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Carrot cake

This delicious makeover carrot cake recipe is not only cheap to make but can also be made gluten free - great to fill the baking tins with. The ideal morning/afternoon tea treat.

  • Hands-on time: 20 mins
  • Time to make: 1 hr 20 mins
  • Serving: 16 people (makes 16)
Ratings: 4.6
Ingredients

Ingredients

  • spray oil, to grease
  • 1 cup raisins or sultanas
  • 1 orange, zest and juice, plus extra zest to garnish
  • 1 cup wholemeal flour
  • 1 cup self-raising flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon mixed spice
  • 2 eggs, separated
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • ½ cup canola oil
  • 2 cups grated carrots
  • 1 small or ½ medium-sized ripe banana, mashed
    • Icing
    • 150g reduced-fat cream cheese
    • 150g reduced-fat sour cream
    • 4 tablespoons icing sugar
    • 2 tablespoons orange juice
  • Always check food labels for allergens or trace warnings before buying your ingredients.
    Ingredients

    Instructions

    (Stops screen from sleeping)

    1 Preheat oven to 160ºC. Spray a 24cm square cake tin with oil spray. In a bowl place raisins and add orange zest and juice. Set aside while preparing cake mixture.

    2 Place flours in a bowl with baking soda, cinnamon and 1 teaspoon baking powder. And mixed spice.

    3 In a large mixing bowl whisk the egg yolks until pale and creamy. Whisk in the sugar and then the oil, half at a time. Fold in the dry ingredients half at a time. The mixture will be quite dry.

    4 Fold in carrots, raisins and juice and bananas half at a time. In another bowl whisk egg whites until soft peaks form.

    5 Carefully fold the egg whites into carrot mix with the remaining baking powder. Spoon into prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until firm to touch.

    6 To make icing, mix cheese, sour cream, icing sugar and orange juice together until smooth. Spread over cooled cake. Cut into squares and top with orange zest

    Variations

    Make it gluten free: Use gluten-free baking mix in place of flours. Check baking soda, baking powder, icing sugar, ground spices and sour cream are gluten free.

    HFG tip

    Makeover! You save…

    3520kJ (842cal)54g total fat25g sat fat83g sugar170mg sodium

    What we did

    Reduced the amount of oil
    Replaced half the flour with wholemeal for extra fibre
    Reduced sugar
    Reduced the number of eggs, using banana to add bulk
    Made a creamy icing using less than half the quantity by using reduced-fat cheeses, sweetened with a little icing sugar and orange juice
    Served smaller portions

    One comment on Carrot cake

    1. Leonie Lammeree March 19, 2023 at 9:46 pm #

      A very nice moist cake.
      I found it very sweet, I think I would reduce the brown sugar next time

    Leave a comment

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