I’m not a natural baker. I slavishly follow recipes and while I love trying out new recipes, it takes me a while to tweak them and I’m not sure if I have that much staying power to bring the recipe to perfection.
Recently I had a surprise birthday party and I was given a beautiful lowish carb carrot cake. Now I thought I had given up on carrots as they are pretty high in carbs but my sugars interestingly didn’t spike when I had a slice of that cake, which gave me the courage to try making the cake myself.
Kid#1 has turned 21! I can’t believe I have an adult child already – internally I think I still feel 36? 🤣 But it really did come home to me that he’s all grown up because he actually asked me to get him a birthday present that represents what getting into adulthood means. So I got a big glass jar and threw in old photos of him as a child and got the family to write notes, wishes and meaningful bible verses to him. He also wanted a party in the park for his friends and so Momma, the caterer extraordinaire managed to rustle a bunch of dips and finger foods for the young folk.
So thanks to friend P who made my birthday cake – she shared the website that she modified her carrot cake from and I also did some tweaks and made it for kid#1’s party. The recipe I have here is largely modified from that recipe and tweaked to be lowish in carbs. The reason it will never truly be a low carb cake is simply because of the carrots, which are relatively high in carbs. Nonetheless the moistness of the cake is entirely the result of the carrots and therefore I figured if you eat a small enough slice, it’s just 1-2 extra grams of carbohydrates.
Anyway the sum of it is that I love this cake – as a birthday cake it does need a couple more steps but it is well worth it. This is the kind of cake that usually has no leftovers. It was a great cake and great celebration and I can’t wait to make it again!
Somewhat Low Carb Carrot Cake
Ingredients
Carrot cake
- 2 1/2 cups of finely grated carrots
- 2 cups of almond flour
- 1/4 cup whey protein powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups erythritol or other sugar substitute
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup butter, melted
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Frosting
- 250g cream cheese (bring to room temperature)
- 50 g butter (at room temperature)
- 1 3/4 cup Swerve confectioner’s sugar
- Grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup almond slices
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.
- Line the bases of two 9-inch round baking pans with baking paper and spray the base and sides with oil.
- In a non-stick skillet, toast the walnuts followed by the almond slices and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, mix the almond flour, whey protein powder, baking soda, baking powder, erythritol (or other sugar substitute), ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and salt.
- In another bowl, beat the eggs, then add the butter and vanilla extract and mix well.
- Mix the wet and dry ingredients together. Mix in the carrots and walnuts, then pour the batter equally into the 2 prepared baking pans.
- Bake for 25 – 30 minutes and then cool the cakes on a cooling rack and cool for at least 15 minutes.
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar, butter, vanilla essence and lemon zest.
- Place one cake on a piece of baking paper and coat the top surface with the frosting (about 1/2 cm thick).
- Place the other cake on top, then frost the sides and top of the whole cake. Carefully place the almond slices over the sides of the cake.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Still Feeling Peckish 