts through the cake batter if desired – approx. 80g folded through with the grated carrot would do nicely.
Recipe by Alby Hailes.
