Raw Carrot Cake with Essential Oils

Before kale and chia were food rockstars, there were carrots.

Humble, rustic, tasty both raw and cooked.  Bugs Bunny fuel.  And you can turn them into cake.  What’s not to love about carrots?!

Fun fact: carrots are members of the parsley family.   When we think of their herby, dill-like stems, it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Nutrition-wise, they are gems, and tremendous value with their modest price per kilo.

Half a cup of carrots gives around 200% of the RDA for vitamin A via beta-carotene, which your liver converts to vitamin A.  It also provides 10% vitamin K, 6% vitamin C and 2% calcium for your daily allowances.

Interestingly, there’s research to suggest that lightly cooking carrots increases their beta-carotene and phenolic acids, so a gentle steaming is a great way to prepare them.

Not today, though!  Here’s an easy chemistry lesson in converting carrots into carrot cake.  And because Young Living Essential Oils can be safely added to foods when indicated on the bottle, you’ll find suggestions below for incorporating them, too.

Important caution: Please be sure to only use essential oils in food when their labels say it’s safe to do so.  Not all essential oils are created equal and not all are suitable for ingestion.

Raw Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Essential Oils

Adapted from One Green Planet

Cupcake ingredients

• 1 cup unsoaked walnuts
• 1 cup Medjool dates, washed and seeds removed
• 2 cups grated raw carrots with as much excess moisture removed as possible (leave to sit in a colander or squeeze well through cheesecloth)
• 1 tsp cinnamon or 1 drop Young Living cinnamon bark essential oil
• 1/2 tsp ginger or 1 drop Young Living ginger essential oil
• Dash nutmeg or dip a toothpick into Young Living nutmeg essential oil and stir the toothpick lightly through the carrot cake mix before pressing into the tins
• 1/8 tsp Himalayan salt
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 6 muffin tins lined paper cases for ease of removal

Icing ingredients

• 1 cup cashews, soaked at least one hour
• 1/3 cup Young Living Blue Agave nectar with optional 3 drops Young Living lemon essential oil stirred lightly through
• pinch of Himalayan salt
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• fine zest of lemon for serving
• purified water

Preparation

1. Process the dates and walnuts in a food processor until they are crumbly, but holding together
2. Add grated carrots and spices. Process until the mix becomes a smooth dough
3. Add raisins and pulse to combine
4. Press the dough mixture into the muffin cases and refrigerate for an hour or so and meanwhile, prepare the icing
5. Rinse cashews and place in a food processor with agave/lemon oil blend, salt and lemon juice.  Process until the mixture is well combined. With the motor running, add just enough water to achieve your preferred icing consistency
6. When the carrot cakes are ready to remove from the fridge, lavish generously with icing (no need to be too neat and tidy – rustic suits them!).  Dust with ground cinnamon and sprinkle over lemon zest.

You don’t need directions for what to do next.  Yum !

Enjoy the good oil daily.

The information on this site does not constitute advice. Please consult with your health practitioner. When using any of the products mentioned throughout this site, please be sure to read the labels and follow their suggestions for safe use.  We make commissions from sales via many of the products we recommend but we only suggest products we genuinely enjoy and want you to share the benefits.