It’s been over a few months that I have been living Paleo style. Although the transition for me is not that hard (tossing away breads, pasta, cakes, etc. are, in fact, a piece of cake. It’s the yogurts that I miss), I can’t force it on my kids.
In order to minimize, what I believe, is one of the most harmful “foods” that can go in my kids’ bodies, aka gluten, I try and make snacks, cakes, and munchies that are gluten free for them. These are not a major portion of their diet, but “that little something” when they need something sweet, when they have friends over, or when I have friends over 🙂
Experimenting before with gluten free chocolate cake that turned out awesome, I went ahead and concocted this carrot cake, after a regular recipe that I had, but of course, modified it. Once again, the star ingredient is the chickpea flour, that I discovered in the Indian store.
So if you’re looking for a gluten free cake, for any bunch of reasons (hey, Passover is coming up, so it’s kosher, too), give it a try.
you’ll need:
- greased 9″ round cake pan. I used the spring-form one. A square pan will also do.
- 1.5 cups chickpea flour;
- half cup sugar;
- 1 Tbsp baking powder, aluminum free;
- pinch of salt (yap, salt);
- 2 tsp cinnamon powder;
- 2 tsp good quality vanilla extract;
- 3 heaped Tbsp coconut oil, in a small glass;
- 1 cup water;
- 2 cups grated carrots;
- 1 egg;
- good quality chocolate chips, optional.
how-to:
Heat oven to 350°f.
Throw the chickpea flour in a bowl. Since this flour tends to have clusters, try to crush them with a tablespoon. Add the rest of the dry ingredients (not the chocolate chips), and mix well.
Add the grated carrots in the dry mixture, and mix so the carrots are covered well with the flour all over, and you see these cute orangy little chunks.
Insert the glass with the coconut oil into the micro, run it for 20 seconds, mix the oil with a spoon until it’s melted. If not melted, insert for another 10 seconds. This should be enough. Add the coconut oil to the mixture, along with the water, and vanilla extract, and whisk slowly together, until smooth and all the flour dissolved. Now add the egg, and once again, whisk slowly together.
Pour the whole mixture onto the greased pan. Now is the time to add some chocolate chips if you want, right on top.
The whole thing goes on vacation in the oven, for 50-60 minutes. As with chickpea flour, don’t expect a high rise. Good things come in small packages.
notes:
- Grated carrots? I just throw them in the food processor. Life should be easy.
- I try to use coconut oil for almost all of my bakings/fryings, for two main reasons: (1) I stay away from bad industrial seed oils (corn, cottonseed, soybean, safflower, sunflower, canola, etc.) and use only, what I consider, good fat, for the reasons mentioned in the link about the gluten (above), and (2) coconut oil is not vulnerable to the oxidative damage that occurs with high-heat cooking using other fats.
- If you’d rather keep out of refined sugar, use Raw honey, or, soak a few dates in hot water for 30 minutes, and throw them with the carrots in the food processor and don’t use any other sweetener. Feel free to adjust sweeteners according to your sweet tasting buds (most cake recipes call for 1.5 cups of sugar, but we don’t like it that sweet);
- when adding the water, you may notice that you need a bit more than 1 cup. you want to have a smooth fluidish batter.
- I mentioned 50-60 minutes in the oven, as every oven is different. Check after 50 minutes to see that the cake is dry on top, and golden.
- If you want to get fancy, real fancy, sprinkle some powdered sugar on top, once the cake has cooled down.
love it, so yummy, heaven on Earth
DELICIOUS
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The texture was great, especially for a gluten free baked good. However, I substituted coconut palm sugar for table sugar (and not sure if that is why) and it was not yummy. Came out almost savory – not sweet at all! As someone who is just dipping toes into the pool of gluten free, low grain cooking for the first time, it was not my fave. Maybe when my taste buds become less addicted to sugar?
Hmmm.. maybe try more than half cup of coconut sugar? I just don’t like too much sweet, I have gotten used to it, I guess. Maybe add one apple to be processed with the carrot, or some honey/maple syrup? Keep experimenting with it, you’ll find the ideal taste eventually 🙂 Thanks for the note.
I made this for my son who is a candida sufferer, I substituted sugar for xylitol and it was delicious, I spilt it in half and spread avocado frosting inside, it was wonderful, thanks.
Thanks for sharing Wendy, and glad you liked it 🙂