I absolutely love carrot cake!!! When I was little, I always thought that I was being super duper healthy by ordering carrot cake when we went out with the family for tea or coffee. Now that I’m older, and somewhat wiser (I hope), I realize that the carrots were healthy, yes, however…all the other stuff…flour, sugar, oil, syrup…not so much.
I initially wanted to use chickpeas, my go to legume, in this recipe, but I soon realized that I didn’t actually have any. The carrots were already grated and the oven was already hot and waiting…so I improvised, and I sure am glad I did. I ended up using cannellini beans that I found right at the back of our cupboard. (I’ve since made the recipe using chickpeas and I was far happier with how the cannellini bean version came out). The beans are naturally soft and blended into a paste so easily!!! I honestly think you will be blown away by how awesome this cake truly tastes!!!
I didn’t top it with a frosting as the cake itself is very dense and I didn’t feel it needed it, however, I did top it with some sugar free white chocolate. If you need some help sourcing some in South Africa, then let me know and I’ll guide you in the right direction.
Grain-Free Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 large carrot, finely grated
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup pitted dates, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes
- ½ cup almond butter
- 2 TBS honey
- 1 TBS vanilla essence
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp mixed spice
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp bicarb
- ¼ cup almonds, roughly chopped (optional)
- 2 TBS carrots, grated (optional)
- ¼ cup sugarfree white chocolate, roughly chopped (optional)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180’ and spray a skillet or cake tin with some cooking spray.
Add the cannellini beans to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides of the blender.
Add the egg, almond butter, honey and vanilla essence to the blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
Drain the dates and add the dates to the blender and blend again.
Add the cinnamon, mixed spice, baking powder, bicarb and grated carrots to the mixture in the blender and stir until well combined.
Pour this mixture into the prepared skillet or cake tin.
Top with the almonds, extra carrots and sugar-free chocolate.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
what do you think?