Hum, it appears any hope of stringing words together in a cohesive sentence has once again left me.
I’m blaming it on seemingly never ending days of prep > style > shoot > repeat, occasionally punctuated by sort > sort again > edit > send.
Not that I’m complaining — far from it — but it seems that spending all day every day in front of a stove and a camera has turned my brain to mush for little other than faffing.
In a stand against the mush I’ve decided it’s high-time I start reading again (as in reading things longer than 140 or so characters and not on a screen or with a list of ingredients).
I ordered this book yesterday
In addition to reactivating the braincells I’m hoping for a bit of butt-kicking inspiration to get moving on some of my own stuff — it’s terribly easy to spend all the time on client work and none on personal projects. The cobbler’s children never have shoes and all that jazz…
In the meantime I’m making time to share this simply irresistible carrot cake I teased you with ages ago, because I like you and you’re worth it, and cake always wins.
Gluten Free Carrot Cake
Yes this is an amazing Gluten Free Carrot Cake but at its core it’s simply an amazing Carrot Cake. Go forth and cake thyself.
Makes one 2-layer cake
INGREDIENTS
- 2 c grated carrots (260g)
- 1 c drained, crushed pineapple (190g)
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- ¼ c pineapple juice
- ¼ c maple syrup, or combo of maple and rice syrups
- ½ c coconut oil, melted
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp each ground cinnamon & ginger
- ¼ tsp each ground cloves & nutmeg
- ¼ c tapioca flour (30g)
- ¼ c coconut flour (30g)
- ½ c buckwheat flour (60g)
- ½ c almond flour (45g)
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 batch Vegan Cream Cheese Icing
METHOD
Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease and line two 8 inch (20cm) tins.
In a large bowl combine carrot and pineapple with wet ingredients. Sift over dry ingredients and mix well. Divide evenly into lined tins and smooth surface flat.
Bake 22-25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 mins, run a knife around the edge of cakes and turn out onto rack to cool completely.
Frost with Vegan Cream Cheese Icing or Genius Goat Chevre Icing.
COOK’S NOTES
- Pineapple: a 440g can of crushed pineapple, drained in a mesh strainer to push out as much liquid as possible, renders a cup of pineapple. Reserve juice to use in recipe as required. If you use fresh pineapple, chop or grate very finely into a bowl then drain as before in a mesh strainer to squeeze out juice.
- Shape: cakes will rise but don’t dome in the centre, making them perfect for layers.
- Cupcakes: in theory you could make these into cupcakes by filling lined muffin cups ¾ of the way full and reducing baking time by a few minutes, I haven’t tried it.
- Eggs: theoretically you can replace the eggs with a vegan substitution, I haven’t tried it.
- Nuts: theoretically you an replace the almond meal with more of the other flours, I haven’t tried it.
vegetarian // gluten-free // dairy-free // soy-free // probably paleo
Is there an alternative to buckwheat flour? Could you use more almond flour or coconut flour? I need something that is not grain based.
Hi Lidia, buckwheat isn’t actually a grain – it’s a pseudo seed and generally acceptable in grain-free diets. However if you can’t use it for some reason quinoa flour (another seed, not a grain) can be used in its place. I wouldn’t suggest more coconut flour as it acts very differently and could create a tough and chalky texture. Adding more almond flour to replace the buckwheat may be ok but I haven’t tested it. Do let me know what you try! ~ JJ
Thank you! I think I already have some quinoa flour so I might give that one a go.
Has anyone tried using a vegan egg substitute?
Hi Emily, this cake is based on my GF chocolate cake ( http://84thand3rd.com/2014/08/19/best-ever-gluten-free-chocolate-cake-dairy-free-nut-free-probably-paleo-too ) and quite a few people have had luck replacing the eggs on that one with flax-eggs. The cake may be a touch denser and might need a bit longer in the oven but it should work just fine! ~ JJ