My boyfriend has been asking me to make him a carrot cake since the day we moved in together – over a year ago! If I’m going to make a cake, I like to use whatever is quick and handy in the kitchen – not something that requires a huge list of ingredients and multiple trips to the shops. But since it’s his birthday I wanted to make him something a little bit special…and healthy of course! This recipe uses quiet a few ingredients – don’t let that put you off, it’s extremely easy to make. Besides, you can enjoy the rewards afterwards without the guilt!
INGREDIENTS
1.5 cup almond meal
3/4 cup coconut sugar
1 cup coconut flour
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup rice bran oil
3 cups grated carrot
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup raisins
2 tsp vanilla essence
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp each: All spice, nutmeg, ground ginger
3/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup sunflower seeds, roughly chopped
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 160 C, and grease a 20cm round baking tin.
- Roughly chop walnuts and sunflower seeds, then combine all ingredients into a bowl and mix well. You may need to add a little water to the mixture if it is too dry. You can substitute rice bran oil for melted butter or coconut oil. Coconut flour can be replaced with any type of flour.
- Pour mixture into prepared baking tin, it is quiet thick so you will probably need to press it down into the tin and smooth over the top.
- Cover with foil to prevent the top from burning, and bake for 1.5hrs
- Remove cake from the oven and allow to cool before removing from the tin.
ICING
Add 200g cream cheese, 1tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 cup rice malt syrup, and a pinch of vanilla essence. Mix well with electric beaters. Apply to cake and sprinkle with crushed walnuts.
Enjoy xx