Carrot birthday cake

Today was my cousin's birthday. Last night my mum was talking about buying her a birthday cake and I asked her what kind she'd like. She said to me that she wanted me to get her a vegan cake so that I could have some too. I told her that there probably isn't anywhere I could get my hands on a vegan birthday cake, but that I'd be happy to make one for her. 

We went through my Sweet Vegan cookbook that I received for my birthday from some close friends and we found a recipe for a carrot cake. My cousin is an international student from Vietnam who is over in Australia to study. She told me that she has never had carrot cake before but loves the idea of cinnamon, raisins, walnuts are carrots all combined in cake form. 

Unfortunately she had uni all day today, but it gave me the chance to have the whole kitchen to myself to do some baking. The cake was fairly simple to make and I made sure that I followed the recipe the best I could. 

The photo of the carrot cake looked amazing in the cookbook. In the process of trying to replicate the picture in the book, I actually ended up making carrot rose garnishes. In the book photo, the decorations on top of the cake were thin strips of carrot rolled up and placed around the edge of the cake. I ended up Googling how to make carrot roses and made four of these to put in the centre of the cake instead. I added some mint leaves I found in the fridge for a finishing touch to go with the carrot roses. 

All in all, this was the first time making a birthday cake so huge but I'm really happy with what I pulled off. 

My cousin was ecstatic when she saw the cake :) Happy birthday was sung, candles were blown out, wishes were made and bellies were filled up with sugary goodness. How every birthday should be I reckon.