Birthday carrot cake

I saw this recipe a few weeks ago, on a fab blog (if you love weight lifting then check it out as she is awesome), and I knew I would have to try it.

It is grain free and gluten free, and to make it free from refined sugar you could miss off the icing, but where is the fun in that?

Cake in the making- a mess in my little kitchen

The recipe said 3 large carrots, but mine were huge so I think I could have used 2 of them! I needed a bigger bowl to mix it all. I added some sultanas, and I used pecan nuts as I love them.

Also it took around an hour to cook, but of course all ovens vary.

I made a lemon cream cheese icing, with some lemon juice, icing sugar, cream cheese, and lemon zest on the top.

It was fab! It didn’t taste super sweet like most cakes do, and I bet it would make lovely breakfast muffins if you cooked them in individual cases.

I also found this in the chiller section of Waitrose at the weekend (and apparently Tesco stock it too)- I used to love the Kara coconut milk, but when they changed to the Koko stuff for some reason I went off it, they must have changed the recipe. Anyway, this is scrumptious.

Are you an icing fan? I normally prefer the cake (which is why despite the blog name I prefer normal cake to cupcakes), but when something has a lemon icing I am won over!

Loading Facebook Comments ...

25 thoughts on “Birthday carrot cake”

  1. How odd – I wasn’t so keen on that coconut milk when it was Kara, but I love it now that it’s Koko. I thought they might have changed it, but the nutrition stats were the same, so I assumed not…interesting! It’s just nice to have something that isn’t loaded with sugar and calories like Rice Dream to put in my tea, anyway.

    I used to live for the icing on cakes, but these days I’d go for the cake itself. I definitely had the worst sweet tooth when I was younger, and it’s taken ages to wean myself off sugary foods.

    xxx

  2. I am a sucker for carrot cake, but like you, I am more about the cake than icing as a general rule. However, I am not one of those people who leaves the icing (an ex-colleague used to do that).

    I am using the same coconut milk in my porridge. It is quite pleasant.

    1. I would leave butter icing if there was too much, but I love cream cheese icing 🙂 yes the milk is fab in porridge.

  3. Happy birthday for last week! The cake looks lovely. I’m definitely a sucker for icing, I don’t really like too many sweet things these days, but give me a cupcake with a cloud of butter icing (who am I kidding…or any other cake with icing really) and I’m in heaven!

    1. Thanks 🙂
      It is a great recipe, especially considering how much lower in sugar it is compared to “normal” cake.

  4. O godddd carrot cake! In the top ten, banana bread still tops it tho!
    Thanks so much for your blog comment (and all your blog comments actually), your blog is one of the few reliable ones I just always love to read, it’s like catching up with a friend 🙂

    1. Thanks 🙂 Yours too-I love your sense of humour – it comes across very well in your posts 🙂
      I do love banana bread too but have not made it in years- I only make it when we have black bananas so we must be too good at eating them before they get to that stage.

  5. Yum that recipe sounds great. I love carrot cake – especially with cream cheese icing, but I hardly ever eat it. This recipe sounds a bit healthier! As I get older, the icing is less appealing to me, sometimes I’d rather just have a little yoghurt to go along with the cake.

    1. Yoghurt is a good idea. The cake is not very sweet tasting, so the icing I suppose makes it taste more like a “normal” cake, but you could make it without fur sure.

  6. There is something about drizzled icing over the top of a cake…wins me over every time! I do love lemon icing – much more than I enjoy lemon flavoured cake.

  7. Well I think I’m a child at heart because the best bits of cake is the icing! Or the middle layer of filling. I do love carrot cake so this sounds fantastic. I actually baked at the weekend (shock horror!) but nothing as exciting as this (just easy cupcakes).
    I bought the coconut milk too. It’s divine! I love it in my porridge – though it is a little sweeter than almond milk. But very tasty.

    1. So exciting that you baked ! 🙂
      Cupcakes are just little versions of a big cake you know- not really much different.
      Yes the coconut milk is sweeter I think- there is a bit of coconut cream in there so maybe that is why.

  8. I am a big fan of the KOKO milk, especially the chocolate one.
    Strangely, I have never tried carrot cake before. I am not sure why. I think it might be because if I am going to have cake, I usually go straight for chocolate.

    1. Chocolate would be my last choice (well apart from coffee as I don’t like that at all)- I love a chocolate brownie but not cake really. Carrot cake is very good 🙂

  9. I love carrot cake 🙂 The link doesn’t work at the moment, as her blog is down- I’ll try again later to get the recipe.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *