ALMOND CARROT CAKE

By Aysegul Sanford

A delicately sweet Almond Flour Carrot Cake packed with walnuts, golden raisins, coconut, and pineapple. Top it with a maple sweetened vegan cream cheese frosting for the ultimate decadence. This gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, refined-sugar free carrot cake recipe will become your new favourite dessert!

Yield: 8 slices

Prep Time: 30 mins

Cook Time: 1 hr

Total Time: 1 hr 40 mins

Ingredients

For The Almond Flour Carrot Cake:

• ¼ cup (56g) Coconut Oil, plus 1 teaspoon for greasing the pan, melted + cooled
• 1 ½ cups (180g) Almond Flour
• 3 Tbsp (21g) Ground Golden Flaxseed
• 1 tsp (4g) Baking Powder
• ¼ tsp (1g) Baking Soda
• ¾ tsp (3g) Fine Sea Salt
• ½ tsp Ground Cinnamon
• ½ tsp Ground Ginger
• ½ tsp Ground Cardamom
• 3 large Eggs at room temperature
• ½ cup + 2 Tablespoons (125g) Coconut Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Orange Juice freshly squeezed
• ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 2 large Carrots, scrubbed, grated on the smallest holes of a box grater (1 ¼ cups packed)
• ¼ cup (40g) Diced Fresh Pineapple, optional
• ¼ cup (25g) Toasted, Chopped Walnuts
• ¼ cup (40g) Golden Raisins
• ¼ cup (25g) Shredded Unsweetened Coconut, optional

For The Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 2 Tablespoons (20g) Unsalted Vegan Butter, cool room temperature
• ½ cup (113g) Vegan Cream Cheese, cool room temperature
• 2 Tablespoons (42g) Pure Maple Syrup
• ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• Squeeze of Lemon/Orange Juice about ½ teaspoon

Instructions

To Make The Carrot Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and place a rack in the centre of the oven. Grease an 20 to 23- cm cake pan with 1 teaspoon coconut oil and line the bottom with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, ground flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cardamom.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, remaining coconut oil, coconut sugar, orange juice and vanilla until well combined, silky smooth and emulsified. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in the walnuts, golden raisins and coconut (if using). Fold in the carrots, pineapple (if using), and walnuts.
3. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 1 hour (20cm) or 50-55 minutes (23cm), or until lightly brown. You can test with a toothpick, when it comes out clean, the cake is done baking and ready to go.
4. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then gently remove from the pan, discard the parchment paper and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Top with the frosting.

To Make The Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment or with a large bowl and hand held mixer, beat butter and cream cheese on medium-high speed until very smooth, about 2 minutes.
2. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add maple syrup, vanilla extract, and lemon/orange juice.
3. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl halfway through.
4. If needed, chill for 10 minutes in the fridge to stiffen slightly to spreadable consistency.

If you prefer individual low carb carrot cakes, divide the batter into a 12-cup muffin tin lined with parchment paper liners. Bake in a 180 degrees C oven in the centre of the oven for 20-25 minutes.

How To Store Leftovers

If you happen to end up with leftovers, you can store this low sugar carrot cake in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week. After about 4 days, the cake will begin to dry out, so I would recommend freezing it after the 4-day mark.

To freeze, place a piece of plastic wrap over the entire opening of your container, seal tight, label, date and freeze for up to 1 month.

A Few Helpful Tips for The Best Cake:

• Use room temperature ingredients for the cake, but cool room temperature ingredients for the vegan frosting. I know this sounds confusing, but cake mix ingredients that are warm-room temperature combine better, whereas frosting ingredients that are a bit colder whip to a better consistency.
• Bake this flourless carrot cake in the centre of your oven. There is where the heat is most even. I tested one cake with the convection setting on my oven, but I still placed my oven rack in the centre for added insurance.

Nutrition

Calories: 402kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 61mg | Sodium: 460mg | Potassium: 187mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 3775IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 112mg | Iron: 2mg