Healthier Homemade Carrot Cake

• Produce

  • 3 cups (400 g - grated carrots

• Refrigerated

  • 6 Eggs, large

• Canned Goods

  • 1 cup (250 g - unsweetened apple sauce, unsweetened

• Baking & Spices

  • 1/4 tsp (1.25 g - nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp (1.25 g - sea salt
  • 1 tbsp (15 g - ground cinnamon, ground
  • 1 tsp (5 g - baking powder
  • 1 tsp (5 g - baking soda
  • 2 cup Sugar
  • 2 tsp Vanilla, pure

• Nuts & Seeds

  • 1 1/2 cup (165 g - toasted sliced almonds, toasted

• Dairy

  • 2 sticks (226 g - unsalted butter, unsalted
  • 1 cup (227 g - any plain greek yogurt, plain
  • 32 1/8 oz Cream cheese

• Other

  • 2 ½ cups (600 g – all-purpose unbleached organic flour

Found on valyastasteofhome.com

Description

Ingredients

• 2 ½ cups (600 g) – all-purpose unbleached organic flour
• 1tbsp. (15 g) – ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. (5 g) – baking soda
• 1tsp. (5 g) – baking powder
• ¼ tsp. (1.25 g) – nutmeg
• ¼ tsp. (1.25 g) – sea salt
• 6 large – eggs
• 1 cup (200 g) – sugar
• 1 tsp. (5 g) – pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup (250 g) – unsweetened apple sauce
• 3 cups (400 g) – grated carrots
• Greek Yogurt Butter Cream Ingredients:
• 16 oz. (454 g) – cream cheese softened
• 1 cup (200 g) - sugar
• 2 sticks (226 g) – unsalted butter softened
• 1 cup (227 g) – any plain Greek Yogurt
• 1 tsp. (5 g) – pure vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cup (165 g) – toasted sliced almonds (walnuts or pecans)

Directions

• Toast sliced almonds (or any chopped nuts) in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes at 350 F (180 C). Set aside to cool completely before topping the cake with it.
• Peel, wash and grate carrots. Set aside until ready.
• Measure out all dry ingredients; mix them up with a wire whisk. Set aside until ready.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Beat eggs and sugar on high for 5 minutes. Reduce mixing speed to medium/low and add vanilla extract and apple sauce. Mix it for a minute or so.
• Remove bowl from a mixer and add mixed dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt) into egg mixture in 4 additions. Carefully mix in dry ingredients with each addition not to deflate air pockets (I used wire whisk to mix and then spatula for last addition of dry ingredients). Use large spatula to mix in the carrots very carefully in 2 additions.
• Divide batter into 2 - 10” baking pans greased with butter evenly (I used digital scale to weigh batter in pans). Bake in preheated oven to 350 F (180 C) for 25 – 30 minutes. Remove from the oven; let it cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing carrot cake sponges from pans. Cool sponges completely before slicing and frosting (you can bake the sponges the night before and frost it in the morning, another option).
• Greek Yogurt Butter Cream Instructions:
• Beat softened cream cheese and sugar on high for a minute scraping the sides of the mixer bowl half way through. Add butter, and beat it again until combined.
• Then add Greek yogurt, beat it again for about a minute, scraping sides of the bowl in the middle of mixing. Add vanilla extract and beat it again for a minute.
• Assembling instructions:
• Slice each sponge cake in half. See HERE how I slice my cake sponges with a string. Add about 2 cups of cream in between each carrot sponge layer. Try to push some of the cream out to the sides; it will be easier to cover the sides of the cake with a cream.
• Cover the top and sides of the cake with remaining cream. Top the cake with toasted and cooled nuts. Refrigerate the cake for at least 4 hour or overnight (the cake gets moister if stays in the fridge overnight).
• Guys, this stuff is truly delicious! The benefit is that it’s much healthier version of the regular carrot cake. I know, it may be kind of weird having vegetables in cake, because a lot of us growing up not used to this combination. But it’s just that good, that you will want one piece for breakfast and one for dinner 