The boys are always asking me to make cakes and during one particularly cold afternoon, when the school was closed due to the snow, I was asked to make “rice crispy cakes”. Great idea! I’ll make vegan style rice crispy cakes and enjoy some nice afternoon dessert with a large cup of coffee on PJ day! However, I didn’t have any Rice Krispies and I didn’t have any chocolate to melt. So, I decided to improvise (as usual), by rifling through what I had in the cupboard and hoping for the best. I found some Weetabix (that could work) and Bran Flakes (bingo!) Bran flakes are much better than processed rice crispies anyway, right?
Sadly, I had run out of Maple Syrup and it was too cold to go out with the boys to buy some more, but I did have some brown sugar to sweeten the cocoa powder I had. Plus, I’ll make the whole thing stick together with coconut oil, which would be the fat in the recipe. But, how do I make this whole thing healthier? Well, there are carrots in the fridge… and they are sweet… Let’s see what happens…
So, yes, weirdly, the ingredients are as follows:
Working out what the ingredients were going to be was the hard part. Now, we just fuse the whole thing together, starting by melting the coconut oil, so I could at least work with it to combine the ingredients. I peeled and grated the carrot so that it mixed well with the bran flakes and the cocoa powder and, I swear, you couldn’t even see it in the finished product!
You couldn’t even taste it! The boys were shocked to their core that there was any kind of veg in a well-known kids’ favourite and the bran flakes were a brilliant alternative to Rice Krispies. In fact, they worked so well that I’ll only use bran flakes from now on. I didn’t like the amount of brown sugar I used, but this dessert makes 12, so you’re not going to eat all of them in one sitting. Also, if you add a liquid sweetener, like my favourite, Maple Syrup, you won’t need a 3/4 cup of brown sugar to sweeten this crispy cake.
So, let’s get on with the recipe. Enjoy! This one is indulgent and very tasty!
5-ingredient vegan chocolate carrot branflake crispy cakes
12
servings5
minutes30
minutes35
minutesWith no Rice Krispies in the house, I made these delicious 5-ingredient vegan chocolate carrot branflake crispy cakes. And the boys loved them!
Ingredients
2 carrots, peeled and grated
3/4 cup coconut oil, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 heaped tbsps cacao powder
3 ½ cups of bran flakes
Directions
- Melt the coconut oil for about 50 – 60 seconds until fully melted
- Add cocoa powder to the melted coconut oil and mix well in a large bowl to create a thick gooey consistency
- Add the sugar to the mix and combine well
- Add the grated carrot to the mix and combine well
- Add the mix to the bran flakes and make sure everything is covered really well before it sets. Careful to not crush the bran flakes
- Line a tray with baking paper and add a tbsp spoonful on the baking tray, creating a rounded shape. You don’t need cupcake cases because the coconut oil sets quickly and holds the mixture together
- Put in the fridge to set for around 30 minutes, but they’ll be ready in 10. Then they’ll come out like rice crispie cakes!
Notes
- In a cold environment, the coconut oil will set quite quickly so work quickly! You want to work with melted oil, so you can mix the ingredients in well.
- If at any time your mix hardens because of the coconut oil, just place it in the microwave for a few seconds, so it turns back to a gooey consistency
If you’d like to create this recipe – and I do really think that you should – please do tag me at @fiveforafiver via Facebook/Twitter (@Fiveforafiver1 via Instagram), using the hashtags #fiverfoodies and/or #fiveforafiver, so I can see your awesome creations too!
When you’re ready, here is a list of the cheapest ingredients I could find from Tesco for £4.22 total (prices may vary from 10 March 2018):
(P.S – You can save more money by combining the cocoa powder and brown sugar and just buying regular melting chocolate, which I didn’t have to hand at the time)
KTC 100 100% Pure Coconut Oil, 500ml – £2.25
Tesco Luxury Plain Chocolate, 150g – 80p
Tesco Redmere Farms Carrot, 1kg – 47p
Plus, the recipe has been updated on my weekly Meal Planner too, which is only available to my Fiver Foodie subscribers. My Meal Planner Excel spreadsheet automatically calculates the exact amount of ingredients you need for your weekly shop, depending on the recipes you choose. So, please make sure you subscribe, and the free Meal Planner will be sent over to you in Week 3. You’ll also get a Seasonal Calendar (Week 4) and lots of tips and tricks on how to become more confident in the kitchen too (Week 2 and ongoing). I will, of course, send you tons freebies as well!
Don’t miss out and subscribe now. Form below!
