My beautiful best friend Tess came down and stayed with me for a week recently, and that's how this cake came about. NYE 2015 leading into 2016, almost a week after my birthday, and it came out that I hadn't had a birthday cake. Well this was simply no good, and we had just been pondering what to make and bring to a NYE party, so cake it was! Carrot cake to be exact, no explanation needed. Vegan, gluten free, delicious, complete with a creamy coconut icing, demolished by a whole party of people; this cake ticks all the boxes.

What you need:

For the cake:

2 and a quarter cups of buckwheat flour
4 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda
4 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of nutmeg
Pinch of sea salt

1 cup of mylk of choice (we used Nutty Bruce Almond Coconut Milk)
1 cup of coconut sugar
2 cups of grated carrot
1 fresh vanilla bean, scraped out (alternatively, 2 tsp of vanilla extract)
1 cup of mashed banana (about 2-3 bananas worth)
1 tablespoon of chia seeds

For the coconut chantilly cream icing:

2 tins of full fat coconut cream
1 vanilla bean, scraped out (or 2 tsp of vanilla extract)


What you need to do:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius, and grease your baking pan (we used coconut oil spray).
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the mashed banana, mylk, chia seeds, vanilla and coconut sugar.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry, fold through, then add the grated carrot and fold until just combined.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

For the icing, don't shake the coconut cream cans up before you open them; simply open them up, and scrape out the top layer of cream. The coconut cream and the water separates in the can, and you only want to keep that top layer of cream and ditch the water. In a bowl, whip the coconut cream with the vanilla using a whisk or an old fashioned egg beater. Refrigerate for 2 or so hours, or until it has set. Wait until the cake is completely cool before icing, or you'll end up with a (delicious) puddle of coconut around your cake (speaking from experience here!)