The Healthy Carrot Cake is low-calorie, low-carb, low-fat, all-natural, super-gooey and extra-sweet! It’s topped with the naturally sugar-free and fat-free Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting… And it’s also very easy and fun to prepare! 🥕
Hi, Sweet friend!
…So, it’s that time of the year, right? The pre-Easter Time when we just can’t get away from baking something with the Bunny’s Favorite Veg! 🙂
Yes, you guessed it (I bet it wasn’t that hard to guess😉)! CARROTS! The Springtime Staple! 🥕🥕🥕
And so just as I’m supposed to (to live up to my baker-girl-status 🙂 ) I’m giving you this Carrot Cake recipe! …The Healthified version of it, of course! 🙂
And here’s why my Carrot Cake deserves to be called the Healthy Carrot Cake:
- It is low-calorie: thanks to the beans (one of my favorite secret ingredients) that are hiding in it, my cake stays moist and has plenty of body and substance without me adding tons of butter and sugar to it. …Because it’s these “bad boys” that usually make your cakes moist and substantial as supposed to being dry and rubbery (if you decide to healthify a cake recipe by simply keeping the same amount of flour and cutting down on the “bad boys” instead😀) …Unless you know about the “secret ingredient”😉! Then… well, you get the best of the both worlds!🥕
- It’s low-fat (same reason as above: this cake only needs a tiny bit of oil to be added to it to taste moist and yummy!)🥕
- It’s low-sugar. There isn’t actually any sugar in this cake! To sweeten the batter I used honey instead for a healthy twist. But thanks to all that naturally sweet pineapple, raisin and carrot goodness I didn’t need to use too much honey either to make my cake super-sweet!🥕
- It’s the first time when I made this particular frosting, but I loved it very much! (I guess it was once again one of those “accidental wins in the kitchen” when you just decide to mix a few ingredients on the spot without knowing what’ll come out. But when it comes out… It’s actually GOOD! 🙂 And yes, this frosting is fat-free (it’s made with the fat-free cream cheese) and completely sugar (or even honey-)-free! Yes, because guess what my other favorite “secret ingredient” that I used to sweeten my frosting is? Yes, it’s the dates that I’ve been using in many of my “healthified” sweet recipes!🥕
And just in case if you’ve never used the beans in your dessert-making, sweets-baking recipes… I promise you that once you taste the cake – you’ll NEVER tell that there’re any beans in it! Trust me!
You know how I know that? Well, it’s because I have the best (and the pickiest) tasters in the world! My two little kids who’ll NEVER (and I mean never-ever by that) eat anything that they don’t like! 🙂
…So what are your springtime pre-Easter plans? Are you going to make the It-Cake of the season (yes, the Carrot Cake?)?🥕 I hope that no matter what you’re going to make, it’ll be healthy (i.e.good for you!) and sweet (i.e. something to make you happy and to treat you, of course!)
🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕
The Healthy Carrot Cake is low-calorie, low-carb, low-fat, all-natural, super-gooey and extra-sweet! It's topped with the naturally sugar-free and fat-free Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting... And it's also very easy and fun to prepare!
- 2 cups chopped carrots about 4 medium carrots
- 2 eggs
- 1 12 oz can garbanzo or pinto beans drained
- 1 cup flour
- 2/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup oil
- 2/3 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/4 cup walnuts optional
- 1 cup crushed pineapple without the juice
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 10 dates
- 8 oz fat-free cream cheese
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Pour some hot water over the raisins and let them soak and soften for a few minutes.When the raisins have softened a bit drain them a set aside.
Drain the beans. Put the beans in the blender and blend until they are pureed. Add the eggs, oil, honey, flour, vanilla extract, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Process for a minute or two until everything is incorporated.
Add the carrots, raisins and pineapple to the blender. Pulse a few times to chop all the raisins and the pineapple without pureeing them.
Add the coconut and the nuts. Pulse a few more times just to stir everything up.
Pour the batter into a 9X9 baking pan and bake at 350F for about 1 hour. Check to see if the toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake some out clean. If it doesn't, bake for another 10-15 minutes. Let the cake cool to the room temperature before frosting it.
To make the frosting soak the dates in some hot water until they are soft. Drain the dates when ready.
Put the dates in a food processor and process until very smooth. Add the cream cheese, cinnamon and vanilla. Process for a few more minutes until all the ingredients are incorporated.
Frost the cake, cut it up and enjoy!
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You’re killing me here – but in a good way! I LOVE your delicious smart desserts, this looks amazing!!!
Oh my God, Debra, you’re SO KIND!!!!😊😊😊😊😊 Thank you! And since we can’t survive Just on the desserts – I know where to find my best healthy soups and bowls recipes: at http://bowl-me-over.com 😊🦋🥕
How many eggs??
OMG, Erika, thank you for asking! I am SO SORRY! Wow! I did forget to mention how many eggs in the recipe (I will edit it now and correct it, thanks to you!) Also THANK YOU so much for your interest! And it is 2 eggs! Have a great day and if you make the cake please let me know how it came out! 🙂 🙂 🙂
It still doesn’t say how many eggs 🙂
Oh, Gee! It’s an old recipe and I used a different plugin for it then: I thought I added the egg amount back then but I guess it didn’t upload properly… I am SO SORRY! I just rewrote the whole post and made sure that the amount of eggs is showing along with all the nutrition info! THANK YOU SO MUCH for pointing this out!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂
I love carrot cake! Where do you add the carrots in this one (there’s no mention in the directions) and are they grated or chopped? Sorry, I want to make this right!
Oh, thank you SO MUCH for your interest and for the kind words! 🙂 The carrots are chopped, but you can grate them, too if you have a food processor to help you. Otherwise just chop them up and then add them to the blender in step 2 if you like your cake to have smoother texture and in step 3 if you like having little pieces of carrots in your cake. And thanks for pointing out that this part wan’t clearly specified in the instruction!!!! 🙂 I will edit the recipe now so that it’s right!!! Have a great day!!! 🙂
Thanks so much!
Thank YOU for your interest! Have a great day!!! 🙂
20 servings from a 9×9 pan?
Yes 🙂 I cut the pieces so that they were small, but tall 🙂 You can cut them bigger or smaller: the amount stated in the recipe is just for your reference! 🙂 Thanks for asking! 🙂
Hi. Thanks for the recipe.
I made this recipe recently and it was a bit of a disaster. I left the cake in for an hour and the outside started forming a crust but the toothpick did not come out clean. I then left it in for another hour and a toothpick still did not come out clean. I cut open the cake and the entire inside was uncooked.
I don’t know where I went wrong!
Dear Anon! THANK YOU SO MUCH for giving this recipe a try! 🙂 Wow! I am so sorry about your baking experience being SO frustrating! There could be a few reasons to why this had happened, though:
1. You did not drain the raisins, the chickpeas or the pineapple well enough. That extra liquid can get a bit disastrous if you don’t drain it out!
2. Could it be that your pan was smaller than the 9 X 9 pan? If your pan is too small the dough layer will be thicker, which makes it difficult to bake through.
3. You cut the cake too soon: it is important to let the cake COOL DOWN COMPLETELY before cutting it. This will help the eggs to solidify and the dough to thicken up enough for the cake to be moist, yet firm.
If you could possibly let me know if any of the above things happened, then I’ll be able to brainstorm what else might have not gone right!
Thank you again SO MUCH for making this cake and for reaching out! 🙂
Thanks for the response! It might have been the extra liquid in the pineapple. The chickpeas and raisins were drained completely before being added in. I also used a round cake pan to make this more like a cake, which may have been a problem.
Thanks for the feedback!
No salt amount listed in recipe. I added 1/4 teaspoon. It’s in the oven now. I’m sure that should be enough. Batter looks fantastic. I love mixing all ingredients in the blender.
Dear Margie! THANK YOU so much for giving this cake recipe a try! 🙂 You’re awesome! I didn’t include the salt in the recipe because in most instances the canned beans have salt in them. But 1/4 tsp is a good amount of salt to add for this size of a cake if you like to add a bit of a salty flavor to it. Thank you again and if you have a moment, I’d love to see what you thought about the cake’s flavor!
Have a great day! 🙂