Each bite of vegan carrot cake is packed full of goodies and naturally sweetened with dates and pineapple!

I like to think of myself as having pretty good self control. But when it comes to grocery shopping, that all goes down the drain. Strange how I’ll take two weeks to decide whether or not to buy a $20 shirt but would splurge on a $8 tub of vegan yogurt without hesitation.

When I wander into a grocery store alone, with a purpose or not, I have the tendency to leave with items I don’t need. I’ll go in telling myself, “I’m only here to get bread and one bunch of kale” and I will leave with the kale, two tubs of vegan cream cheese, a bag of apples, and mini chocolate chips from the bulk section. Mini chocolate chips are so cute! Where is the bread though? I’m still missing one of the two items I came for. Typical. I’m a sucker for sales and my blogger brain starts cranking when I spot a new item. Perhaps my lack of self control would benefit from a shopping buddy. But nope.

My best friends only seem to encourage me to make more spontaneous purchases. We will see frozen fruit on sale and if Chew wants the mango and I want the peaches, we end up getting two of each. While juggling all the loose items in our arms (no basket because remember, we weren’t planning on getting anything), we continue to zigzag through the aisles pointing out all the foods that have nostalgic memories attached to them or swooning over the food we’re currently craving. Walking into Whole Foods with our best friends is the worst because we all adore their carrot cake. Since a sheet of cake cost the same price as two single servings, we often leave the store with an entire pan of carrot cake. Our tummies love it but our wallets shake their heads in dismay.

On this past unintentional grocery haul, we had to hurry home because of those bags of frozen fruit and (thankfully) didn’t stop at Whole Foods. The craving for carrot cake was still there so we whipped up this vegan carrot cake that echoed our favourite aspect of the one sold at Whole Foods: the chunks! Wait… are they called chunks? Mix-ins? Goodies? Elements? Whatever you want to call the stuff inside the cake, the nut and fruit to cake ratio is just how I like it.

This vegan carrot cake isn’t quite like your traditional cakes. Think of it more like the fruitcake that makes its appearance around Christmastime: dense and packed full of nuts and fruit. Except with none of that dyed who-knows-what candied fruit bits and copious amounts of refined sugar. Instead we loaded the batter with dates, pineapple, carrots, walnuts, coconut, and raisins. It’s incredible how sweet this cake is without having to add any sugar! There are more fruit and vegetables than anything else in this vegan carrot cake, making it totally okay to eat as a meal right? I’m only half joking, but you can grab a slice, a fork, and join me on the couch if you so please.