I can’t keep this recipe to myself. Yes, I took time off from blogging but I need to share this recipe. CARROT CAKE was one of my (many) pregnancy cravings, I made it and it worked out so well that I will make it again in the future. I wanted to create a ‘healthy’ recipe but in the end I made it pretty ‘sugary and caloric’ by adding almond paste and creme fraiche to ‘decorate it’. Nevertheless, the recipe has a huge potential to be called ‘healthy’ if one skips a couple of additives (marmalade, almond paste, creme fraiche) and substitute the refined dark sugar by honey or dates. I couldn’t help myself this time but next time I will make the guilt-free version.

You can make it

• grain free (just substitute all purpose GF flour by e.g. coconut flour)
• refined sugar free (just use honey or dates instead of brown sugar)
• dairy free (assuming you won’t spread creme fraiche on top of it)
• added fats free (without creme fraiche on top)
• pretty much Paleo (if you implement all above modifications)

Ingredients

• Almond flour (or other ground nuts) – 250 g
• Rasped carrots – 250 g
• *Cinnamon – 1 tea spoon
• *Vanilla extract – 1 tea spoon
• Gluten free flour (all purpose or coconut flour) – 4 spoons
• Baking powder – 1 tea spoon
• Eggs – 4
• Brown sugar (or other sweetener: honey, dates) – 100 g
• Lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
• Lemon juice (from half a lemon)
• Salt – a pinch

*Cinnamon and vanilla can be replaced by 2 tea spoons of mixed spice/koekkruiden. The koekkruiden can be bought at Dille&Kamille here.

Optional (for decoration)

• Almond paste (Dutch: amandelspijs). I rolled it on a baking paper to make a layer of about 0.5 cm and placed it between two layers of the carrot cake. The carrot cake can be successfully sliced only after it cools down.
• Marmolade or other frosting on top

And so I did :-)

Preparation steps

1. Spread baking paper in a baking form
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
3. Peel and rasp carrots (use small holes on your grater)
4. Mix together in a small bowl: gluten free flour, baking powder and spices (cinnamon with vanilla or koekkruiden)
5. Combine together in a big bowl: almond flour, carrots and mixed GF flour (with spices and baking powder – from step 4)
6. Separate egg whites and yolks.
7. Mix yolks with sugar thoroughly. Then add lemon zest and lemon juice and keep mixing until well combined.
8. Add the yolk mix to the rest of ingredients and mix together.
9. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt using a mixer (the highest speed).
10.  Gradually add egg whites foam to the rest of ingredients and slowly mix.
11. Place the mixture to the baking form and bake for about 45-50 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.
12. Baked cake needs to be cool before slicing/decorating.
13. Cold cake cut half and spread almond paste in between two layers of cake.
14. Decorate the top with a frosting of choice or home-made marmalade.

Wishing you delicious carrot cake!

Kati xxx

• Refined sugar free
• Dairy free
• Gluten free
• Soy & corn free

Using oat flour together with flax seeds, apple fibers, banana and dadels makes the ontbijtkoek rich in dietary fibers. It is truly satiating without increasing the blood sugar too rapidly. It is sweet but it doesn’t contain simple, refined sugars – you can enjoy it every day without compromising your well being.

Needed appliances

• Oven
• Kitchen bowl
• Spoon
• Fork or/and kitchen processor
• Baking form
• Baking paper

Ingredients

• Bananas – 2 small
• Dadels – 4 big
• Honey – 1-2 spoons
• Mixed spice/koekkruiden (I used Het Blauwe Huis from EkoPlaza) – 3-4 spoons
• Broken flax seeds – 5 spoons
• Apple fibers Le Poole – 4 spoons
• Oat flour (I used Provena) – 200 g <The best alternative to oat flour: almond flour or quinoa flakes>
• Baking powder – 3 spoons
• Almond milk – 200 ml
• Egg – 1
• Optional: nuts and dry fruits

Preparation steps

1.  Mash banana and dadels – I used fork and then kitchen processor
2. Add honey, spices, flax seeds, fibers and mix using a spoon
3. Add flour, baking powder, almond milk and an egg and mix thoroughly together using a  spoon
4. Place the dough in a baking form lined with baking paper
5. Bake at 160-170 degrees for about 45-50 min (control it with a wooden toothpick)

I really like this breakfast cake. It is nicely moist and its texture is so light.

Do you have tips how to improve the recipe? Please share!

Cheers,

Kati xxx

The cake is wonderfully moist and soft. The texture does not fall apart or does not crumble. It has a typical (for the poppy seeds cake) gorgeous flavor.

Ingredients

• Poppy seeds – about 200 g of dry seeds (after soaking and draining water – it needs to be at least 400 g)*
• Nuts – 200 g (I used walnuts and almonds 100g +100g)
• Plant based margarine – 250 g
• Eggs – 8
• Sugar – I used ½ cup but the original recipe called for 1 full glass (my cake wasn’t very sweet; just the way I like it)
• Hot water – a couple of liters, for washing the poppy seeds

*On the pictures you can see 400 g of dry seeds being soaked =)

Necessary utensils

• Kitchen processor or grinding machine
• Pre-heated to 180ºC oven
• A kitchen bowl(s) and spoons/spatulas
• A cotton kitchen cloth
• A kitchen mixer
• A kitchen balance

Preparation steps

1. Soaking of poppy seeds

Place dry poppy seeds in a big bowl. Pour about 1 liter of boiled water on top of the poppy seeds and let it soak for 5-10 min. Afterwards, drain the water from poppy seeds and repeat the procedure two more times. Let the soaking seeds stand in the water for about 12 hours (I let it soak overnight). After soaking the poppy seeds, I drained them very thoroughly using a cotton kitchen towel. The poppy seeds will remain wet. The total weight you need to add to the cake is 400 g. Before adding the poppy seeds to the cake, they need to be ground first.

2. Grinding nuts. I used one of the kitchen machines to grind nuts. They became fatty and moist but it is okay. They don’t need to be ground very finely.

3. Pre-heat the oven to 180 ºC
4. Mix the ground poppy seeds and nuts together.Melt plant based margarine in a pan and let it cool down.                                                          
5. Now it is time for eggs. Separate egg whites from yolks. Beat the yolks with sugar using a kitchen mixer.
6. Beat egg whites very well. The better beaten egg whites the higher the cake will raise.
7. Add cooled margarine to the beaten egg yolks and mix together.
8. Next, add the poppy seeds with nuts to the mixed yolks.
9. In the end, very gently add beaten egg whites to the rest of the ingredients. Slightly mix all together using a spoon. Try not to destroy the network formed by egg whites.
10. Place the mixture in the baking form (or as I did it – to the glass dish with a baking paper on the bottom of it) and bake at 180ºC for about 45 minutes. Keep watch (mine was done after 35 min)!

Tips

• If you share oven (it is used for dishes with and without gluten) you can use a glass dish with a glass cover. I used a closed dish and my cake still became nicely golden brown on the surface.
• If you don’t have a machine in which you can grind nuts, you can use already milled nuts or one of the nuts flours, for instance almond flour.
• You can modify the amount of sugar or replace it with some other sweetener. I wanted to use honey but I was afraid that my cake won’t rise as it is made without baking powder or baking soda.
• The traditional poppy seeds cake contains raisins. You can add raisins (or cranberries) to the poppy seeds.

The original recipe comes from HERE

I wish you fun baking and a delicious treat after!

Cheers,

Kati