SHF and Carrot Cake: Sweet, Succulent and Sinless!

Whee! It's SHF time again! This go-around is featured at my fellow Ontarian Leslie's blog Definitely Not Martha, and features the Beta Carotene Harvest. Of course, creation credit goes to another Canadian, and one of my favourite inspirations: Jennifer the Domestic Goddess. What perfect timing for the perfect theme! I had just the thing in mind to send along, using up the last little bits of my garden (sigh... it looks so desolate now!): Carrot Cake!

I LOVE carrot cake. I don't know what it is about it, but it is one of my coveted desserts of choice, sometimes (though not always) more so than chocolate. The problem with me always lay in two major elements: nuts and oil. I hate nuts in carrot cake. Actually, in anything. I don't know why, I think it's a texture thing. The oil was both a texture and a health issue, I mean, a cup of vegetable oil in a cake? Even 1 1/2 cups in some cases? I don't think so.

Enter the tweaker! Taking a basic recipe from my mom's files, I added whole spelt flour, rolled oats, soy milk and pumkin puree, along with my awesome purple carrots! I didn't replace all the oil, mind you - it is a very delicate balance when it comes to baking. The result is heavenly. Toothsome, hearty and full of a taste sensation you remember from your childhood with just that edge of grown-up flair. The cake is sweet enough that it doesn't really need an icing, though you can if you would like. Personally, a dusting of icing sugar mixed with cinnamon is the perfect compliment to this cake mid-afternoon!

Beta Booster Cake
Serves 12
1 cup spelt flour
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup cake flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt
2 cup coarsely grated carrots
3/4 cup brown sugar
½ cup low-fat soy (or dairy) milk
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
½ cup pumpkin puree
½ cup canola oil (hazelnut oil would be good in this, but PRICEY!!)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 9” pans, one loaf pan or one 9x13” pan.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
3. Stir the brown sugar with the milk, applesauce, pumpkin and oil until runny.
4. Add the sugar blend with the carrots to the flour mixture. Mix just until blended.
5. Bake for 40-50 min (for 9x13” pan), 60 min (loaf pan) or 35 min (9” pans) until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
6. Cool on a counter for 30 min before turning out of pan and serving.