Healthy Carrot Cake

Moist, tasty, healthy and oh so moorish. This carrot cake gets full marks. Even better, it is gluten free, egg free and refined sugar free. You can even swap out the dairy ingredients for vegan alternatives. Is it possible? Well the proof is in the pudding, as they say.

Serves 10-12

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30-40 minutes

Equipment:

2 x 23 cm cake tins

Electric Whisk

Piping kit (optional)

Medium pan

2 x bowls (1 small, 1 medium)

Ingredients:

3 tbsp of white rice flour 200g of brown rice flour 55g of corn flour or potato starch + 3 tbsp extra 2 tsp of baking soda 0.5 tsp of salt 1 tsp of vanilla extract 0.25 tsp of ground nutmeg 1.5 tsp of ground cinnamon 120g of coconut oil + 2 tbsp extra 100g of carrots, cooked and pureed 125g of tinned or defrosted pineapple pureed 1 tbsp of apple compote (sugar free) 4 tbsp of date syrup/agave or honey 100g of ground walnuts 60ml of milk (plant based) 3 Flax eggs (3 tbsp of milled flax seed plus 7.5 tbsp of water combined and left to rest for 5 minutes)

For the filling: 2 cups of pineapple, defrosted or canned, pureed 2 cups of pineapple or apple juice 6 tbsp of corn flour 1/3 cup of butter (vegan if desired) 2-3 tbsp of date syrup

For the frosting:

200g of cream cheese 125g of vanilla yogurt

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan). In the meantime, grease two 23cm cake tins. 2. In a medium bowl combine all the dry ingredients.

3. In a large bowl, beat together the coconut oil, flax egg and date syrup until well mixed. Add the fruit and carrot purées, along with the milk. Mix well. Add the dry ingredients and combine, taking care not to stir too much.

4. Divide the cake mixture equally into both cake tins and bake for 30-35 minutes until a sharp knife comes out clean. 5. Allow to cool in the tins for 5 minutes and then invert completely on a cooling rack. Cool completely before filling and decorating the cake.

6. For the filling, make a roux by melting the butter in a medium sized pan and stirring in the corn flour. Add the pineapple purée and apple juice. Heat until it starts to boil and turn off the heat. Allow to cool in the fridge until ready to fill the cake. 7. To make the frosting, simply whisk the yogurt and cream cheese together with an electric whisk and pipe or spread onto the cake once it's been filled. This cake is best eaten the day it's made, although can be kept in the fridge