Aquafaba Carrot Cake [Vegan!]

Hello it's me remember me and my blog and the endless pictures of food and the natterings away to myself through the medium of ~blog~?

Yes. It's me. And I come bearing cake.

Let's cut straight to the chase - this is the best carrot cake I have ever eaten (not that I'm blowing my own trumpet or anything), and it's super easy because it is moist enough to warrant being one whole layer on its own, without requiring a filling in the middle to break up the sponge.

Aquafaba Carrot Cake
makes one single-layer (but full cake height) 8-inch cake
vegan, can be gluten-free if you use GF flour but I haven't tried it

Ingredients
120ml rapeseed oil
1 tin aquafaba (the liquid from one 400g tin of chickpeas)
190g dark muscovado sugar
180g carrots, grated
260g plain flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
50g walnuts or pistachios, coarsely chopped

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 180C fan and grease and line an 8-inch cake tin.
2. With an electric whisk or in a stand mixer, whip the rapeseed oil, aquafaba and muscovado sugar until it has thickened considerably and will leave a trail for a couple of seconds when it falls off the whisk. (This may take a while, around five to 10 minutes. If you can get your hands on a stand mixer for this, that would probably be wise..)
3. While the mixture is whisking up into a big fluffy heap, grate your carrots. You can use a microplane, the big side of a box grater, or even a food processor if you are blessed with enough counter and cupboard space. (A moment of silence for my stand mixer/blender/food processor that is 400 miles away in Edinburgh. May we be reunited soon.)
4. Add your grated carrots into the fluffy pile of oily, sugary chickpea water (wow that sounds appealing), and whisk some more.
5. Sift in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger, and add the nuts of your choice; fold to incorporate, taking care not to lose the air that you have whisked in.
6. Pop it all into your prepared cake tin and bake at 180C fan; check with a skewer after 30 minutes, then if it's not ready check every five minutes or so until it has reached your desired balance of cooked and gooey.
7. Let cool in the tin for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool further (if you want.. it's also really nice warm if you're too impatient for it to cool fully/at all).
8. Once cool, sprinkle with icing sugar and serve - maybe with some aquafaba whipped cream? (Anyone fancy a recipe post for aquafaba whipped cream?)

There you go! Carrot cake! Vegan! With chickpea brine! Fun game: serve it to someone who has no idea what is in it or that it is vegan, and ask them to guess the secret ingredient. Now go forth, my friendlings, and BAKE CARROT CAKE. (Please be receptive to my not-so-subliminal messaging.)

Don't forget to tag me in photos of your aquafaba carrot cake creations on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook and hashtag #imogenmolly as well!

*All photos in this post are mine. If you wish to use any, please ask my permission and credit me!*
As always, all photos are click-to-enlarge.