Healthier-For-You Recipe: Majestic Raw Carrot Cake with Cashew Cream Frosting

|Updated Mar 31, 2021

Bonnie Ann Stewart

Carrot cake is hands down one of the best desserts to make vegan, gluten-free, and raw because the orange veggie holds moisture, making a soft, sponge-like cake, and the flavor also pairs well with dates, walnuts, and spices for a sweet, crunchy, flavorful bite. If you love carrot cake, you will fall in love with this nutritious, raw recipe from popular California Cafe, Trilogy Sanctuary.

The cafe is an oceanfront, rooftop chillin', healthy organic restaurant located in La Jolla, San Diego, and is a favorite spot amongst vegans, yogis, wellness-lovers, and fitness-obsessed because Trilogy Sanctuary offers yoga classes, training, events, and delicious organic plant-based food.

The entire menu at Trilogy Sanctuary is loaded with vegan dishes that are as delightful as they sound, like the perfect tacos made with housemade dairy-free cheese, spicy buffalo cauliflower wings, several healthy and tasty smoothies, and famous raw desserts like this healthy carrot cake.

Finally, we discovered a carrot cake that is good for you, gives you energy, and contains fewer calories than the traditional cake. This carrot cake is made with natural ingredients like dates, walnuts, carrot, coconut, and is mixed with spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, and naturally sweetened with maple syrup. You will love the taste of fresh ingredients that taste incredible without weighing you down. In this case, double the recipe and make yourself an entire cake!

At The Beet, we were lucky enough to exclusively receive the recipe for one of Trilogy's most popular desserts and share the taste of joy with you! Make this restaurant-quality treat completely guilt-free and enjoy every single bite of bursting flavors, zesty species, sinful cashew cream frosting.

Recipe Developer: Trilogy Sanctuary

Majestic Raw Carrot Cake Recipe

Ingredients

Carrot Filling

1 1/2 cup pitted dates
1 cup raw walnuts
5 cups shredded carrot
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch salt

Cream Topping

3 cups raw cashews (soaked for at least two hours)
1 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 cups coconut oil
1 cup of water

Instructions

To make the carrot filling, combine the dates and walnuts in a food processor. Do this by adding a small amount of each at a time and pulsing slowly until both the date and walnuts are coarsely chopped and evenly mixed. It should stay chunky. Do not over blend.
Place the mixture into a large bowl. In the same bowl, add the shredded carrots, coconut, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Mix the ingredients together with your hands until evenly combined.
Place half of the mixture into a 9x9 square cake pan lined with parchment paper. Gently press down with your hands to create a flat and even layer. The other half can be set aside for now.
To make the vanilla cream, drain the soaked cashews and rinse them well. Combine the soaked cashews, maple syrup, vanilla extract, coconut oil (make sure coconut oil is liquid, melt gently on the stove in a small pan if necessary), and water in a high-speed blender.
Blend until it becomes creamy. You may need to use a spatula around the edges of the blender to ensure all the mixture is mixed evenly. It should be completely smooth. This may take up to 3 minutes of blending!
Pour half of the vanilla cream over the carrot filling layer. Freeze for 1 hour or until the frosting hardens. (Do not refrigerate the second part of the vanilla cream or it will harden and be very difficult to pour!)
Once ready, press the second half of the carrot filling into the pan, and top with the remaining vanilla cream. refrigerate for an additional two hours, or until the entire cake solidifies.
Serve with a dusting of cinnamon and some whole walnuts.