Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Warmly spiced tender carrot cake meets a creamy and tangy sweet cream cheese frosting for a delicious dessert. Feel free to leave the nuts or pineapple out, if you prefer. For the photo, I have made a flexible orange flavored cake lace which uses gelatin for structure. Though beautiful, it is entirely unnecessary (and a bit hard to cut) so feel free to leave that off. Directions for it are in the notes, if you would like to try it.
Servings 8
Calories 359kcal
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- 6 tablespoons at room temperature, or butter flavored coconut oil for dairy-free
- 2 tablespoons cashew milk or almond milk, unsweetened
- 1/2 cup allulose
- 1/4 teaspoon stevia glycerite or another 1/2 cup allulose
- 1/2 tablespoon molasses optional, adds flavor and not a lot of carbs per serving
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoons cinnamon ground
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger ground
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice ground
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg ground
- 1/16 teaspoon cloves ground
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup almond flour blanched
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut flour
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 cups carrot grated, about 2 large carrots
- 1/4 cup pineapple fresh or frozen and thawed, finely chopped, optional
- 1/2 cup pecans toasted and coarsely chopped, optional, or walnuts
Cream Cheese Filling
- 2, 8 ounces cream cheese softened at room temperature, or Kite Hill cream cheese, if dairy-free
- 1/3 cup butter at room temperature, or favorite dairy-free alternative
- 1/2 cup allulose powdered in a high speed blender
- 1 teaspoon stevia glycerite
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- zest of 1 orange optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and grease 2 8-inch cake pans, or 3 6-inch cake pans and line the bottoms of each with parchment paper, set aside.
- Beat together the eggs, butter, cashew milk, allulose, stevia, molasses, and salt with an electric mixer until smooth (the mixture may appear curdled a bit and this is ok - it is generally more noticeable if any of your ingredients are cold so try working with room temperature ingredients). Add all remaining ingredients except the carrot, pineapple, and pecans and beat again until smooth. Stir in the carrot, pineapple, and pecans.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pans and bake at 350ºF for 25-35 minutes, or until the tops of the cakes are set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
- When the cakes are cool, prepare the frosting. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and beat until light and smooth. Note that if your sweetener is not powdered, the frosting will be gritty.
- To assemble, place a cake round onto a serving plate. Spread frosting onto the cake and top with another layer. Repeat if you have 3 layers. Frost the entire outside of the cake and refrigerate until serving.
Notes
If you would like to make the cake collar decoration, start this a day ahead as it takes 24 hours to set. Stir together all ingredients in a bowl except the vanilla and oil. Let stand 5 minutes to rehydrate. Microwave on low (or cook on low heat in a pot on the stovetop) until the gelatin is just melted. Stir in the vanilla and oil. Spoon this mixture onto silicon mold of choice and use the back of a knife to scrape the surface of the mold clear of liquid. Let stand for 24 hours before carefully peeling out of the mold and applying to the cake. The lace will soften a bit after sitting on the frosting. If using right away, you will need to use scissors to cut it.
Lace Decoration:
- 5g gelatin
- 15g monk fruit, powdered
- 1 drop orange color, natural
- 50mL water
- splash vanilla extract
- 3 drops orange oil
- pinch salt
Nutrition
Calories: 359kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 33g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 97mg | Sodium: 430mg | Potassium: 208mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 2796IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 111mg | Iron: 1mg