Amazingly delicious Rustic Carrot Cake with a beautiful moist texture and flavorful cinnamon spice! Perfectly sweetened with medjool dates and filled with plump raisins and chopped walnuts making the most wonderful Whole Food Plant Based carrot cake.  Healthy, vegan, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, and no highly processed ingredients.

Hi!  Ameera here!

If you love carrot cake, then you will LOVE this healthy version. It is lightly sweetened with delicious medjool dates and contains no sugar. I was in heaven eating this yummy carrot cake. I actually had to have my mom take it away from me, or I would have eaten the whole thing.  Let’s just say, this cake didn’t last long… It was gone before anyone knew it.

And you know what? It has just the perfect amount of sweetness, you won’t miss any frosting on this beautifully spiced carrot cake. It boasts a beautiful rustic orange color that will surely look gorgeous on any tablescape.

Did someone say tablescapes? 🙂

Speaking of tablescapes… I can’t get enough! I really enjoy looking at a beautifully decorated table. I love to get home décor magazines just to oogle their tablescapes LOL.  I can’t help it, I get it honest.  Mom has always had a thing for beautiful plates, cups, dishes, cake stands, and serveware.  Now, don’t get me wrong, we don’t own tons of beautiful dishes by any means.  We have some great pieces, but we are primarily “window shoppers.”  But we do love a good bargain, We are always on the lookout for a great deal.  Well, who doesn’t love a bargin, right? 😉

I remember as a small child tagging along with Mom on Saturday mornings visiting various décor stores around town (and out of town.)  What I loved most is that she always asked my opinion on everything.

“Monkey, isn’t this dining room table absolutely gorgeous; look at these amazing plates!  The chargers are to die for! Aren’t these napkin holders divine?  The flowers and greenery are utter perfection!  What is your favorite item on this table?”

I loved going window shopping with her simply because I loved spending time with my mom.  Her passion and enthusiasm for dinnerware and tablescapes was contagious.  The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!  We would spend hours marveling over the peoples’ creativity.

Craft Fair Fun!

Mom also loves a good craft fair.  She loves beautifully handcrafted décor.  When we were small, she would take my brother and me to tons of craft fairs.  She especially loved Christmas crafts. My brother and I would get to select a handcrafted snowman for a Christmas decoration every year.  Then at Christmas time, she would decorate our bedrooms with all the snowmen that we had collected over the years.  I always felt special to have a bedroom filled with a display of small handcrafted snowmen.

Today, I can’t pass a display of snowmen (handcrafted or otherwise) at a store without stopping to look at them.  Snowmen, by definition say, “Christmas at home” to me.  I am sure my brother feels the same.  He loves snowmen too.  It’s the little things, dontcha know?

Dream Goals!

I also love to surf Pinterest for tablescapes and decorating tips. I marvel at the designers’ ingenuity.  I am also an organizational freak.  I love to have everything neat, clean and organized.  One of my favorite designers is Abby from Just a Girl and Her Blog.  I just love her style.  It is very clean, light, airy, and beautiful.  She has excellent taste, and she also has amazing organization ideas that keeps me coming back to her site over and over again.

Michael and I are saving every dime we have for a home down payment.  Hopefully, we will get there soon and I can start creating my own beautiful tablescapes and start organizing my own home.  I literally can’t wait! I am beyond excited and dream of beautiful ‘dancing’ tablescapes in my head.  In the meantime, we will continue to live with my parents while we wait for our forever home.  <3

This post contains affiliate links, and I may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.

Robin here! 

This cake is rustic, but it can be dressed up beautifully.  I love how Monkey put this rustic cake on a beautiful antique cake stand.  The pure white simplicity of the stand perfectly accented the rustic nature of the cake.

As Monkey mentioned, I dragged her to a lot of décor stores when she was little, and now she drags me to them.  When we were converting our walk-out basement into a living space for her and Michael, we must have visited 50 stores in her quest to find the perfect décor pieces.  Their space turned out to be a perfect blend of her and Michael.  It is adorable and cozy.

With some patience and frugality, they can find their forever home in the future.

Products used:

• Food processor
• 10 inch cake pan with rippled bottom or 10 inch cake pan with flat bottom

Rustic Carrot Cake

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• Author: Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 50 minutes
• Yield: 6-8 Servings 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Cuisine: American

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Description

Amazingly delicious Rustic Carrot Cake with a beautiful moist texture and flavorful cinnamon spice! Perfectly sweetened with medjool dates and filled with plump raisins and chopped walnuts making the most wonderful Whole Food Plant Based carrot cake.  Healthy, vegan, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, and no highly processed ingredients.

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Ingredients

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• 1 cup oat flour
• 1 cup rolled oats (coarsely chopped)
• ¼ cup almond flour, lightly pack
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup unsweetened plain plant milk 
• 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup carrots, grated
• ½ cup raisins
• ¾ cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 12 medjool dates

Maple “Powdered” Sugar (optional)

• 1 Tablespoon maple sugar
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Line a 10 inch cake pan with parchment paper.
3. Place 12 medjool dates in a small bowl, then cover with boiling water. Allow to sit for 10 – 15 minutes to soften.
4. Add one Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to 1 cup of plant milk, stir and set aside for 5 minutes.
5. Place rolled oats into a food processor and pulse for 10 to 20 seconds to coarsely chop. The oats should be coarsely chopped but not turned into flour. Remove from the food processor and place in a large bowl as indicated in Step 6 below.
6. In a large bowl, add the oat flour, coarsely chopped rolled oats, almond flour, sea salt, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir the dry ingredients well to combine.
7. Next drain the liquid from the medjool dates and smash open each one with your fingers as you drop it into a food processor. This is to ensure there are no pits in the medjool dates.  Pulse the medjool dates for 30 seconds or until they are very finely minced.
8. Mix the almond milk, vanilla, and dry ingredients together by hand. Add the minced medjool dates, grated carrot, chopped walnuts and raisins.  Mix well by hand.
9. Dump the cake mixture into the parchment lined cake pan a little bit at a time. The batter is thick, so carefully smooth the batter to the edges. Heat a dinner spoon under hot water and use the back of the spoon to gently push the cake batter evenly across the pan, trying not to move the parchment paper lining the bottom of the cake pan.  Spread it out as evenly as you can.
10. Place the cake pan on the center rack in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. Check about half way through.  If the cake is becoming too dark on top.  Take a piece of foil and just gently lay it over top.
11. After 30 minutes, remove from the oven. Check with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean, not gooey, (crumbs are OK).
12. Place the hot cake onto a cooling rack and cool for 15 minutes.
13. To serve run a thin knife along the entire perimeter of the cake to loosen the edges. Place a circular cooling rack over top of the cake, invert the cake, remove the parchment paper, then invert once again so the cake is now upright. Allow to completely cool.
14. Once the cake is completely cooled. If topping the carrot cake with the maple “powdered” sugar; make by combining 1 Tablespoon of maple sugar (dehydrated) with 1 Tablespoon of organic cornstarch into a high-speed blender like a Ninja. Pulse on high for 30 to 45 seconds until the mixture is very light and has a powder-like consistency.  Sprinkle through a fine mesh sieve over top of the cake.

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Storage:  Cover.  Eat within one week.

This post contains affiliate links, and I may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.