The circle of death was a peculiar ritual when I worked at Innocent drinks: on your birthday, the entire company of about 200 people would secretly descend on you with a cake and sing you happy birthday. I, and many others, always hoped for Brontë’s spiced carrot cake frosted with cream cheese (she later moved on to set up Scandinavian Kitchen in London), because it took the edge off the ordeal.
‘Circle of death’ carrot cake
You’ll need a 23cm springform cake tin.
Prep 5 min
Cook 1 hr, plus cooling
Serves 10-12
For the cake
2 tbsp milled flaxseed
120ml sunflower oil
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp oat milk
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 large carrots, grated (200g net)
200g caster sugar
½ tsp fine sea salt
250g plain flour
1¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
50g pine nuts or walnuts, chopped
For the frosting
300g vegan cream cheese
2 limes, zested, and juiced to get 2½ tbsp juice
90g icing sugar
Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 and line a 23cm springform cake tin with greaseproof paper.
In a large bowl, stir the flaxseeds into four tablespoons (60ml) of warm water, and set aside for five minutes. Add the oil, vinegar, oat milk, vanilla paste, carrots, sugar and salt, mix really well to combine, then put to one side.
In another large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, bicarb, spices and nuts. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix really well – don’t be alarmed by how dry or stiff the batter is.
Spoon the mixture evenly into the baking tin, then shuffle the tin about to even everything out. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean, then leave the cake to cool before removing from the tin.
Just before serving, and when the cake is completely cool, make the frosting. Put the cream cheese, lime juice, half the zest and the icing sugar in a bowl and mix with a fork until nice and whippy. Spread this all over the top of the cake, then sprinkle over the remaining lime zest, slice and serve.
