Vegan Carob Cake Recipe

Truth be told, I hadn't baked in a while, let alone taking pictures of my creations or blogging about it! I feel like recently all I have time to do is cook proper meals, since to be honest, having to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day for two and a half doesn't leave you much spare time!

A couple weeks ago, we treated one of our friends to a vegan cooking class for her 30th birthday, and it was such a fun experience! The dessert was a carob brownie, which inspired me to cook this vegan carob cake this week. 

For those of you not familiar with carob, it's a healthy alternative to chocolate because it's naturally sweet, high in fiber, low in fat, has twice the amount of calcium compared to cocoa and, most importantly specially for kids or caffeine-sensitive people, it doesn't have caffeine.

I got the recipe from here (in Spanish), and it's SO GOOD! I feel like next time I want to go cocoa-free the whole way though, because this recipe has a bit of chocolate in it.

You know I'm a huge chocolate lover, but this doesn't mean I don't have a major crush on carob ever since I first tasted it a couple weeks ago. Some people dislike it because, obviously, it will never taste 100% like chocolate, but I simply love it. It's slightly different yet totally mesmerizing. 

So without much ado, here comes the recipe!

VEGAN CAROB BANANA CAKE

• 2 or 3 over-ripe bananas
• 1 and 1/2 cups of spelt flour
• 1/2 cup of carob flour
• 1 cup of chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 2 spoons of pure unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 spoon of ground cinnamon
• 2 spoons of baking powder
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1 cup of oat milk

1. Blend the bananas, sugar, oat milk and olive oil together.
2. On a separate bowl, mix the spelt flour, carob flour, baking powder, cocoa and cinnamon.
3. Gently place the dry mixture on the liquid batter and keep folding until blended. Fold in 1/2 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts.
4. Pour the mixture into a pound cake pan or any other baking dish of your preference.
5. Last but not least, distribute the remaining 1/2 of chopped walnuts on top of the batter so as to create a nice coat.
6. Bake for 50-60 minutes at 170C.

TIP: This recipe will be even healthier if you use 1 cup of dates or 1/2 of molasses instead of the sugar. 

***********

RECETA EN ESPAÑOL

BIZCOCHO DE ALGARROBA VEGANO

                                                        2 o 3 plátanos maduros

1 taza y 1/2 de harina de espelta

1/2 taza de harina de algarroba

1 taza de nueces picadas

1/2 taza de aceite de oliva

2 cucharadas de cacao puro en polvo

1/2 cucharada de canela en polvo

2 cucharadas de levadura

1/2 taza de azúcar moreno

1 taza de leche de avena

               - Bate en un bol los plátanos, el azúcar, la leche de avena y el aceite de oliva.

- En otro bol, mezcla la harina de espelta, la harina de algarroba, la levadura, el cacao y la canela.

- Incoropora la mezcla del punto número 2 al bol del punto número 1 con movimientos envolventes hasta que esté bien integrado. Añade 1/2 taza de nueces y integra suavemente.

- Pon la mezcla en un molde y esparce el resto de las nueces por encima.

- Hornea a 170C durante 50-60 minutos. 

NOTA: Puedes sustituir el azúcar por 1 taza de dátiles o 1/2 taza de melaza.

I hope you like it as much as we did. Thanks for reading!!!