WELL-FED Carrot Cake – A Deliciously Sweet & Spicy Healthy Surprise

Happy Spring and Happy Easter! Carrots and healthy spring foods for everyone, even those who are looking for something from the dessert table.

This Carrot Cake turned out perfect. It’s like Peter Rabbit took a trip to the tropics, bringing together flavors of carrots  and spices from cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg with pineapple and coconut. Plenty of nutrition, no added refined sugar (although the frosting is made with coconut milk and organic powdered sugar, it can be omitted), it’s sweetened with the pineapple, pure vanilla extract and a bit of pure maple syrup. The result is a delicious moist cake perfect for an Easter celebration.

The pineapple is one of my favorite fruits for its anti-inflammatory benefits. It’s on my list of Go-To Nutritiously Well-Fed Top Anti-Inflammatory Foods. Right after Tart Cherries. And spices are on that list too.

What is great is this recipe calls for not only plenty of pineapple, but also carrots! We have been told all our lives how great carrots are. They are a healthy well-fed way to go, with phytochemicals, antioxidants, immunity boosters! And Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin, meaning it needs to be consumed with fat to be absorbed. Having this recipe made with coconut oil and pasture raised butter as well as healthy fats from coconut milk, our body is going to soak up the goodness.

All the ingredients used are below, including paleo baking flour which is a combination of almond flour, arrowroot starch, coconut flour and tapioca flour. It makes baking cakes and muffins a bit easier as my experience with just using almond flour or coconut flour alone has resulted in very dense and “wet” cakes. I have started to use more amaranth flour and quinoa flour which both have yielded results in some fantastic baked goods such as chocolate chip cookies, the crust to an apple pie version of my Moto Berry Pie and WELL-FED Sweet Potato Cookies.

Plenty of spices for that signature carrot cake bite, such as nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger; and if you look at my infographic above, those spices also contribute some great anti-inflammatory benefits!  You’ll also need some baking soda, pasture raised butter, pasture raised eggs to complete the cake batter. Coconut milk will be used a bit in the batter but also for the frosting.

To begin, combine the dry ingredients of flour, baking soda, and spices. In mixing bowl, combine the wet ingredients beginning with the eggs, whisking them together, then the melted the coconut oil along with the butter, coconut milk, vanilla extract and maple syrup. (Somewhere I have photos of these steps….) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and blend. Next, and cut/diced fresh pineapple and the shredded fresh carrots! These go last so you still have some bits of them in the final cake. You can also add some chopped nuts of choice as well.

Combine all ingredients together in a mixing bowl!

Then spread evening across two 9″ baking pans to make a double layered cake! Bake at 350F for about 25-30 minutes or until toothpick test comes out dry. I know ovens vary, so I’m starting with 25 mins to be safe.

For the frosting, we’re going to use coconut milk again!

The sugar I used to make the icing, my photo disappeared to the same place my final cake photo went to… but I used this unrefined powdered coconut sugar and it worked well! This with the coconut milk and vanilla extract, combined with the flavors of the cake, it all had a great taste! Obviously this is a sugar being added, but if you want to keep it sugar free, omit the frosting or try a sugar free sweetener to make an frosting.

Spread evening across top of one cake layer, then top and spread across the entire cake!

I have not idea what happened to my photo of the full cake uncut, I decorated it up so pretty with shredded carrots and shredded coconut flakes and added some pistachios on top as I love pistachios, chopped walnuts would be delish too! I then added the bunnies with the tiny pineapple as decor… there is a great photo of it but I have no idea where it went!!! So here are my pics of the cut pieces. This carrot cake is such a wonderfully Well-Fed treat to your Easter or carrot celebrating season festivities!

Print Recipe

WELL-FED Carrot Cake - A Deliciously Sweet & Spicy Healthy Surprise!

A Nutritious Well-Fed version of classic carrot cake! Filled with anti-inflammatory ingredients such as fresh pineapple, spices of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger and packed with plenty of shredded carrots! You can add chopped walnuts to the actual cake or add as a topping along with shredded coconut flakes!

Course

dessert

Keyword

Well Fed

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

25-35 mins

Servings

Slices (thin offers more)

Ingredients

Carrot Cake

• 1 3/4 - 2 cup paleo flour mix of almond, coconut, tapioca and arrowroot flours
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/5 tsp nutmeg
• 2 eggs pasture raised eggs are best
• 1 tbsp butter pasture raised butter - melted or softened
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup I've used 2 tbsp to up to 4 tbsp different times, more sweet with more
• 1/3 cup coconut oil melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup cut/diced fresh pineapple I like the pineapple to add the sweet more than the maple syrup
• 1 cup shredded fresh coconut

Coconut Frosting

• 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 1/3 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup organic powdered sugar This would be the only sugar to be added.

Course dessert Keyword Well Fed Prep Time 15 mins Cook Time 25-35 mins Servings Slices (thin offers more) Ingredients Carrot Cake 1 3/4 - 2 cup paleo flour mix of almond, coconut, tapioca and arrowroot flours 1.5 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp sea salt 1 tsp cinnamon 1/5 tsp nutmeg 2 eggs pasture raised eggs are best 1 tbsp butter pasture raised butter - melted or softened 2 tbsp pure maple syrup I've used 2 tbsp to up to 4 tbsp different times, more sweet with more 1/3 cup coconut oil melted 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 cup coconut milk 1/2 cup cut/diced fresh pineapple I like the pineapple to add the sweet more than the maple syrup 1 cup shredded fresh coconut Coconut Frosting 3/4 cup coconut milk 1/3 tsp pure vanilla extract 1 cup organic powdered sugar This would be the only sugar to be added.

Instructions

Carrot Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl of flour, baking powder, sea salt and spices.
3. In mixing bowl, combine wet ingredients of eggs, whisking together first, then melted coconut oil, butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract and coconut milk. Blend on a low speed.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and blend together.
5. Add the pineapple pieces and then the shredded carrots, blending together, but they are last so they don't get too chopped up within the batter too much, so you'll have bits and pieces in the cake as you enjoy it.
6. Pour batter into two separate 9" baking pans greased with pasture raised butter or coconut oil, and bake at 350F for about 25 minutes. Do a toothpick test to see if it comes out dry.

Coconut Milk Frosting

1. Combine coconut milk with vanilla extract and powdered sugar in mixing bowl and blend.
2. Once both cakes are cooled, top first with a coating of the frosting, then place the second on top. Spread the frosting over the entire cake and sprinkle with shredded coconut, any shredded carrots you have leftover and I like to add pistachios but walnuts or pecans would be good too!
3. The photo shows a slice of the cake being rather large, for the photo. And to eat ; ) so depending on the size of your slices, anywhere from 10 to 22 slices. My pans are 9" so generally 8-16 nice size slices or 24 thin slices.

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