This Sourdough Discard Carrot Cake is everything a Carrot Cake should be: large, spicy, fluffy and caramelly-sweet, with a thick, creamy Passionfruit frosting. You would never guess that it was secretly healthy! Refined sugar-free, dairy-free, egg-free and long-fermented, this is a cake of wonders!
The most innovative way to use up sourdough discard
My favourite thing ever is to use up my sourdough discard in recipes so that no one can detect it. The most pleasurable ways to do this, I have found, is Sourdough Discard Cakes.
You could make any flavour of cake under the sun using sourdough discard. So far I have made a Chocolate Cake, Coffee Cake, and this lovely Carrot Cake. And my journey is not over, friends. I am so excited to go on lots of flavoursome journeys with my dear Sourdough.
The best thing about using sourdough in cake, is that it transforms that decadent, calorie laden food into something that is actually good for you to eat. When you use sourdough discard, you can then ferment the flour portion of the cake overnight, which improves the overall digestion of the cake.
And, if you swap out regular sugar for an unrefined alternative, you have a healthy dessert that will do you good, not harm.
How cool is that?
Is Carrot Cake Vegan?
Carrot Cake is not traditionally vegan. Though it is well-known for being an oil-based cake, a conventional carrot cake uses eggs in the batter, making it a non-vegan cake.
However, because it is already using oil (instead of butter) as the fat source, it is not a massive leap to make this cake vegan.
Simply sub out the eggs for vinegar, baking powder, soda and sourdough discard, and you will have a delicious, plant-based cake that everyone (not just your vegan friends) will enjoy.
This is my go-to dessert recipe now that we are going through an egg shortage!
Is Carrot Cake Healthy?
I’m sad to say that conventional carrot cake is not healthy. Which is so unfair, because “Carrot Cake” sounds healthy, right? The name does not conjure up images of what this cake actually is: a warming, aromatic, rich cake.
The carrot is definitely not noticeable in this lovely dessert, and you would never guess that a vegetable is lurking in those sweet layers.
Between the lashings of oil, sugar, white flour and eggs, the nutrients in the carrot are sadly negated. Carrot Cake is not a dessert to be enjoyed as part of your five plus!
This version of carrot cake, however, could be enjoyed on a more frequent basis, without any detriment to your waistline. I love having dessert every night, and I just couldn’t do it if that dessert was not healthy.
So I have conjured up a healthy version of the luscious carrot cake. By fermenting the white flour, and replacing the sugar with the nutrient-dense dates (more on how to use dates in baking in this article), this cake is easier on your digestion and blood sugar.
And I must say, I adore it!! And I hope you will, too.
Why is my cake too dense after baking?
I have made this cake a number of times, and have discovered that the key to a carrot cake that is fluffy and not too dense is to ensure that it has the correct ratio of wet to dry ingredients and that it has sufficient leavening.
Therefore, make sure the batter is not too wet, and that it has enough baking powder, and you will get a lovely, fluffy carrot cake.
That is why baking cakes is more of a science than an art, and I have fine-tuned this recipe to get the ratios just right!
5 Top Tips for baking a Sourdough Discard Carrot Cake
- Grate the carrot using the finest side of your grater. This will prevent any large pieces of carrot in the baked cake….because who wants to come across a vegetable – in a dessert (not your kids, that’s for sure)? We want to be artful!
- You can have your cake the same day, if you start the fermentation process early enough. Combine the flour, oil, starter and salt early in the morning, and leave for a minimum of seven hours. You can then add the remaining ingredients and bake.
- Do not over-mix the batter, as this can cause the cake to deflate while cooking. This is quite a heavy mixture, but take care to use careful strokes.
- I have over-done the baking powder and baking soda before, and have learned to always measure it out. A teaspoon of baking soda really is enough, believe me! Otherwise you will wind up with a nasty taste in the final cake.
- This is a large cake, and takes a long time to cook at a lower temperature (160 degrees Celsius for 75 minutes). The skewer test does not always work – as it can come out clean when it still needs a bit more cooking time. Touch the top of the cake with your finger, and if it bounces back, then it should be ready. This cake takes a bit longer and for that reason it is easy to under-bake.
How to Make a Creamy Vegan Frosting – the best trick for a thick buttercream-like icing:
This amazing Vegan Frosting has a base of just two ingredients: Desiccated coconut and Coconut Cream.
With these two plant-based ingredients, the vegan frosting options are endless. Add Cocoa and sweetener for a chocolate frosting (see this Chocolate Sourdough Discard Cake for what that frosting looks like). Or, add lemon zest and sweetener for a classic cream-cheese style frosting.
For this carrot cake’s frosting, I added passionfruit pulp which was thoroughly delicious. It complemented the spiciness of the cake perfectly. I have also made it with caramelised apples and that was equally sublime.
The way to make this frosting is simple: blend the desiccated coconut until it releases it’s oils and forms a runny, peanut-butter-like consistency. Whisk into the coconut cream. Add whatever flavouring you desire, and beat till smooth.
This frosting sets firm in the fridge, like a buttercream.
How to Store Sourdough Discard Carrot Cake:
Because it is made from oil and has no eggs, this cake will store well in the fridge for about a week. It will not dry out as other cakes do.
I love this, as storing in the fridge prevents the risk of mould and keeps the cake nice and secure from any trespassers in the pantry.
Vegan Sourdough Carrot Cake
This Sourdough Discard Carrot Cake is everything a Carrot Cake should be: large, spicy, fluffy and caramelly-sweet, with a thick, creamy frosting. You would never guess that it was secretly healthy!
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 3 cups carrot, grated
- 1 cup sourdough discard
- 1 cup water
- 2/3 cup oil
- 2/3 cup Truvia
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons white or cider vinegar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon rum or vanilla essence
Instructions
The Night Before:
- Make the pre-ferment: Mix the flour, oil, starter, carrot and water in a bowl. Cover, and leave to prove overnight (or a minimum of 7 hours).
In the Morning:
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line a 22cm loose-bottomed cake tin with baking paper.
- To the pre-ferment mixture, add the remaining ingredients. Be sure not to over-mix, because this disrupts the carbonation process (aka: ruins the fluffy texture).
- Pour into the prepared cake tin, and place in the centre rack of the oven.
- Bake for 75 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
For the Icing:
- To make the Passionfruit Icing, blend 250g Desiccated Coconut until it forms a peanut-butter-like consistency.
- Add 1 495g tin coconut cream, and blend till smooth.
- Add the pulp of 2-3 passionfruit, and sweeten with Truvia to taste.
Notes
- Instead of cinnamon, you could use an equal quantity of mixed spice. I have used both, and I actually prefer the flavour of the purely cinnamon-spiced cake.
- If you start this batch in the early morning, seven hours later, the flour will be sufficiently fermented. You can mix and bake in the late afternoon, so the cake can be ready the same day!
- Baking times will vary depending from oven to oven. Keep an eye on the cake. It needs at least 1 hour, so check in every 10 minutes or so after that.
- For the frosting, the more passionfruit, the better. I used 3 for the 1 495g tin of coconut cream, which gave that lovely burst of passionfruit flavour.
- If you do not have access to passionfruit (we have a vine, so we do not have to pay for them - they are frightfully expensive to buy!), I have flavoured this icing by caramelising 4 sliced apples in honey. It was rather delicious.
- I used rum essence instead of vanilla essence, and it was faaaabulous! Do give it a try if you have it on hand!
