a delectable vegan carrot cake

This is by far the best vegan carrot cake recipe out there. The original recipe can be found at: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6516.0 They give a delicious "cream cheese" icing recipe as well. I did make some alterations, however, and the results were splendid. My (Southern) parents simply couldn't get enough of this carrot cake. I made the following changes:

• The original recipe calls for 1 cup vegetable oil. Pretty much any time a cake or other recipe calls for this much oil, I put about 1/3 the amount. It just isn't necessary to put more than about 1/3 cup oil, especially when making any kind of cake containing fruits or vegetables (like pumpkin). This carrot cake is very moist without the excess oil, especially since you are using carrots, pineapple, and coconut. I put 1/3 c. of oil, and then when mixing the batter I added just a little more oil -- a tsp. or so at a time -- until the right cake batter consistency was reached. The second time I made the cake I didn't add more oil, but instead mixed in some pineapple juice leftover from draining the crushed pineapple in order to get a good cake batter consistency. This made for a great cake as well. This is certainly much preferable to adding 2/3 cup more vegetable oil.
• The recipe calls for coconut. I used frozen shredded coconut (from the local Indian store). This is much better than what you get in the regular grocery store because it is frozen fresh and contains no added sugar.
• I probably put a few more ounces of crushed pineapple than what is calls for. More pineapple is always better!
• Add about a cup of chopped walnuts at the end.

I wanted to take a picture of the whole cake, but most of it was devoured before I could get the camera. This cake is AWESOME. Try this out on your non-vegan friends. They are likely to convert to veganism immediately with the first bite.