Karina Sends Her Girls Off with a 3-Layered Goodbye...

Its just so happened that my first batch of mini cupcakes I was going to sell at the the corner market was scheduled for delivery the same day that two of my closest friends were throwing their going away party. (Before taking off for Central and South America.) I saw no reason not to kill (or bake) two birds with one stove.


Since the market suggested three different flavors, I decided to use the remaining batter to make a three layer cake for my ladies.

When I asked Lauren what her favorite cake was, she immediately mentioned carrot cake. I decided to make the first layer and batch a vegan ginger cashew carrot cake.

I looked up a few carrot cake recipes to get some ideas and decided to start with this one:

• 3 Cups shredded
• 1 1/4 Cup Organic Unbleached Sugar
• 2 Cups Organic Unbleached Flour
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Sea Salt
• 2 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
• 2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon
• 1/2 Cup of OJ
• 3/4 Cup of Canola Oil
• 1 Cup of raisins shopping list
• 1 Cup of Chopped walnuts

Lucky for me my good friend Morgan was visiting from out of town so I had me an assistant!


I threw a bug bunch of washed, organic carrots in the food processor to shred them and then I pressed out the excess liquid in a colander. Instead of walnuts I crushed some cashews (because that's what I had), and finely chopped up a about two tbls of fresh ginger.


I didn't have any OJ in the house, but we did find a really over-ripened peach so I had Morgan chop that up finely instead and add it with a few splashed of water and almond milk.


Once the carrot/liquid mix was well blended, we added it to the dry ingredients we had mixed as well. This took a lot of hand power as it was too thick and difficult to mix with a wooden spoon. I added some vanilla and agave for some more sweetness and water for a lighter texture because it was tasting and feeling more like a muffin mix than cake mix to me.


The flavor of the batter was good, but my intuition told me this was going to be a little denser and muffin-like than I was hoping for. I figured sometimes that's what you get with experimenting with new recipes and hoped for the best.



I used my trusty, go-to vegan cake recipe as the base for the other two flavors. I made a big batch of basic cake batter, and divided it in two for my two different flavors. With what the seasonal market had to offer me, I decided to make both a Lavender- Vanilla layer, and a Blueberry Mint one.

For the first of the two, I added a few tablespoons of dried lavender buds...


...Scraped some organic vanilla beans, and chopped up a little fresh ginger.


For the second I blended some fresh blueberries, mint, lemon and agave and added this compote into the other bowl of batter.


We filled our various cake-pans and cupcake trays and started the process of baking them all.


The carrot cake came out looking beautiful, but my hunch was right that it was a little dryer and denser than desired. I decided to add some moisture and sweetness by forking holes all over the surface, and drizzling some organic Vermont maple syrup my friend Dan had given me.


I made a vegan vanilla-ginger frosting by throwing some earth balance, powdered sugar, cinnamon, sea salt, fresh ginger, and vanilla extract into the food processor. I frosted the first carrot cake layer with this delicious frosting. I found in the fridge a small container of the blueberry lavender frosting I had made the week before, so I decided to alternate the second blueberry mint layer with this.


I topped my final layer, lavender-vanilla, with my new vanilla-ginger frosting and we began decorating with all the goodies we set out for ourselves.


Strawberries, pistachios, shaved coconut, fresh mint, crystallized ginger and blueberries, Oh my!


The cake was brought to the bar hosting the farewell extravaganza, and was just about gone by the time I left!
(Note: this is a good tactic to use if you want the owner and bartenders to grant you free drinks all night!)


Proud Cake Mama's!


Couldn't forget to drop off our mini-friends at the market as well! The first round did really well- I went in the following week and there was one left on the plate!