Healthy Carrot Cake

1. Preheat oven to 175°C fan bake, and grease the sides and line the base of a 19cm spring form cake tin.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk wet ingredients with a beater until frothy (milk down to vanilla extract).
3. Sift dry ingredients into wet, and gently stir until just combined with no visible flour (flour down to sea salt).
4. Add the carrots, dates, walnuts and orange zest, and fold very gently until just combined (don’t over mix or your cake will turn out too dense).
5. Pour mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes until the top springs back when touched and a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean and dry.
6. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it upside down onto a wire rack and carefully peel the baking paper off the base. Turn it back over and leave to cool on the wire rack (bottom should be exposed to air so it can dry properly and not go soggy).
7. For the cream cheese icing: Add all ingredients (the soaked and drained cashews down to sea salt) into a powerful blender or processor (I use a Thermomix). Process for 3-4 minutes until super creamy, scraping down the sides a few times in between to make sure there are no lumps. The result shouldn’t have any bits of cashew nut left. It should be completely silky smooth like a thick cream.
8. When the cake is completely cooled, ice with cream cheese icing and sprinkle with extra pumpkin seeds or walnuts. Pop the cake in the fridge before slicing if you want a really clean slice like in the image below, or slice straight away if you don’t mind a rustic look. Enjoy!