Ginger-carrot quick bread

I watched this quick bread being made on Everyday Food, a PBS cooking show, and I just had to try it. Of course, they made it with white flour and white sugar, so the carrot juice turned it a beautiful orange color. The color was part of the appeal, but by the time I made the cake "healthy" and vegan, it was a much different color. It looked more like ginger bread, but I can assure you it tasted delish. Because I don't like pieces of nuts in cake, I ground up the walnuts in my food processor until they were crumbly. I think adding the ground nuts made the cake taste richer. It was really easy, too, especially since there was no carrot grating involved.

Ginger-carrot quick bread

• 3/4 cup sucanot (evaporated cain juice)
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups carrot juice
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour*
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup ground toasted walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ and lightly oil a 8" x 4" loaf pan
2. Mix sugar, oil, vanilla and carrot juice in a large bowl.
3. Sift together the flour, ginger, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl. (or just mix together well)
4. Add flour mixture to liquid mixture and mix just until combined. (In other words, don't overmix)
5. Bake 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in the pan and then invert onto a cooling rack.

note: When I peered through the glass door of my oven half way through baking to check on this cake, I never thought it would turn out okay. It looked awfully wet. But it turned out great in the taste department. It wouldn't, however, win any high-rise awards, although it was entirely presentable. Mine took the whole 55 minutes to bake.

Note: * I just made this again and I used white whole wheat flour. The color was much better this time—more orange. The cake rose beautifully and was soft and delicious!