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THIS winter, my local farm has been supplying me with carrots in all the colours of the rainbow. After a few chilly months of chopping them up for savoury dishes, I was delighted when the sun returned to New York and basically beckoned me to make a carrot cake (pictured above) instead.

I didn’t grow up eating carrot cake, but thick slices with cream cheese frosting are among the standouts in my early memories of American baking. As a vegan baker, I now make a carrot cake that is a different proposition: it brings out the natural sweetness and earthiness of carrots while foregoing eggs and dairy. And, unlike some sponges that require lots of fussing over, this cake is made vegan pretty easily, with no price paid in flavour.

First, I peel the carrots, then grate them on the finest part of my grater to ensure they meld with the batter during baking, making it a little denser but not less soft. I pack the shreds into a measuring cup or a bowl, squashing them down to squeeze out all the juice I can, to make sure I am not adding extra liquids to the cake and making it mushy. Next, I mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another. This cake relies on both baking powder and baking soda for rise as it lacks eggs.

To account for the eggs’ function as a binder, I use apple sauce – while I find it to be a poor universal substitute for eggs in baking, here its tangy flavour is a great addition. Its slight acidity also helps activate the baking soda and make the cake rise. I round out the flavour with some cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

While vegan butter is now widely available, I prefer to make this cake with vegetable oil. Because oil is liquid at room temperature, the cake stays moist and tender for longer. Oil also produces a finer crumb – most butters contain just enough water to strengthen the strands of the gluten proteins that form in the flour, and this leads to a more coarse and chewy texture.

I mix wet ingredients into dry until no streaks remain. I don’t overwork the batter, again trying to prevent those pesky gluten strands becoming too strong, and fold in the carrots. Then, I pour the batter into a greased dish lined with parchment paper and bake for 40 minutes at 180°C (350°F).

Once it is completely cool, I add toppings. A cream cheese frosting is traditional, but I often go for a tangy, lemony frosting made from vegan butter, confectioners’ sugar, coconut yogurt and lemon, with dollops of raspberry jam. When it comes to vegan butter, it helps to pick a product with a low water content. Because water molecules are polar – they have electrically positive and negative ends – while oil molecules aren’t, water and oil don’t mix, so too much water could make the frosting separate as you beat it.

This cake is best consumed by a window, basking in the sun.

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan is a reporter for 91av in the US. The science of baking appears monthly.

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