My daughter Anneliese just turned 14! Can you believe it? She was just born! (For those of you who’ve been around here that long, I even wrote her birth story on this blog.)
For her birthday, we celebrated with our family, with cake, fruit salad, and games, a low key and healthy birthday party, just as she wanted. Anneliese asked for carrot cake, and wanted the cake made without white sugar, so I found this honey sweetened carrot cake recipe and made adjustments to work with what I have in the house, in addition to making it gluten free so that I could also eat it.
It came out beautifully and was so delicious, we couldn’t stop eating it.
I’ve included variations that you can do to make it allergy friendly, both egg free and dairy free, and if you want to replace honey with jaggery syrup, you could make it entirely vegan as well.
Highly recommended.
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour flour
- Homemade gluten free blend:
- 1 1/2 cups rice flour
- 1 1/2 cups corn starch or potato starch
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- OR all purpose wheat or gluten free flour mix
- Homemade gluten free blend:
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger or 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
- 1 1/2 cups honey
- 1 cup regular or non dairy milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Eggs
- 3 eggs
- OR 3 tablespoons ground flax seeds mixed with 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup sour cream, regular or vegan
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups grated carrot (about 4 to 5 medium carrots)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a 9×9 round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper if desired.
- Grate your carrots. Big or small hole on the grater doesn’t really matter; it’s up to you.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour (either the gluten free blend or all purpose flour), baking soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and ginger. If using flax eggs add the flax seeds now as well. Mix well until uniform.
- Add the rest of the ingredients other than the carrots and mix until just combined and there are no clumps.
- Fold in the grated carrot until evenly distributed.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
- Bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes, then, if desired, remove. Cool completely before serving.
- Frost if desired. I used a frosting made of butter, powdered sugar, and milk and used a light layer on the cake for a naked cake look, as my daughter requested.
- Enjoy!
Does this look like a recipe you’d try? Which version would you make? What is your favorite type of birthday cake?
