Meera Sodha’s vegan spicy carrot cake with cream cheese icing

From theguardian.com

This rich, tangy Scandinavian cake is so delicious that it made my ritual workplace birthday humiliation worth the pain

The circle of death was a peculiar ritual when I worked at Innocent drinks: on your birthday, the entire company of about 200 people would secretly descend on you with a cake and sing you happy birthday. I, and many others, always hoped for Brontë’s spiced carrot cake frosted with cream cheese (she later moved on to set up Scandinavian Kitchen in London), because it took the edge off the ordeal.

‘Circle of death’ carrot cake

You’ll need a 23cm springform cake tin.

Prep 5 min
Cook 1 hr, plus cooling
Serves 10-12

For the cake
2 tbsp milled flaxseed
120ml sunflower oil
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp oat milk
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 large carrots, grated (200g net)
200g caster sugar
½ tsp fine sea salt
250g plain flour
1¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
50g pine nuts or walnuts, chopped

For the frosting
300g vegan cream cheese
2 limes, zested, and juiced to get 2½ tbsp juice
90g icing sugar

Meera Sodha’s ‘circle of death’ carrot cake, by way of Brontë Aurell, now of the Scandinavian Kitchen in London. Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Jay. Food styling assistant: Maria Gurevich


​Heat the oven to ​200C (180​C fan)/390F/gas 6 and line a 23cm springform cake tin with greaseproof paper.

In a large bowl​,​ stir the flaxseeds ​i​nto four tablespoons (60ml) of warm water, and set aside for ​f​ive minutes​.​ Add the oil, vinegar, oat milk, vanilla paste, carrots, sugar and salt​, mix really well ​to combine, then put to one side.

In another large bowl​, ​w​hisk the flour, baking powder, bicarb, spices and nuts. Add the wet ingredients to the dry,​ and mix ​really well ​– don’t be alarmed ​b​y how​ dry or stiff the batter is.

Spoon ​the mixture evenly into the baking tin, ​then shuffl​e​ the tin about to even everything out.​ Bake for 35 minutes​, or until a skewer comes out clean​,​ then leave the cake to cool before removing from the tin.

​Just before serving, ​and when the cake is completely cool, make the frosting. ​P​ut the cream​ cheese, lime juice, half the zest and ​the icing sugar ​i​n a bowl and mix ​w​ith a fork until nice and whippy.​ Spread ​this all over the top of the cake​,​ then sprinkle over the remaining lime zest, slice and serve.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/sep/09/spicy-vegan-carrot-cake-cream-cheese-icing-meera-sodha