This is one of the easiest recipes I have made I think. It is also one I make on a regular basis. Dates are a fantastic natural sweetener but obviously in their normal whole form, you can't add them to everything. Turn them into a liquid however, and you have a mild tasting, totally natural and raw sweetener. I like to substitute date syrup in everything from baking to in a green smoothie or even in my cup of tea or hot chocolate.

I came across some beautiful, purple carrots at Harris Farm in Potts Point this morning...it was a bit of a detour on the way home from the market buying the cranberries for these cookies. In fact I had only dropped in to get some organic butter for the cookies but somehow (as usual) walked out with a bag full to the brim of fresh fruit and vegetables.



I was most excited about my purple carrots as I had heard that they had double the nutritional value of the orange ones. I did a bit of research and it turns out that not only are the original carrot (orange being a genetic throwback,) they are little purple powerhouses! Compared to our common orange carrots, they have double the levels of beta-carotene and 28 times more anthocyanins which act to capture harmful free radicals in the body, slow blood clotting and act as an anti-inflammatory agent. They also taste just as delicious too!

I would love to get hold of the entire rainbow of carrot colours...

Anyway, I wanted to use my purple powerhouses in something delicious and healthy and have been meaning to try a raw carrot cake for some time now. I used a combination of purple carrots and their orange friend to get a beautiful depth of flavour and speckled colour throughout this delicious, moist cake. I was quite surprised with how much this tasted just like carrot cake too! It has all the right flavours, sweet carrots, walnuts, coconut and the lemon cashew frosting was simply divine. Bugs Bunny would be impressed!

I have been reading and exploring raw foods over the past few months and I am really starting to enjoy creating new raw dishes or mainly raw. I am not interested in being 100% raw but I certainly love the benefits and how my body feels when I eat more fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds etc... but even more so because I'm eating less and less of the processed foods. One day I will perhaps try a totally raw lifestyle...who knows!