Spicy nutty (and oh-so-easy) carrot cake

Friends were coming to my place for dinner. I REALLY wanted to make carrot cake using organic English carrots from my Riverford box. But, cake ain’t that fancy! Unless…….you serve it like this, with a side of salted caramel cashew cream and cardamom apple compote. Once you add these elements you raise it to a new level.

The spices and roughly chopped nuts add more character to the cake. It has a lovely rise to it that I am really pleased with. You would never know it’s gluten free! Gram flour and potato starch is my favourite combination for cakes, you can find potato starch in some large supermarkets and many Indian and Polish food shops.

Makes 1 round 8 inch cake

100g gram flour

100g potato starch

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 tablespoons ground flax seed mixed with 2 tablespoons water and left to rest for 5 minutes

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

A pinch of allspice

40g pecans, roughly chopped

40g hazelnuts, roughly chopped

100g coconut sugar

3-4 carrots (around 250g) finely grated (put this in a tea towel and squeeze most of the juice out)

100ml sunflower or rapeseed oil

200ml dairy free milk

Heat your oven to 180c / 160c fan

Line or grease an 8 inch cake tin, I just cover the base with baking paper

Mix the ingredients in a bowl except oil, milk and the flax seed mixture

Add the oil, milk and flax seed mixture, mix well, put into the tin

Bake for around 40-50 minutes until cooked through. You can tell if it is ready by pressing on the top. If it bounces back it’s done!

For the cream

½ cup cashews soaked in hot water for 30 minutes

A splash of cold water

4-5 dates (not medjool, but try to get the soft dates, alternatively you can use date syrup)

A few drops of salted caramel flavouring

Rinse the cashews well, add the other ingredients and blend till smooth

For the compote

2 large apples

A splash of water

A pinch of ground cardamom or 1 drop of cardamom Spicedrops

Put the apples and water in a pan, simmer till the apple has broken apart, add the cardamom. Serve warm