Today we celebrate in Mexico childhood.I always have had this great memory of having this special day as a kid and be celebrated (besides your birthday, this is a pretty sweet thing!). So speaking of childhood memories, carrot cake has been my absolutely favorite cake ever; the sweetness and textures of this cake always make my heart sing. As I've evolved with my cooking and baking, I've tweaked this recipe to be gluten and dairy free but the flavor and texture is still just scrumptious. To add some nuttiness and more layers of flavor, I've added some roasted macadamia nuts but feel free to use raisins (quite popular with carrot cake) hazelnuts or walnuts. Typically carrot cake is served with cream cheese frosting which I had to eliminate for myself but still made some for my family; a hint of maple syrup gives a really nice flavor to the frosting and compliments the cake quite well.
When we lived in Michigan and my daughters were at Brookview Montessori school, I was in charge of the "slow snack" program for the entire school. Several parents would join me daily to cook a snack made from scratch and seasonal fruits and/or vegetables either purchased but often donated by the families at the school. I brought to the menu a recipe very similar to this for carrot cake but we renamed it "chameleon bread" because we would replace the carrots with produce available that week and still have a wonderful cake for the kids. So go ahead and experiment with this cake too! try zucchini, apples, sweet potato... endless possibilities!
Provecho!
Ingredients:
2 ½ cups of shredded carrots
1 cup of coconut flakes (I used unsweetened)
1 cup of roasted macadamia nuts (optional)
1 cup of vegetable oil
2 cups of sugar (may replace with agave)
2 large eggs - separated
3 cups all purpose gluten free flour (or regular flour if is your liking)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon (I love cinnamon and it's great anti-inflammatory but you can reduce the amount if you'd like)
½ tsp. salt
zest and juice of one orange (about ½ cup of orange juice)
If you want the frosting: take 10 oz. of cream cheese with about 2 tbsp. of maple syrup and 1 tbsp. heavy cream. Cream until blended and top the cake with it.
Directions:
- Preheat the oven at 325F
- In a food processor, finely chop the macadamia nuts. Set aside
- Shred the carrots and measure in a bowl, add orange juice, orange zest, and the chopped macadamia nuts. Blend in with a spatula.
- In a bowl put the sugar, vegetable oil and yolks and blend in the stand mixer until thoroughly combined and pale. Sift aside the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and flour and slowly add them while blending until fully incorporated. Pour the mix into the carrot/nut mix and blend well with a spatula. Set aside.
- In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to develop. Gradually add the sugar and salt while you keep whisking until the egg whites become stiff and glossy. Set aside.
- Take a big spoon of the egg white mix and gently fold it into the carrot batter making sure not to blend hard or over doing it. Slowly keep adding big spoonfuls of the egg white into the batter until is all incorporated and fluffy (should gain volume with the egg whites).
- Prepare a pan (greased and floured) and bake for about 45 minutes or until you insert a toothpick the middle of the cake and comes out clean. Make sure not to overflow the pan with the batter and if necessary, split it in more than one mold before baking.
- Remove from oven, let it cool and then frost with the maple cheesecake frosting.
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