Carrot Cake with Pineapple for One

I’m really not good at cake frosting. Let’s set that aside for a moment. This carrot cake is moist, unctuous, carroty, pineapply, and scrumptious to the last bite! Why don’t you make one, frost it nicely, and send me an image? It would be nice to see it done properly. It tastes the same, though, even when it’s not pretty.

For the Cake:

1 TBLSP ground flax seed meal

1 ½ TBLSP water

½ cup granulated sugar

5 ½ TBLSP vegetable oil

Slosh of vanilla extract

10 TBLSP all-purpose flour, divided

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon baking soda

Pinch kosher salt

¼ cup raisins

¼ cup chopped walnuts

1 cup carrots, grated and packed loosely

2 TBLSP diced fresh pineapple

For the Frosting:

3 ounces vegan cream cheese at room temperature

4 TBLSP unsalted vegan butter at room temperature

Slosh vanilla extract

1 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted

For Decoration:

2 TBLSP diced fresh pineapple

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 2 5-inch cake pans. (I use single-serving casserole pans with great success.) Line them with parchment paper and then grease and flour the pans again.

Make the Cake:

1. In a small bowl, combine the flax and water and set it aside to form a glop that you will use as an egg substitute.
2. In another small bowl, beat the sugar and oil together until it’s homogenous, and then add the flax glop. Add the vanilla too, and mix it all well.
3. In another small bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
4. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet. (You’ll re-use the dry bowl in the next step.)
5. In a small bowl, combine the raisins and walnuts. Put a pinch of flour in there and toss them together. (This keeps the raisins and walnuts suspended nicely in the batter, rather than letting them sink to the bottom.) Add the carrots and pineapple.
6. Add the carrot mixture to the batter and mix well. It will be hard to get the batter integrated with all those delicious carrots, but just keep after it.
7. Divide the batter equally between the two pans.
8. Bake for 50-55minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. It will be quite dark.
9. Allow the cakes to cool completely in the pans on a wire rack. If it’s a warm day, you might consider sticking the little darlings in the refrigerator for a little bit.

Make the Frosting:

1. In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. Add in the sugar and mix until the whole thing is pretty smooth.
2. Let it rest in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to half an hour. It will spread better when it’s a little bit cold.

Festoon the Cake:

1. Place one layer of cake on a serving dish. I like to elevate it on top of a mug to make it easier to frost, but you do what works best for you.
2. With a knife or offset spatula, smear the top of that first layer with frosting. You don’t have to go quite to the edges and it will squish out a bit when you put on the second layer.
3. Place the second layer neatly on top of the frosted first one. Spread the frosting on the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with diced pineapple.

Roasted Carrot Hummus for One

I make hummus every week. Plain old chickpea could get pretty boring, so I often experiment with different beans and herb combinations with marvelous results. But what happens when the main vegetable isn’t a legume at all? Happiness, I tell you; it makes simple joy.

Makes about a cup of dip.

2 cloves garlic

4 carrots

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 TBLSP tahini

1 TBLSP lemon or lime juice. More, if you like it tart.

1 TBLSP olive oil

Sprinkle of dried parsley

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

1. Place two naked but whole garlic cloves on a piece of aluminum foil and place that on a baking sheet. 
2. Cut a large piece of parchment paper (you’ll be wrapping the carrots in it).
3. Cut the carrots into 1-inch segments. Place them on the large parchment paper.
4. Sprinkle olive oil (be frugal—you don’t need much) and salt and pepper over the carrots. Rotate ‘em around a bit, to make sure that everything is covered.
5. Bring two edges of the parchment paper together and fold them several times to make a tight little packet. You’ll want to fold the other edges together too. Tuck and fold until the little darlings are sealed inside there and place the packet on the same baking sheet as the garlic.
6. Bake everything for 10 minutes. Flip the garlic over and bake for another 10 minutes. (The carrots are getting 20 minutes undisturbed.)
7. At 20 minutes, pull the garlic out and set the little brownish and soft darlings into the food processor or blender. You can touch the packet to see if the carrots are soft yet. They probably won’t be, and will need another 10 minutes alone in the oven.
8. Meanwhile, add the tahini, lemon juice, TBLSP of olive oil, salt and pepper, and the parsley to the food processor. You can give ‘em a little preliminary twirl if you are an inveterate button pusher, but it’s not necessary.
9. When the carrots are soft (a knife should go in fairly easily), open the parchment and plop them into the food processor or blender, and whirl everything until it’s fairly smooth. You might adjust oil or lemon as well as salt and pepper to suit your taste before pulling the gorgeous glop out of the machine.

Serve with Butternut Squash Chips for One (coming soon) or carrots, cucumber, and celery, depending on how lavish you want your treat.

Also makes a great sandwich spread and is especially delicious with Dried Fig Tapenade.

Japanese Carrot and Ginger Salad Dressing for One

I’ve never been much of a fan of iceberg lettuce unless you put it underneath that fabulous Japanese salad dressing. So when a neighbor gave me a big sack of already chopped salad that was mostly iceberg, I had to play with my food.

¼ large carrot, peeled and chopped

¼ cup vegan mayonnaise

½ TBLSP ground ginger

½ TBLSP soy sauce

½ TBLSP granulated sugar

1. In a food processor or blender, combine carrot, mayonnaise, ginger, soy sauce, and sugar.
2. Blend until it’s fairly smooth. I like a few chunks, but you do it how you like it.

Serve on a mostly iceberg lettuce salad with cabbage, carrot, and green onion for a restaurant-style salad.

This recipe could easily double or triple if you're not dining alone. 

I like this elegant dressing and salad with a roll of avocado sushi and some miso soup, but it would certainly be nice on a more elaborate salad and served as a main course. Like this:

Variations:

• Use ½ inch or so of freshly grated ginger instead of ground.
• Sprinkle in a few grains (and I mean just a few grains) of wasabi powder. It will mix with the sugar and be SUPER hot, so really: Go easy.