Vegan Parsnip Cake

Hello vegan (and non vegan friends) and welcome to my instructable!

This tutorial will show you, step by step, how to make a delicious vegan cake. Now, do not be scared- vegan parsnip cake does sound a little scary and not very appetizing, but I can assure you that once you’re done making the cake you’ll be glad you came across this instructable! It is a very delicious and healthy cake that I assure you will come to love.This tutorial will be split into two parts as I will explain how to make both the cake and the frosting that comes with it. Therefore, if you do not wish to create the frosting for this cake recipe, you can skip over the instructions that are subtitled “(Vegan) Cream Cheese Frosting”. 

Step 1: Cake Preparation

You will need the following ingredients to make the vegan parsnip cake:

1 cup grated parsnips (about 1 ½ parsnips)
½ cup sugar
½ cup pineapple, shredded
1/3 cup non-dairy yogurt
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 ½ teaspoons cardamom
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon non-aluminum baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup golden raisins
¼ cup chopped walnuts

Step 1: Prepare all the ingredients. It will be a lot easier for you later on if you do this step because you won’t have to worry about the ingredients and their measurements in the creation stage of the cake if everything is prepared and ready to use beforehand. Take out all the ingredients, measure them accordingly to the measurements given and place them in separate bowls/ containers.

Step 2:

 Grate the 1 ½ parsnips so that they fill up one cup and set this aside. One this is done, preheat the oven to 177 ° C or 350°F. I recommend for you to also shred the fresh pineapple in this stage as this will lower the amount of task you will need to do later on in the creation stage.

Step 3: Cake Making

In a medium sized bowl, mix together all of the flavor building ingredients such as the sugar, shredded pineapple, non-dairy yoghurt, canola oil, cardamom, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt. Mix all of these ingredients together until they are well combined.

Step 4:

In this step, mix together all of the dry ingredients such as the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda in a separate bowl. This can be done quickly and briskly as the dried ingredients do not need to be mixed very well.

Step 5:

Add the wet ingredients ( the flavour building ingredients) that were mixed together earlier in this tutorial to the dry ingredients. I would recommend for you to use an electrical mixer as this device will speed up the process and combine the ingredients better than if you mixed it by hand.

Step 6:

Slowly add in the grated parsnips, the walnuts and raisins into the wet cake batter, molding the last ingredients gently into the batter using a spoon.

Step 7:

Pour the cake mixture into a round cake pan and smooth out the surface of the cake batter in the pan. Bake for around 30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Step 8: (Vegan) Cream Cheese Frosting

This step is not mandatory as not everyone likes frosting on their cake. However, if you would like to add nice frosting to cover your vegan parsnip cake, follow the steps stated below.

Ingredients

The following ingredients are needed to make this yummy frosting!

1 cup powdered sugar
½ cup (108 grams) Vegan Shortening or store bought shortening (1 stick), cold
2 Tablespoons non-dairy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon salt
1 food processor

Step 9:

Take out the food processor. Place all the ingredients stated above into the food processor and process for around 1 minute.

Step 10:

Once you have processed the ingredients for 1 minute, turn off the food processor and scrape the sides of this appliance. Then continue processing the ingredients until the mixture is smooth and creamy and yellowish-white in color. The frosting is now completed. It can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Step 11:

Step 12: Making Vegan Shortening

One of the ingredients in this tutorial is vegan shortening, which is basically a substitute for butter. Vegan shortening can easily be made at home and if you wish to do so, follow the steps below:

Ingredients:

¾ cup refined coconut oil
¼ cup canola oil, safflower oil, or sunflower oil

Step 13:

Melt the fats and mix them together. Melt the coconut oil in a microwave a little so that it is still as close to room temperature as possible. Measure out the correct amount of coconut oil and pour/ place it together with the canola oil into a processor.

Step 14:

Process the mixture. The smoothness of the shortening depends on the time it takes the mixture to solidify after it has been mixed so that is important to make sure that the coconut oil is as close to room temperature as possible.

Step 15:

Transfer the shortening from the food processor into a freezer mold such as an ice cube mold and place this in the freezer to solidify. This vegan shortening can be used after around 1 hour.