So, do you have canned carrots (or you could use older fresh carrots) that turned to mush and you don’t know what to do with them? How about make a carrot cake! I’m also thinking this may be good with canned pumpkin and/or canned sweet potato.
Update: I just made this (muffins instead of cake … baked for 15 to 20 minutes) and they are amazing! They aren’t spike-your-blood-sugar sweet and so flavorful! This recipe is a keeper. I made some changes that I will note here:
- Replaced 1/2 cup of the flour with almond flour
- Replaced the remaining flour (1 cup) with 1/3 cup of wheat germ (Why? Because I had some)
- Reduced the milk to 1/4 cup due to the excess liquid in my carrots
- Reduced the total added sweetener by half (so, 3/4 cup total), then replaced 1/4 cup of the brown sugar with Splenda
- Substituted all-spice for the nutmeg (Why? Because I didn’t have any nutmeg)
Note: I had one quart of thickly cut home canned carrots and ended up with about 1 1/2 cups of mashed carrots. I adjusted the recipe accordingly.
I may or may not make the frosting but if I do, it will be with mostly Splenda with a bit of powdered sugar (I have come to the conclusion that Splenda tends to get bitter if using a lot … mostly because I kept trying to slip some in hubby’s coffee and he immediately noticed).
http://www.daringgourmet.com/2014/02/18/old-fashioned-carrot-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/
For Cake:
½ cup walnuts
1 cup pureed carrots (boil just under a pound of carrots until soft; drain and cool, then puree in a food processor.)
1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1½ cups firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest (be careful to avoid the white pith of the orange, it’s bitter)
½ cup raisins
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract