Carrot Cake

Well, I made my own version of the Carrot Cake from 101 cookbooks. The prep work was a little bit time consuming but I think it turned out really well. This is a very dense cake which reminds me more of banana bread or zucchini bread than carrot cake. The batter actually made far more than I needed. It made one loaf pan's worth and then 5 additional muffins. These are the changes that I made (some to make it vegan and others based on the ingredients I had in the house).

• Walnuts (I used a mix of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and almonds)
• Butter (I used Earth Balance and microwaved for about 15 seconds to soften)
• Greek Yogurt (I used plain soy yogurt but I know it is hard to find. Vanilla would be fine)
• 3 bananas (just used 2 and it was more than enough)
• 2 eggs (I whisked up 2 flax seed "eggs" - 2 TB flax meal mixed with 6 TB water, heat in microwave for 30 seconds and then whisk and let cool)
• My "bread" needed far more time that was recommended. I would say it ended up being about 70-75 minutes total and was still very inside.
  

For the frosting (which is absolutely necessary!!!!!), substitute tofutti cream cheese for the regular cream cheese. Before adding the frosting, the bread was just ok so I think you really need to make it. I mixed it up separately and just spread a bit on my slice so it would not spoil. My daughter did not like this-probably not sweet enough- and my husband won't eat carrot cake so now I must consume the entire thing on my own. How awful!!!!