Spiced Carrot Cheesecake Loaf With Salted Caramel sauce

Carrot cake has to be an Easter staple here in Canada. This is a delicious, fresh take on carrot cake, that would be perfect for Easter brunch! It’s packed with 2 cups of grated carrots which makes it super moist and a has a sweet cheesecake swirl in the middle made with Zengarry Double Creme cheese. And just in case that wasn’t decadent enough, it’s topped with a drizzle of salted caramel sauces. Mmmmm. Yes please!

Makes 1 9 X 5 inch loaf

55-60 min bake time

Dry Ingredients

2 cups cake flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp ground clove

1 cup dark brown sugar

3/4 cup cane sugar

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

Wet Ingredients

½ cup canola oil

½ cup melted vegan butter (browned if you have cashew based one is even better)

¼ cup apple butter

3 flax eggs ( 1 Tbsp flax to 3 Tbsp water = 1 egg)

2 packed cups of finely shredded carrot

1 tsp vanilla

Cheesecake Swirl

1 package of Fauxmagerie Zengarry double creme cashew cheese

¼ cup cane sugar

Juice of ½ a lemon + ½ tsp zest

¼ cup plant based unsweetened milk

½ tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp cake flour

Caramel Sauce

1 8oz can of condensed coconut milk

⅓ cup dark brown sugar

¼ cup corn syrup or brown rice syrup

¼ cup vegan butter

1 tsp caramel extract

Pinch of sea salt to taste

Directions

Cheesecake Swirl

1. In a stand mixer, or with an electric hand mixer, beat together all ingredients until super smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Caramel Sauce

1. Combine sugar and butter in a small saucepan on the stove. Whisk lightly on medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the butter is completely melted. Then add in the condensed milk and syrup.

1. Simmer away and whisk frequently on medium heat for a good 5 minutes. Your caramel will start to thicken and the colour will turn more of an amber. Once this happens, remove from the heat and add in caramel extract and salt to taste. As your caramel cools it will thicken some more. Set aside until time to serve. You can always warm it back up if it cools and thickens too much.

Carrot Cake

Before starting, preheat your oven to 350F

1. Combine flax and water in a small dish and mix well, let sit for 5 minutes to create your flax egg. Once the flax eggs have thickened up, whisk together melted butter, oil, brown sugar, cane sugar, vanilla, apple butter and flax eggs until smooth.

1. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add your grated carrots and using your hands, fold into the flour. I use my hands like a rake and evenly disperse the carrot while also coating each piece in the yummy spiced flour mix.

1. Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients, and using a spatula, fold everything together. In a parchment paper lined bread pan, pour in half of the cake batter, then half of your cheesecake mixture and swirl together with a toothpick. Add remaining cake batter, then top with the rest of the cheesecake batter and lightly swirl with the toothpick one more time. (I did not go as heavy as I could of with the filling in the middle, do not be afraid to make that layer thick if you would like to achieve a beautiful swirl when cutting into your cake)

1. Bake for 45 minutes uncovered, then another 10-15 minutes(or until a toothpick comes out clean ) covered in foil so the top doesn’t brown too much.

1. Remove foil and let cool. For best results make a day before serving. The flavour develops so much more, and the texture becomes perfectly moist. Serve sliced and drizzled in caramel sauce.