My Secret Ingredient for Raw Carrot Cake

I've made raw carrot cake in the past.  It was good, but it didn't exactly knock my raw socks off (or anyone else's socks).  So I decided to experiment and create my own.  When I started out on my raw food journey I didn't have much experience and I wasn't confident enough to create my own recipes.  I relied heavily on recipes I found in uncook books and websites like goneraw.com. 

Oh how times have changed.  This time I couldn't wait to get out my food processor and play!

I've made a few raw carrot cakes these past few weeks and I've been carefully refining my recipe.  In an effort to use up some produce that I had on my counter, this secret ingredient was born.  Here's what I did:

Secret Ingredient Raw Carrot Cake

Grind 3/4 cup of raw sunflower seeds in a food processor.  Keep processing until the seeds are ground into a powder.

Then run one large carrot through a juice extractor and scoop out the pulp.  This is raw cake gold!  I always scoop out the pulp and run it through a second time.  It gets the maximum amount of juice out and also a drier pulp is good for making raw cakes (especially if you're dehydrator free like me).

But wait, before you run off to liquefy your carrots, there's one more thing - the super secret ingredient.  Are you ready?

Along with the carrot, juice one apple too.  Easy peasy, right?  It will give your cake an extra kick of sweetness and the apple compliments the carrot so well.

Mix the carrot-apple pulp with the ground sunflower seeds and 2-3 tablespoons of ground cinnamon.  With the processor running add some soaked raisins until the mixture begins to form balls in the food processor.

Spread the cake "batter" into a pan and place in the fridge to harden.  Really pack the batter in tightly to make a nice dense cake.  I hate when raw cakes don't cut well and then fall apart when you try to serve individual slices.  This cake is not like that at all.  It cuts beautifully.

For a super simple raw frosting I used coconut oil mixed with a touch of honey.  Spread on the cake and place in the fridge for a few hours to harden.

Beautiful isn't it?

Even my mom, who usually stays away from my raw dessert experiments, kept asking me if she could have a piece.  She liked this version infinitely more than my non-secret ingredient raw carrot cake.       

Now my mind is turning .... what else can I make with this secret ingredient?  To be continued ...