This recipe was found by my sister on Pinterest and as it usually goes, my finished dessert looks nothing like the tempting photo that was posted on Pinterest. And making it healthy just means no refined sugar, no gluten and no dairy.
Seemed easy but I had to first go out and buy ingredients I’m not used to baking with. Things like gluten free flour, xylitol, stevia, shredded coconut, walnuts, organic carrots, the dairy free stuff for the frosting and option B like coconut sugar not in the recipe but recommended by sister.
The first step is mixing all the wet ingredients. The carrots, apple sauce, oil, apple cider vinegar and vanilla.
The wet ingredients are recommended to sit in the fridge at least 10 minutes or even overnight.
Then you put your dry ingredients in another bowl. The gluten free flour, baking soda, cinnamon and xylitol (which is explained to be a natural sweetener derived from 100% North American hardwood.) I have no idea what this is about. I just followed the recipe. I think next time I will try another sugar alternative. It also had just the teeniest amount of stevia. You could add coconut and walnuts if you want but I decided to use those as a topping rather than bake them in.
Mix wet and dry together. It was more like playdough texture which is where I thought I did something wrong. Which is why I actually made this recipe twice in one day but both times it was the same consistency.
I think it was somehow “wrong” because the next step was to POUR the cake mixture into a pan. There was NO pouring of the cake mixture. It was more like molding it to the pan.
It baked flat and looked more like a turkey patty then a cake! But it tasted really kind of good. My 2nd born man cub ate three small squares and wanted more. This was a good sign.
The frosting was a fail. I thought it tasted horrible and preferred it without. The ingredients for the frosting was dairy free greek plain yogurt, dairy free cream cheese, a little vanilla and a teeny bit of stevia. My sister thought maybe if we added real maple syrup it may have been a little better, or even the coconut sugar.
I have a long way to go, and lots to learn in this new way of cooking but so far it’s been fun.
You can find the real recipe HERE