Name: Lighter spiced carrot cake
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: Cuts into 15 squares
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 125ml rapeseed oil plus a little extra for greasing; 300g wholemeal flour; 2 tsp baking powder; 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 1 tbsp mixed spice; 100g dark soft brown sugar; 140g carrot grated; 140g sweet potato peeled and grated; 200g sultana; 2 large eggs; 4 tbsp agave syrup; juice 2 oranges; 200g quark; 50g fromage frais; 3 tbsp icing sugar sifted; zest 1 orange

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Lighter spiced carrot cake

Lighter spiced carrot cake

Sarah Cook

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Cuts into 15 squares

Easy

Prep: 30 mins

Cook: 30 mins

Plus cooling

A star rating of 4.3 out of 5.12 ratingsRate

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All the joy of baking with healthier results! This traybake uses sweet potato for natural sweetness and lower fat frosting

Freezable (Freeze un-iced)

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Ingredients

Nutrition

Units:

MetricUS

125ml rapeseed oil

plus a little extra for greasing
300g wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp mixed spice
100g dark soft brown sugar
140g carrot

grated
140g sweet potato

peeled and grated
200g sultana
2 large eggs
4 tbsp agave syrup
juice 2 oranges

For the icing

200g quark
50g fromage frais
3 tbsp icing sugar

sifted
zest 1 orange

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Nutrition: per square

kcal269
fat10g
saturates1g
carbs38g
sugars25g
fibre3g
protein6g
salt0.4g

low

Method

step 1

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line a 20 x 30cm traybake tin with baking parchment. Mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarb, spice and sugar in a big mixing bowl. Stir in the grated carrots, sweet potatoes and sultanas. In a jug, whisk together the eggs, rapeseed oil, agave syrup and juice from 1 orange. Tip the wet ingredients into the bowl and stir to combine, then scrape into the tin. Bake for 25-30 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Prick all over with a skewer and drizzle over the remaining orange juice. Cool in the tin.
step 2

Once cool, make the icing. Stir the quark with a spoon to make it a bit smoother, then fold in the fromage frais, icing sugar and orange zest. Spread all over the cake and slice into squares to eat.

RECIPE TIPS

HOW WE MADE IT HEALTHIER

Healthy bakes can sometimes be a little dry as they contain less fat. Adding grated veg is a great way to combat this. As well as carrots, we added sweet potatoes – which also have the benefit of naturally sweetening the batter, allowing us to reduce the sugar. Soaking the sponge in extra fruit juice once it’s baked also helps to keep it moist. We still needed a little fat, so we used rapeseed oil, which is a healthier alternative to butter or sunflower oil.

Recipe from Good Food magazine, November 2012

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A star rating of 4.3 out of 5.12 ratings

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