Pineapple Carrot Cake

A little over a week ago, I made a really delicious carrot cake using carrots from our garden. I'm loving our carrots, by the way, and hope we can plant a whole lot next spring!

The carrots are really flavorful . . . pretty strong-tasting actually. My littlest doesn't care for them (he is five), so I thought I'd see if he'd like them in carrot cake. And guess what, he did! (Does that surprise you?)

I had some carrots already picked and was storing them in a bag in the refrigerator. . .



But that wasn't enough for the recipe, so I went and picked some more. . .



And here is the cake. Doesn't it look yummy?



Here is the recipe as well as I can remember it, so beware and tweak it as you see fit. I got the original from my Better Homes and Garden "New Cookbook," but I tweaked the recipe to make it egg-free (it originally called for 4 eggs), plus I tried to use some healthier ingredients than what it originally called for.

Egg-free and Dairy-free Pineapple Carrot Cake

Mix these together in one bowl. . .
*2 cups of whole wheat flour
*1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
*1 teaspoons baking soda
*1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Mix these together in another bowl. . .
*1 cup of turbinado sugar
*3/4 cup maple syrup
*3 cups finely shredded carrot
*1 cup cooking oil
*1 heaping cup of undrained crushed pineapple

Wait to add this until the very end (see directions below)
* 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

- Before you start pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees
- Also, prepare 2 greased and floured 9x1 1/2 inch round baking pans. I sprayed mine with oil from a can, and it worked really well.

Directions

1. Mix whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and ground cinnamon in a bowl.

2. Mix turbinado sugar, maple syrup, cooking oil, crushed pineapple, and shredded carrot in another bowl.

3. After the ingredients in each bowl are mixed together in their own bowl, then pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix. Stir until mixed well (you can use a mixer if you want, but I used a spoon and it worked fine).

4. Then add 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and mix it in.

5. Pour batter into the prepared baking pans.

6. Bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately 40 minutes or until a toothpick (or fork or knife, whatever you have available) inserted near the middle comes out clean. Then take them out of the oven and let them cool.

7. Cool on wire racks for 10 minutes in you have wire racks. I don't have them, though, and it works okay without them. I can't remember how long I did it for, but I think I kept them in the pans for longer, until they were pretty cool, before I took them out.



I'm going to try the recipe again very soon, and I'll let you know if I need to tweak the recipe that I wrote out above.

Here's a recipe for cream cheese frosting that goes really well with the cake. . .

Cream Cheese Frosting

*Approximately 6 ounces of cream cheese (I used Tofutti brand Better than Cream Cheese which is dairy-free)
*1/2 cup softened margarine or butter (I used Earth Balance Buttery Spread which is diary-free)
*2 teaspoons vanilla
*4 1/2 to 4 3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar (I didn't sift mine)

Combine the first three ingredients together in a bowl with an electric mixer.

Gradually add 2 cups of powdered sugar, and then gradually add the rest of the sugar until you get it to the consistency that you would like on your cake.

We served our's with mango vanilla soy ice cream. Yum!!