Carrot cake

This delicious makeover carrot cake recipe, is not only vegetarian but can be made gluten free, great to fill the baking tins with. The perfect healthy morning/afternoon tea treat.

Serves: 16 (makes 16)
Time to make: 1 hr 20 mins
( Hands-on time: 20 mins )

Total cost: $ 12.80 / $ 0.80 per serve

(at time of publication)

Ingredients

oil spray, to grease
1 cup raisins or sultanasgolden raisinsX
1 medium-sized orange,
zest and juice
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 sugarlight brown cane sugarX
½ cup canola oil
2 cups grated carrots
1 small or ½ medium-sized ripe banana, mashed
IcingFrostingX
150g reduced-fat cream cheese
150g reduced-fat sour cream
4 tablespoons icingfrostingX sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice

Instructions

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 Whisk egg yolks until pale and creamy. Whisk in sugar and then oil, half at a time. Fold in 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. Whisk egg whites until soft peaks form.

5 Carefully fold 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 cheeses, icing sugar and orange juice together until smooth. Spread over cooled sponge. Cut in squares.

Nutrition Info (per serve)

Kilojoules 1010kJ

Calories 242cal

Protein 4g

Total fat 11g

–Saturated fat 2g

Carbohydrates 30g

–Sugars 21g

Dietary fibre 2g

Sodium 230mg

Calcium 90mg

Iron 1mg

Note: Nutrition composition will vary depending on the exact ingredients used. For a guide to purchasing healthier packaged goods and general grocery items see here.

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

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