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Our Healthy Carrot Cake Recipe
Carrot Cake has a vegetable in its name so it must be healthy, right? Sadly, cafes and shops often go low on the carrots but high on the butter and refined sugar, leaving you with a spiced sponge that contains only a couple of shavings of the promised carrot. In response to this, here we are with a great recipe for making a ‘properly carroty’ carrot cake. For those of you on a health push: this cake has no refined sugar, only a small amount of fat (and all healthy fats at that) and – of course – lots of carrots, so you don’t have anything to worry about!
A classic carrot cake comes layered with icing in the middle. However, as not that many people have two identical cake tins to bake two layers (and even less people have the patience to bake one layer after another in one tin), we’ll help you out and show you how to make two layers out of one cake in a neat, easy way.
Cooking Tip: How to cut a cake lengthways
If you’ve tried splitting one cake layer into two parts before, you’ll know this can be a decisive, cake-defining moment. Here’s a clever way to cut a cake into two parts that look like they are actually similar:
- Make an incision around the cake where you want the cake to split.
- Cut a long piece of string, wrap it around the cake so that it slots itself in the incision, tie a knot and pull on the ends of the string. Voila – a perfectly neat cut!
Healthy Carrot Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 200g plain flour
- 70g whole wheat flour
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1.5 tsp baking soda
- 3 tsp cinnamon
- 0.5 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 3 egg whites
- 2 tbsp coconut butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 250ml (1 cup) Greek yoghurt for the cake
- 125ml (1/2 cup) Greek yoghurt for the icing
- 80ml maple syrup
- 1 tsp coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
- 270g grated carrots
- 3 tbsp milk
- 200g light cream cheese
- 3 tbsp agave syrup
Method
- Preheat the oven to 175°C / 150°C (fan)
- Grease a 20cm diameter baking tin with a little bit of coconut oil
- Mix the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger - together in a large bowl
- Whisk the egg whites with the coconut butter and vanilla in another large bowl, then stir in the yoghurt, maple syrup and coconut sugar and continue to whisk until a smooth batter forms
- Fold the flour mixture into the yoghurt mixture in 4 roughly equal parts, adding a tablespoon of milk each time
- Fold in the grated carrots, stir thoroughly and pour the mixture into the greased tin
- Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the bake comes out clean
- Make the icing: Mix together the cream cheese, yoghurt and agave syrup. Taste the mixture and add more syrup if required
- Remove the cake from the oven and leave it to cool, before cutting it in half using the tip above.
- Ice both halves of the cake, then top one with the other, cover with any remaining icing and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to allow the icing to set.
If you haven’t seen our other healthy snack posts, now’s the time to discover how to make Peanut Butter Energy Balls, or take a look at our 3 Quick & Easy Breakfast Ideas or 3 Healthy Desserts You Can Make In 10 Minutes for some wholesome cooking inspiration!