Recipe Reduced Sugar Carrot Cake (also can be dairy free)

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I was rewatching the BBC's Great British Bake Off Master Classes where Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood bake their own recipes.

I was particularly taken with the reduced sugar carrot cake because it was also dairy free up until the filling and frosting that is and thought that I might include the recipe here. For the next 3 weeks you can watch the masterclass here (if you are in the UK, I don't know about other countries), but the recipes are all online at both the program website, here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/programmes/b013pqnm .

Anyhow this recipe took my fancy because it uses oil, not butter or marg and is therefore dairy free for the cake body and there are alternatives which could be used such as pureed cashew nuts for the decoration and oatly oat cream for the filling (I'm allergic to diary products).

Ingredients - Cake

• 200ml/7fl oz vegetable oil
• 3 free-range eggs
• 175ml/6fl oz agave syrup (also known as agave nectar)
• 400g/14oz carrots, peeled and grated
• 275g/9¾oz self-raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 150g/5½oz sultanas
• 150g/5½oz walnuts pieces
• 1 orange, finely grated zest only

Ingredients - Frosting

• 400g/14oz full-fat cream cheese
• 50g/1¾oz unsalted butter, softened
• 50ml/2fl oz maple syrup
• 25g/1oz walnut pieces, chopped
• ground cinnamon, for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Oil and line 2 x 20cm/8in sandwich tins.
   
2. Pour the oil into a large mixing bowl with the eggs and agave syrup and beat together. Add the carrots and mix together.
   
3. In a separate bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and mixed spice together. Add the sultanas, walnuts and orange zest and stir to coat in the flour.
4. Tip the flour mixture into the carrot mixture and stir together gently, until well combined. Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 40 minutes. Cover with aluminium foil after 20-30 minutes to prevent the tops from burning.
   
5. Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
   
6. For the frosting, place the cream cheese in a piece of clean muslin or thin cleaning cloth (such as a J Cloth) and squeeze out any liquid. (This removes the moisture from the cheese so that the frosting isn’t too wet). Place the cream cheese in a bowl and beat until smooth. Add the butter and maple syrup and beat together. Refrigerate until needed.
   
7. Sandwich the sponges together with half of the frosting. Spread a very thin layer of frosting over the top of the cake and spoon the remaining frosting into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm/½in plain nozzle. Sprinkle the chopped walnuts over the top of the frosting.
8. Pipe small kisses of frosting around the edge of the cake and dust with cinnamon.
   

 

[winterybella]

Pretty to look at but I am not quite ready to do decorating. I still believe in my motto to perfect the cake before you start to decorate.

 

[Berties]

After the jamie programme of late ,we have been thinking about what sugars we have been using in our food,these type of recipes are a great start

 

[Morning Glory]

I have some agave syrup but haven't tried using it in baking. May have a go at this (minus all the frosting, which is not my thing). It so happens I ordered too many carrots in the Tesco delivery today and I have all the other ingredients. The only thing that worries me is grating all those carrots. by hand. I suppose I could get the food processor out of the cellar (I never use it!). Is it worth it to grate a few carrots?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

14oz of carrots is not that many. What is it 3 or 4?and they are a coarse grate not a fine grate if I remember correctly from the program.

It's available on the BBC iplayer for another 10 days yet, so you could watch it if you want. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06kq3b8/the-great-british-bake-off-masterclass-episode-3

 

[lexinonomous]

This would be a great recipe to share with my grandmother. She is constantly looking into new recipes with low sugar. She has to watch her sugar intake closely. This might even be a nice thing to bring to Thanksgiving dinner this year. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Morning Glory]

14oz of carrots is not that many. What is it 3 or 4?and they are a coarse grate not a fine grate if I remember correctly from the program.

It's available on the BBC iplayer for another 10 days yet, so you could watch it if you want. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06kq3b8/the-great-british-bake-off-masterclass-episode-3

You are right! I was thinking it was loads more carrots.

 

[Morning Glory]

I made this recipe yesterday. If I have time between making up aubergine recipes I'll post a photo. I found it came out a bit heavy but my daughter seems to like it a lot. I think it would benefit from a good dowsing in brandy or rum!

 

[Morning Glory]

At last I've found time to post the result. I'm actually really pleased with it. Its kept fantastically well since Monday (really moist) and its not too sweet. In fact, I tasted the 'trimmings' when it came out of the tin and decided it needed icing after all. So I just put a thin layer of icing and then a 'snowfall' of icing sugar and some edible glitter. I made it as one cake rather than as a sandwich cake.