Description
Trying to be healthy doesn’t mean you can’t have a delicious and festive birthday cake. This birthday carrot cake was my first birthday sugar-free, gluten-free, lectin-free, and even low-carb cake (in July 2008). I loved carrot cake, and I wanted to recreate something as good as the best one I remember eating. And it did not disappoint; it’s fluffy, moist, and sweet with a little spice.
Ingredients
FOR THE LAYER CAKES
- 1 1/4 cup blanched almond flour, measured with packed cups (press down as much as you can)
- 3 tbsp coconut flour
- 2/3 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- Spices: 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon + 1/4 tsp nutmeg + 1/2 tsp ginger powder + 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/4 cup of shredded coconut
- 1 cup grated carrots (about two medium carrots)
- 1/3 cup of chopped nuts (walnuts + pecans)
- 3 black mission dry figs, finely chopped
- 1/3 cup avocado oil
- 2 pasture-raised eggs
- 2/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk
- 2–3 tbsp Swerve (non-GMO erythritol)
- 2 tsp vanilla
FOR THE FROSTING
- 8 oz organic cream cheese (I used Organic Valley)
- 5 tbsp French butter at room temperature
- 7 oz of coconut cream (refrigerate your coconut milk can overnight and scoop out the cream on top)
- 2–3 tsp confectioners Swerve (or you can use few drops of Stevia instead)
- 1–2 tsp vanilla
OPTIONAL
- Berries, roasted nuts, and shredded coconut for decorating
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Grease your stoneware or the pans you are using with avocado oil, and line them with two ribbons of parchment paper in a cross, leaving a few inches outside the pans (see photo below).
- Chop your nuts and figs and powder them with a little bit of coconut flour, so they don’t stick together.
- In a big bowl, mix almond and coconut flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
- In a smaller bowl, mix eggs, coconut milk, avocado oil, vanilla, Swerve, or whatever sweetener you use.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients bowl, mix with a spatula until incorporated, and add the grated carrots and the mix of nuts and figs. Fold to combine.
- Add the batter to the two prepared baking dishes and bake for 30 minutes.
- Let them cool completely before you take them out. The two parchment ribbons should make this step super easy.
- To make the frosting, beat with an electric mixer all the ingredients. Taste and adjust sweetness if you wish.
- To assemble the cake, add frosting in between the two layers and on top and decorate with seasonal fruits or/and nuts (if you are roasting nuts, you can do it at 350F for 8-10 minutes).
- The cake is better after refrigeration overnight or at least for a few hours.
Notes
This quantity makes a 5-inch two-layer cake. For a full-size cake, double the ingredients, and increase the baking time. Please note that if you are using coconut cream from a coconut milk can, the can should be refrigerated overnight. The cream rises on top so just scoop it out without mixing it with the water on the bottom. Alternatively, you can use cans of unsweetened coconut cream, but that’s more difficult to find. This cake is better after refrigeration overnight, so think of preparing it in advance.