Mostly Raw Vegan Pumpkin Carrot Cake and Exodus 34:21

Carrot cake with a pumpkin twist!

For me, pumpkin flavor is always in season. I love carrot cake, but what makes this dessert interesting and healthier than most carrot cakes online is that most of the ingredients are raw! Adding pumpkin and carrots to any dessert can maximize your intake of beta carotene easily, and who couldn't use that? Even the frosting complemented the cake with just the right amount of pumpkin flavor!

Ingredients for Cake

• 2 cups shredded carrots

• 1 1/2 cups moistened dried plums

• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats

• 1 cup pumpkin puree (cooked)

• 3/4 cup walnuts

• 1/2 cup dried coconut

• 1/4 cup crushed pineapple (fresh)

• 2 teaspoons ginger powder

• 1 teaspoon Chinese five spice

• juice of 1 lemon
  

Ingredients for Frosting

• 1 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked

• 3 tablespoons pumpkin puree (cooked)

• 2 tablespoons pineapple juice (fresh)

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 1 teaspoon ginger powder
  

Other Ingredients

• raw slivered almonds

• raw sprouted pumpkin seeds
  

Instructions

1. After soaking the cashews for about an hour, drain the water. Blend all the ingredients for about 2-3 minutes. The mixture should be thick and smooth. Scrape the frosting into a bowl with a plastic spatula, cover, and chill until ready to use. The frosting will thicken by the time you frost the cake.

2. In a high-powered blender or mixer, add lemon juice, pineapple, and pumpkin puree first. Then add the remaining ingredients. Pulse blend and stop to push down ingredients as needed until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Be careful not to overblend. You want to aim for a MINCED batter, not a smoothie batter.

3. Now add the remaining cake batter on top of the middle layer and press down firmly, smoothing out the top. Cover and freeze for about 2-3 hours.

4. Once frozen, remove the side rings and frost your cake. It's much easier to frost a raw cake when it's frozen. Feel free to decorate your cake as you please. I kept it simple and just added almonds and sprouted pumpkin seeds on top. Hope you enjoy!

Mostly raw tip: If you would like to increase the rawfulness of this dessert, you can puree your own fresh pumpkin during its season, which is late summer to early autumn (September to November). You can also use sprouted oatmeal.

Divine Afterthoughts:

In a world increasingly focused on the technicalities of diets, it's essential to remember the teachings of Matthew, which remind us not to be overly anxious about our daily sustenance.

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ~Matthew 6:25

Did the Israelites have to worry while they were trekking through the wilderness? God provided them with what they needed every day for 40 years! This should encourage us to reflect on relying on God more than ourselves. Even the birds of the air are provided for. Do they chirp because they are filled with worry? When we obsess over every detail of our food, we lose sight of the bigger picture— our connection to our Creator, the King of the Universe. Instead of fixating on every single ingredient and every single method those ingredients underwent, we allow ourselves to cultivate a spirit of gratitude and trust. Gratitude and trust are the foundation blocks in building our faith. Recognizing that our needs will be met in ways we may not always understand is the first step in embracing that. Fostering this perspective allows us to nourish our souls, which ultimately leads us to the peace and contentment we are looking for because we don't just feed our bodies, we feed our souls.

"Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest." ~Exodus 34:21

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Written by Lupita Ronquillo for Vegan Health and Yoga