Healthy Carrot Cake

Last weekend, we celebrated Easter and for the first time, my husband and I hosted our parents for an Easter lunch at our house. We had a feast of food, with some dips and antipasti as starters, roasted leg of lamb as main, with a warm lentil salad, dijon mustard glazed carrots and roasted pumpkin with garlic as sides. Everything turned out good and the food seemed to be enjoyed by all. Sorry I don’t have any photos to share… we were too eager to dig in! 😀

Still, everyone had place for dessert after all! 😀 Besides the traditional Maltese Figolla, I wanted to prepare something else. Being conscious of the amount of sugar intake, especially during this time, I wanted to prepare something which does not include a lot of added sugar. Inspired by the Easter Bunny, a carrot cake was an easy choice to meet our requirements. 🐰🥕

In this recipe, I used wholemeal flour but this can easily be substituted with plain white flour if you prefer. There is no added sugar in this recipe and the main sources of sweetness are the dates and carrots. The cake is spiced with cinnamon and ground cloves and I also included chopped walnuts for an added crunch. A carrot cake would not be complete without a cream cheese frosting! I have also prepared a healthier frosting, using cream cheese, greek yoghurt and some honey for a hint of sweetness.

The result was a light and moist cake with a nice crumb. There’s no refined sugar in it but a lot of carrots and dates. You can almost include a slice of it as one of your 5-a-day! 😂

I hope you too will give it a go and enjoy it as much as we did! 😊😊😊

No-Added Sugar Healthy Carrot Cake

  • Servings: 12 slices
  • Difficulty: easy
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A light, moist, healthy version of the classic carrot cake with no-added sugar


Ingredients

    For the cake:
  • 190g pitted dates
  • 250g wholemeal flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 1 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 240ml rapeseed oil
  • 3 large eggs
  • 340g grated carrots
  • 120g chopped walnuts (optional)
  • For the frosting:
  • 220g cream cheese
  • 240g plain Greek yoghurt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp honey

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Prepare a 9-inch cake tin ready.
  2. In a small saucepan, place the pitted dates and cover them with water. Bring to boil and let them simmer until soft.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Whisk together until well combined.
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and oil together.
  5. Using a blender, puree the dates until smooth.
  6. Add the eggs, oil, pureed dates and grated carrots to the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Make sure that there are no dry lumps visible but do not over-mix the batter.
  7. Pour the batter in the prepared cake tin and bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
  8. Leave the cake to cool slightly in the cake tin before transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely.
  9. For the frosting; in a stand mixer, combine all ingredients together and whisk until smooth.
  10. Let the cake cool completely before spreading the frosting on top. Decorate as you wish (with walnut halves or chocolate bunnies)


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