Flour-free Carrot, Almond and Coconut Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 free-range eggs
- 120 g (4¼ oz) caster sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 200 g (7 oz) ground almonds
- 100g (3½ oz) desiccated coconut
- 2 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
- 100 ml (3½ fl oz) light olive oil
- 200 g (7 oz) carrot, scrubbed and grated coarsely
- 50 g (1¾ oz) pumpkin seeds, chopped roughly
- Icing sugar for dusting
A sweet treat that’s good for you? This delicious carrot and almond cake recipe certainly looks like it! Developed by Dr Joan Ransley for the Love Your Gut campaign, it contains no flour and less sugar than most cakes. The grated carrots help to add sweetness.
There’s also plenty of dietary fibre and complex carbohydrates from the almonds, pumpkin seeds, carrots and coconut, which can help gut bacteria to metabolise and to keep the contents of the gut moving.
Including a diverse range of unprocessed foods, such as nuts, seeds and vegetables, in the diet has a positive effect on the microorganisms in the gut and is good for digestive health.
Makes: about 12-14 slices.
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 160 deg. C., 320 deg F., Gas Mark 3. Line a 23 cm (9 in) springform cake tin with baking parchment – both bottom and sides.
- In a bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract together until frothy. Add the ground almonds, coconut and cinnamon and stir well. Next, add the olive oil, grated carrot and pumpkin seeds and stir until the ingredients are well mixed.
- Pour or spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and place it on a baking tray in the preheated oven.
- Bake the cake for an hour until the top feels firm to touch and a crust has formed. Check the cake after 40 minutes to see if it is cooking evenly. If it isn’t, turn it round.
- Remove the cake from the oven when cooked and allow to cool on a wire cooling rack. Dust the cake with icing sugar and serve.
Just For Fun
To make decorative mini carrots for the top of the cake, colour marzipan with a little natural, orange coloured food gel. Take nut-sized pieces of marzipan and roll into carrot-shaped lengths. Top the end of each carrot with a small sprig of parsley.
Cook’s Tip
This cake can be made as individual muffins rather than a whole cake. Just pour the mixture into prepared muffin tins being careful not to overfill. Reduce the cooking time to 30 minutes.
Send it in!
If you try our cake recipe, “The People’s Friend” team would love to see your creations. You can send them to peoplesfriend@dctmedia.co.uk for a chance to be shared on social media or in the magazine!
Copyright of DC Thomson.
You’ll find more gut healthy recipes in this week’s issue of the “Friend”. Available online or from most major supermarkets and newsagents. Or, to make sure you never miss our delicious recipes, you can subscribe to get every issue delivered straight to your door each week.
Check out our Cookery section for more recipes.
