My in-laws have been here in Panama for the most part of November and yesterday was my father in-law’s birthday, so we decided to celebrate at home with my family with a BBQ. Since my husband and I eat Kosher, we dont mix meat with dairy, and since my father in law is pre-diabetic, we needed a dairy-free & sugar free dessert. Like, a yummy one (I wanted to impress). So I did some research and decided to go with a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (soy cream cheese, that is). Since carrots are sweet, i just needed to add a couple more naturally sweet ingredients to avoid using refined and processed sugar. Let me tell you, everyone was licking their fingers. I didnt even get a chance to take a picture of the whole cake!

Ingredients

2 eggs

4 egg whites

1 cup pure apple juice

1/3 cup apple sauce (with no added sugar)

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 cups flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. Baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

3 cups shredded carrot

1 cup finely chopped dates

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Frosting

3 (8oz) packs Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (soy imitation cream cheese plain)

25 packets of stevia sweetener

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Garnish (optional)

1 cup roughly chopped pecans

2 tbsp date syrup (Silan)

Directions

Pre-heat oven at 350 Fahrenheit.

Mix the first 6 ingredients in a bowl.

In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients. Then add the wet ingredients and mix well. 

Fold in the carrots, dates and pecans.

Grease a 12 inch round pan and pour the cake mixture.

Bake the cake until you insert a knife and it comes out clean (from 35 to 40 minutes).

Take cake out of the oven and let cool down.

Meanwhile prepare the frosting by mixing the imitation cream cheese with the stevia packets and the vanilla extract. 

Keep in the fridge.

Heat up a skillet, add the chopped pecans and the date syrup and mix well. 

Turn heat off and put the pecans in a tray to cool down.

When cake is at room temperature, cover it with the frosting using a spatula. Right before serving, garnish with the caramelized pecans.