Healthy Carrot Cake with macadamia nut frosting

This healthy carrot cake recipe is made with coconut oil, significantly less sugar, and goes great with macadamia nut frosting.

A few days ago, I told my hunny I would not try to make another carrot cake for his birthday. The first one I made for him, was huge, dense, moist, but dense, it took days to make our way through ½ of the leftovers and we ended up giving the rest to our dog. BUT, I couldn’t resist trying to make another, better, healthier and with less sugar. This one comes out, light, moist, and moderately sweet, so you can eat an entire piece and feel good. 

Recipe for Healthy Carrot Cake:

Yield: This recipe makes approx. one 9 x 12 by 2 inch cake, 15 servings or so.

Ingredients for the cake:

dry…

• 2 cups organic white flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons aluminum free baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnmon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1 teaspoon celtic sea salt

wet…

• 4 eggs beaten well
• 1 ¼ cup organic coconut oil (liquid, if you melt it make sure it cools before adding)
• 1 ¼ cup brown cane sugar (to taste)/
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups grated carrots

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Oil glass baking pan with coconut oil
3. Mix the dry ingredients well in medium bowl.
4. In large bowl, add the beaten eggs, coconut oil, vanilla, and sugar.
5. Gently mix in the grated carrots.
6. Add, little by little, the dry ingredients to the wet.
7. Lastly, add to oiled baking pan and bake for 40-50 minutes until the cake springs back when you poke with a finger or when toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Macadamia Nut Maple Syrup frosting

Yield: approx: 1 ½ cups

Ingredients for the frosting:

• 2 ½ cups macadamia nuts
• up to ¼ cup maple syrup
• 4 drops of liquid, alcohol free stevia
• 2 tablespoons + water

Steps:

1. Add mac nuts, add ½ maple syrup (2 tablespoons) and water to a good blender and blend on high .
2. Next, taste for sweetness, add a few drops of stevia (not too many as it can enhance the flavor of maple syrup but too much can make it taste almost bitter).
3. Add more maple syrup to taste.

Variation –

This slight variation will allow you to feed a few more people. It is 1.5 times the recipe above. I also use maple syrup instead of sugar and add cinnamon and a bit more oil to give the cake more moisture.

Ingredients for the cake:

dry…

• 3 cups organic white flour
• 4 teaspoons baking soda
• 4 teaspoons aluminum free baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon celtic sea salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

wet…

• 6 eggs beaten well
• 2 3/4 cups organic coconut oil (liquid, if you melt it make sure it cools before adding)
• ⅔ cups maple syrup
• 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 4.5 cups grated carrots