I first came across the recipe for this cake in my Ski Supertravel 'chalet girl's handbook' when I worked in the French Alps in the mid 1980s. It worked really well at high altitude and was an absolut...
Read moreVegan passion cake
The Story
A lovely squidgy old-fashioned loaf cake, studded with fruit and nuts, and flavoured with mixed spices.
Vegan passion cake
This is a delicious hybrid of carrot cake and banana bread. This bake is naturally dairy-free and I have replaced the eggs in the original recipe to make it suitable for vegans or anyone avoiding eggs. (If you are an egg-eater, feel free to replace the psyllium husk 'egg' with a hen's egg). Amazon and most health-food shops stock psyllium husk powder.
Ingredients
For the cake
- 3-4 ripe or over-ripe bananas (approx 250g)
- 1 medium carrot, grated (approx 120g)
- 100 g Demerara or other light brown sugar
- 70 ml non-dairy milk
- 70 ml vegetable oil
- 50 g oatmeal or porridge oats
- 200 g self-raising flour
- 3 tsp mixed spice (or 1tsp each of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp psyllium husk powder
- 100 g sultanas
- 75 g walnuts , pecans or pistachios (or a mix), roughly chopped
For the icing
- 4 tbs icing sugar
- Half tsp almond or vanilla extract
- 25 g walnuts, pecans or pistachios, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160C (fan) and line a 1kg loaf tin with baking paper. In a mixing bowl, mash the bananas until they are almost a puree. Stir in the brown sugar and the non-dairy milk.
- In a ramekin or mug, mix the teaspoon of psyllium husk powder with 3 tablespoons cold water. Stir until the mixture thickens, then immediately whisk into the banana mixture (if you hang around, the psyllium husk will solidify). Whisk in the vegetable oil.
- Add the flour, oats, baking powder and mixed spice and stir until just combined. Stir in the sultanas and nuts.
- Scrape the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and smooth the top. Bake for 40 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 150C and bake for a further 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake emerges completely clean - if you are in doubt, leave for another five minutes and check again. Leave the cake to cool before icing.
- For the icing, put the icing sugar into a small bowl and add 1 - 2 teaspoons warm water until you have a drizzling consistency (if you add too much water, just add a little more icing sugar). Stir in a little of the vanilla or almond extract, then use a teaspoon to drizzle the icing over the cake. Top with the chopped nuts and serve with a freshly-brewed cuppa.
