Carrot Cake

 I'm finding the more I steer clear of refined sugar the less I want it. I made Nigella's sticky toffee pudding yesterday as a Sunday treat. It has heaps of dark brown sugar in the recipe.  It came out of the oven looking gorgeous and all sticky and oozy. I had two spoonfuls and couldn't eat any more as it was way too sweet for me. Weird!
I've seen a few recipes for raw carrot cake recently so wanted to give it a go to compare the raw version with the traditional. I do like the end product as it's not overly sweet but the whole taste and texture is at the far end of the raw & healthy spectrum and verging on the knit-your-own-tofu territory. There's no way my kids could be convinced to eat this as it's really too far away from being cake.
If you're into the whole raw food thing, it's definitely worth trying. If you want a more traditional cakey treat I wouldn't bother.

Raw Carrot Cake
1 cup carrots
2 cups nuts (I used almonds & hazelnuts)
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup sultanas
2 tbsp runny honey
1 tsp cinnamon
Juice & zest of an orange

Topping:
1 cup cashews (soaked in water overnight)
Zest and juice one orange
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

Peel and chop the carrots into chunks and pop into a food processor.  Blitz until they're tiny pieces. Tip the carrots into a mixing bowl.
Blitz the 2 cups nuts in the food processor until ground. Then add to the bowl along with the honey, cinnamon, coconut, orange zest and juice, and sultanas. Combine well, then tip into a 23cm square tin (lined with baking paper). Press down well.
Make the topping by draining the cashews, and blitz in the food processor along with the honey and orange juice and zest. Spread over  the carroty mixture and scatter with pumpkin seeds.
Put in fridge to set for at least 2 hours before cutting.