Birthday cakes! For years, I have been put in charge of the birthday cakes in my family, long gone are the Colin the Caterpillar days along with the sickly-sweet Victoria sponge cakes layered with fake jam and yellow buttercream. Can you tell I have a slight aversion to these types of cake? I just think, why buy a mass-produced, sugar-loaded cake when you can bake one easily from scratch. I know that not everyone has time, money or inclination to home bake a cake for every celebration and I am very grateful that I can have this little slice of luxury whenever I choose to. That said, baking for someone is a gift in itself. Putting the time, thought and love into a bake is my favourite way to show someone that I care.

Carrot and Raisin Bundt Cake

I always ask my family what cake they want for any given occasion and usually for my mum the answer is chocolate or lemon – last year I made this Lemon Drizzle Cake with Homemade Candied Peel but this year she threw me and said either coconut (watch this space) or carrot. I haven’t too much experience with carrot cakes, in fact my Carrot Cake Cup-Scones were the first time I’d baked with carrot for a couple of years. I love the little cupcake-come-scone recipe and couldn’t wait to get back into the kitchen.

Carrot and Raisin Bundt Cake

At the same time, I very kindly received Rebel’s range of Mylks: skimmed, semi-skimmed and whole. I love their play on the well-known varieties of milk, with skimmed being the least creamy and whole being the richest in taste and texture. Despite the recognisable red, green and blue tops, these mylks are a far cry from the dairy kind. They are primarily coconut based but also feature ingredients like brown rice, cashew and nutritional yeast. It’s so delicious and I love being able to vary between the three depending on it’s use. So, for this cake I went for the semi-skimmed mylk, just to play it safe.

“Mylk. You get it. It’s milk. Just not.”

But let us not get carried away with the coconut milk, because this cake is all about the carrots. Freshly grated carrots stirred into a wet mix of chia seeds, neutral oil, maple syrup and apple sauce (I make my own which is super simple) with added cinnamon for a spicy warmth and coconut sugar for a caramel-like sweetness. I use a mix of light spelt flour and ground almonds as the base for the cake which adds a lovely texture and bite. I’m sure you can also change the spelt flour for your favourite gluten-free blend to make this GF friendly. I’ve studded the cake with plump raisins to make a change from the usual walnuts and they add to the moistness of the sponge.

Carrot and Raisin Bundt Cake

This Carrot and Raisin Bundt Cake requires one bowl, about 20 minutes prep time and you’ll have a tender, perfectly sweet, delicious and light sponge cake. I impressed myself by making a DIY Bundt tin from scratch using an inverted terracotta small pot in the centre of a round cake tin and continuing to cover the entire base with parchment paper. Or you can skip this step and make one round cake. If you are looking for a layered carrot cake, simply double the recipe and use two round tins, continuing as before. Fill with your favourite cream cheese or buttercream spread and then drizzle over my Coconut Icing.

Carrot and Raisin Bundt Cake

Happy birthday, mum.

Carrot and Raisin Bundt Cake

• Servings: 1 20-cm cake ~ 10 servings
• Time: 1 hour plus cooling
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

A light, fruit and moist carrot cake with raisins and a simple coconut glaze.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ tsp chia seeds
• 4 tbsp hemp seed or olive oil
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 125g apple sauce
• 50g coconut sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 90ml coconut milk, from a carton
• 80g grated carrot (about 1 medium carrot, peeled)
• 115g light spelt flour
• 90g ground almonds
• 50g raisins (or crushed walnuts)

Simple Coconut Icing:

• 50g icing sugar
• 1-2 tbsp coconut milk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160Fan/180*C and line a Bundt or cake tin with parchment paper.
2. Combine the chia seeds in a bowl with 4 tbsp water and leave for about 10 minutes to form a gel. Prepare all your other ingredients.
3. To the chia gel, add the hemp seed oil, maple syrup and apple sauce and stir well to combine.
4. Now add the sugar, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt and milk and stir again.
5. Add the grated carrot, stir, and pour in the flour and ground almonds. Stir gently to combine before mixing in the raisins. The mixture will be quite thick but still pourable, if it is too thick add 1-2 tbsp more coconut milk.
6. Pour the batter into the tin, flatten the top and bake in the centre of the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
7. If using a Bundt tin, allow to cool in the tin on a wire rack for 15 minutes before inverting onto the rack and remove the parchment paper. If using a round cake tin, allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before transferring to the wire rack, removing the parchment. Allow to cool fully before icing.
8. Prepare the icing my mixing together the icing sugar with the coconut milk until you have a glaze consistency.
9. Pour over the cooled cake, allowing it to flow over the edges. Decorate with crushed nuts, extra raisins and rose petals.

*my Bundt cake tin was a DIY tin – I placed a terracotta small pot in the centre of my 20cm cake tin and covered it all in parchment paper. I also did not invert my cake and allowed it to cool as instructed for the round cake tin.

Carrot and Raisin Bundt Cake

I am so excited to share this Carrot and Raisin Bundt Cake recipe with you as I have a real passion for baking. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments below and if you make my cake, please tag me in your creations, I’d love to see them – I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy.

With carrot Bundt love x

This post is not sponsored in anyway, but I am taking part in Rebel’s #justaddmylk campaign as I love their mylks and encourage you to try them out!