Lighter spiced carrot cake

Lighter spiced carrot cake

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

Difficulty and servings

Easy

CUTS INTO 15 squares

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 30 mins

Cook time

Cook 30 mins

plus cooling
Freezable

FREEZE un-iced

Method

  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.
  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.
Try

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.

PER SQUARE

269 kcalories, protein 6g, carbohydrate 38g, fat 10 g, saturated fat 1g, fibre 3g, sugar 25g, salt 0.4 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, November 2012.

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Latest comments and suggestions

  • Binder photo tinkestral

    11 November 2012

    tinkestral rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I have tryed this one yet but will do tomorrow, i love carrot cake and i cant just have one peice so hopefully this recipe will mean i can have three lol

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  • Binder photo Alice

    17 November 2012

    Alice commented on this recipe

    Is there anythig I can use different to Agave Syrup, honey or golden syrup? I live in Spain and I have never come across it in the supermarkets.

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  • Binder photo kathie1234

    21 November 2012

    kathie1234 commented on this recipe

    Hi Alice I believe it is a sweetner so any type of sweetner will do i quess It is twice as sweet as sugar but less calories

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  • Binder photo tartybaker

    23 November 2012

    tartybaker rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Wow, what a fantastic cake. It is so easy to make.. It is packed with flavour. I added a little bit more of the mixed spice than the reciepe said & it was beautiful, very moist which I didn't really expect from a low fat cake. I did have a problem with the icing in the fact that it was very runny. Measurements were weighed exact, the picture shows a much firmer, stable frosting. I would be really greatful for any suggestions on this. Even the least experienced baker will cope with this one & the added bonus is you would never know it is low in fat.

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  • Binder photo caroline

    26 November 2012

    caroline rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This is the best carrot cake recipe I have tried - not too oily, but tasty, moist and light! For the icing I replaced the small amount of fromage frais with creme fraiche (which happened to be in the fridge) - I didn't have any problems with it being too runny.

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  • Binder photo Louisa Smith

    04 January 2013

    Louisa Smith rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Yummy, moist cake - from the taste, it's hard to believe it's healthier than regular cake. I've made this twice, for friends and colleagues, and both times it got rave reviews. I couldn't find natural fromage frais in any of my local supermarkets so the first time I made this I just left it out, but the icing was very runny. The second time, I added some cream cheese (philly) and it seemed a little less runny.

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  • Binder photo mechelle

    29 January 2013

    mechelle commented on this recipe

    A really easy recipe. I left out the syrup and orange juice, (as I had none) but it was still fab. As a novice baker it passed the table test, none left!

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  • Binder photo mechelle

    29 January 2013

    mechelle commented on this recipe

    A really easy recipe. I left out the syrup and orange juice, (as I had none) but it was still fab. As a novice baker it passed the table test, none left!

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  • Binder photo mechelle

    29 January 2013

    mechelle rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • Binder photo Exotic

    29 January 2013

    Exotic commented on this recipe

    Has anyone made this cake without egg, if so what did you use instead in this recipe please as I am a vegan Thank you

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  • Binder photo den

    03 February 2013

    den commented on this recipe

    @Exotic sometimes a mashed banana will do as an egg sub, but even better and more nutritious is flaxseeds soaked in a little water- they go 'gummy' and are ace at binding. Google it for measures :)

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  • Binder photo totybear1

    08 April 2013

    totybear1 commented on this recipe

    I deviated from the recipe for health and supply reasons but the end result was delicious cake - used spelt flours instead of wheat for health - omitted sugar for similar reasons and don't have a sweet tooth - used maple syrup instead of agave as ran out of latter - cake was lighter in colour because of lack of dark sugar but it was tasty and kids loved it too

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  • Binder photo totybear1

    08 April 2013

    totybear1 rated this recipe

    4 stars

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

CUTS INTO 15 squares

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 30 mins

Cook time

Cook 30 mins

plus cooling
Freezable

FREEZE un-iced

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 carrots , grated
  • 140g sweet potatoes , peeled and grated
  • 200g sultanas
  • 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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PER SQUARE

269 kcalories, protein 6g, carbohydrate 38g, fat 10 g, saturated fat 1g, fibre 3g, sugar 25g, salt 0.4 g

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