Vegan Cooking & Cookbooks discussion

My husband's birthday is coming up and he doesn't do dairy. He wants carrot cake and, as I well remember from my pre-vegan days, the cream cheese frosting was pretty much the best part ;-p I'm wondering if anyone has found a good non-dairy substitute?

I'm thinking of making the carrot cake from The Peaceful Palate: Fine Vegetarian Cuisine and she has the "white delight frosting" (margarine and powdered sugar base) or "tofu cream frosting" (blended tofu and rice syrup) but I'm not sure if either seem quite right.

Thanks! :-)

Kathryn,

I am going to guess members here can point you to specific recipe from specific cookbooks or ones they've made, and I know I've seen vegan cream cheese frostings in several of my cookbooks, but for now here's what came up on a google search:

http://www.google.com/search?q=vegan+...

Thank you so much, Lisa! :-)

Kathryn wrote: "My husband's birthday is coming up and he doesn't do dairy. He wants carrot cake and, as I well remember from my pre-vegan days, the cream cheese frosting was pretty much the best part..."

Our favourite carrot cake recipe ever is from "Vegan with a Vengeance." It's called Ginger-Macadamia-Coconut Carrot Cake and the best part is the coconut icing. My wife does the baking and she has made this cake many times, often to freak out unsuspecting relatives at family get togethers. "This is vegan?"

We always substitute the traditional walnuts instead of the Macadamia nuts, but if you have them I'm sure they'd be delicious. Good luck with the birthday!

Cheers,
Mark

Mmmm! Thank you, Mark. My mouth is watering!!! :-) A happy coincidence, I *just* got that book from the library yesterday. I will look up that recipe!

Kathryn wrote: "My husband's birthday is coming up and he doesn't do dairy. He wants carrot cake and, as I well remember from my pre-vegan days, the cream cheese frosting was pretty much the best part ;-p I'm wo..."

Kathryn~I make my vegan cream cheese frosting according to that tried and true non-vegan recipe, but use Earth Balance and Tofutti Cream Cheese in place of the butter/cream cheese. Works perfectly. Happy b-day to your husband!

Betsy wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "My husband's birthday is coming up and he doesn't do dairy. He wants carrot cake and, as I well remember from my pre-vegan days, the cream cheese frosting was pretty much the best ..."

I think tofutti cream cheese would work great. I actually like it better than real cream cheese which is saying a lot. Actually, I have to admit, I like carrot cake best with no frosting (or with just a lemon and sugar glaze).

Gundula wrote: "Betsy wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "My husband's birthday is coming up and he doesn't do dairy. He wants carrot cake and, as I well remember from my pre-vegan days, the cream cheese frosting was pretty ..."

Gundula, it really does and I love that Earth Balance bakes up/fluffs up beautifully. I've heard others say what you did about the vegan cream cheese. Aren't people's palates fascinating? For some, it's all about the frosting like someone told me recently; for others, it's "just let me eat cake." My sister is like that about banana bread. She wants it unadulterated. And while I do love it plain--especially made from coffee from a veganized old recipe in The Enchanted Broccoli Forest--I also love it with a "schmear" of vegan cream cheese frosting. There is a chocolate carrot cake in my cookbook that I'd be happy to send you that admittedly sounds peculiar. I veganized it for a friend's birthday from a recipe she'd found from Restaurant Nora in D.C. and even had made for her wedding cake. I expected to never make it again, but I adore it enough to include it!

Chocolate carrot cake sounds interesting.

Lee wrote: "Chocolate carrot cake sounds interesting."

Lee~Initially, from my perspective, "interesting" in relation to that cake was a euphemism for "weird." I thought it seemed like someone was trying too hard to be different! But now, I appreciate it as a delicious "thing" unto itself--more than the sum of it's parts. I still love vegan chocolate cake. Ditto carrot cake. But vegan chocolate carrot cake meets a "need" that neither of the others do. Mmm...

Betsy, I completely understand why you might have thought it sounded weird. It's hard to imagine what it would taste like. I've been making chocolate zucchini cake, I wonder if it's similar?

Lee wrote: "Betsy, I completely understand why you might have thought it sounded weird. It's hard to imagine what it would taste like. I've been making chocolate zucchini cake, I wonder if it's similar?"

Probably, Lee, except that carrots aren't as moist, so they provide more texture contrast along with the color contrast. I love the spices of a carrot cake and have found them very pleasing with chocolate. I think chocolate zucchini cake sounds quite bizarre--I've never made it nor tasted it, though have known of it for a long time--but I'm willing!

Betsy wrote: "Lee wrote: "Betsy, I completely understand why you might have thought it sounded weird. It's hard to imagine what it would taste like. I've been making chocolate zucchini cake, I wonder if it's s..."

Chocolate would work very well with carrot cake spices, yum (don't want to try it yet, though, don't want to expand my waistline). I've also had carrot cake with canned pineapple chunks, that was delicious as well.

Gundula wrote: "Betsy wrote: "Lee wrote: "Betsy, I completely understand why you might have thought it sounded weird. It's hard to imagine what it would taste like. I've been making chocolate zucchini cake, I wo..."

Yes, I generally bake when there are plenty of folks around to share the goods! I love pineapple in my carrot cake, yet don't use it in the chocolate version...but I could!

Chocolate goes bad with hardly anything. I'd love it in zucchini bread, carrot cake, anything sweet. It's great in pancakes & waffles. I used to have a low fat chocolate treat by putting cocoa powder and a sweetener into a variety of hot cereals. I'm not a cream cheese fan though and so have never tried vegan cream cheese or frosting made from it. I like buttercream, made with Earth Balance spread or a vegan glaze frosting for icings on baked goods.

Isn't it fun and fascinating how people's palates are so different!? ;-)

Thanks to all for the suggestions! My husband had a great birthday and loved his cake. I ended up doing the carrot cake recipe from How It All Vegan!: Irresistible Recipes for an Animal-Free Diet (I was wrong, it was this and not "Vegan with a Vengeance" that I got at the library) and it was delicious! Very moist and tasted fabulous. I added a few chopped walnuts and raisins to it and he loved it. As for the frosting, I did the Tofutti-and-Earth-Balance mix and liked it. For me, it wasn't quite the same as the "real thing" as there was a bit of a funny aftertaste, but I still enjoyed it!

And, my husband loves to add chocolate chips to pretty much any baked good, too! ;-)

Kathryn, It sounds like an incredibly creatively made cake! Thumbs up on the chocolate chips!
;-)

Oh, and I love How It All Vegan!: Irresistible Recipes for an Animal-Free Diet and the second book The Garden of Vegan: How It All Vegan Again!. The first one was given to me as a gift by a vegan Canadian friend; the authors are Canadian.

I'm glad your cake was successful Kathryn! :-)

Thanks! ;-)

Kathryn, are you saying that you put chocolate chips on the carrot cake for your husband? I thought you were saying that he just likes chocolate chips in general, but with all this talk of chocolate carrot cakes, now I am not so sure!

Glad the carrot cake was a big hit!

Kathryn wrote: "Isn't it fun and fascinating how people's palates are so different!? ;-)

Thanks to all for the suggestions! My husband had a great birthday and loved his cake. I ended up doing the carrot cake re..."

Kathryn, I know what you mean about that "taste," though I don't notice it any more and I vastly prefered it to the tofu frosting I've tried as well as to lactation--ha! But, seriously, here's a tip that I only thought of after you mentioned it: I've found that, in addition to vanilla extract, about an 1/8 teaspoon of almond extract is perfect to counteract that taste you refer to, yet not make the frosting take like almonds. I'm so sorry I didn't think of it before, but do try it next time and please let me know what you think. If citrus works with whatever flavor cake you're frosting, I've found that a little zest counteracts any perceived "off" taste, though will certainly scent the frosting as lemon, lime or orange. And, finally, just last week, I created a frosting that I love by whipping some sweetened cashew cream into a basic Earth Balance and powdered sugar frosting (but I think it would be outstanding with the vegan cream cheese variety and would have the same taste off-setting properties). The cashew cream had a hint of lemon juice in it, but mostly just to brighten the flavor, not make it taste like lemon. It's the vegan "Butter Whip" frosting on my blog. Happy Baking!

Rachel wrote: "Kathryn, are you saying that you put chocolate chips on the carrot cake for your husband? I thought you were saying that he just likes chocolate chips in general, but with all this talk of chocola..."

Sorry for the confusion! The chocolate chips are just in most baked goods, like pancakes and banana bread, but I didn't put them in the carrot cake.

Betsy wrote: "I've found that, in addition to vanilla extract, about an 1/8 teaspoon of almond extract is perfect to counteract that taste you refer to, yet not make the frosting take like almonds."

Oh, thank you so much! That is a great tip :-)

I ask for a carrot cake for my birthday and my parents have been making the carrot cake recipe from the Canadian Living cookbook, but substituting cream cheese with the Tofutti "cream cheese" (I think). It's a fantastic carrot cake and they don't notice any difference from normal cream cheese. We've had it a number of times now.

Betsy, thanks for the frosting tips!

Tim wrote: "I ask for a carrot cake for my birthday and my parents have been making the carrot cake recipe from the Canadian Living cookbook, but substituting cream cheese with the Tofutti "cream cheese" (I th..."

Thank you, Tim!