TERESA CUTTER'S HEALTHY CARROT CAKE

This is by far the most delicious carrot cake I have never had the pleasure of eating. It is filled with half a kilo of vegetables, low in sugar and gluten & dairy free. It is also incredibly easy to make, as it does not require any electric mixing or any icing. I served this cake on father's day to eight people (myself included) and we all loved it. Looking past the moistness and lightness of this cake, it is also very good for you. The 500 grams of carrots in this cake contain lots of vitamin A and carotenoids that assist with a healthy immune system. Almond meal is always a foundation in the cakes that I bake, as they take the place of flour beautifully, create a moist texture and are choc-full of protein. 

Ingredients

• 500g grated carrots
• 3 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or essence
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 300 g almond meal
• 50 ml macadamia coconut oil, plus extra to grease
• 160 g organic maple syrup, honey or rice malt syrup
• 1 cup sultanas
• 2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
• Optional- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or other nut 

Cooking 

1. Preheat a fan forced oven to 160 degrees celsius. Line a 18-20cm baking tin with baking paper and grease lightly with coconut oil. 

2. Combine carrot, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, almond meal, oil, sweetener, sultanas, baking powder and nuts, if using. Stir well until all ingredients are combined. 

3. Bake in the oven for 60-90 minutes, checking every 5-10 minutes after the 60 minute mark to see if the cake is cooked through. Cover with foil if the top of the cake starts to really brown. 

4. Remove the cake from the oven, leave it to cool completely in the tin and then gently turn the cake out. 

Serves approx. 16. This cake is tasty enough to serve without icing but you can top with natural yoghurt if you desire. 

Total Preparation time / 15 - 20 minutes 

Total Cooking time / 60-90 minutes plus cooling time. 

x Emily 

ITALIAN CARROT, LEMON & ALMOND CAKE

I have the very talented Maggie Beer to thank for this inspired recipe. I came across this gem of a cake whilst browsing through my compact ‘Kitchen Garden Companion’ cookbook of Maggie’s. I was able to make the cake gluten & dairy free just by simply changing the type of flour and butter that I used. I baked this cake twice in the last 5 days with remarkable success! On Wednesday it featured as a light birthday cake for my mother-in-law, and we found that there was just enough cake between the four of us after a massive lunch. And just yesterday this succulent loaf was a perfect dessert for an early Mother’s day celebration for my beautiful mumma. I luckily doubled the ingredients and quantity of cake for my family, as between five hungry mouths we almost devoured the whole loaf in one sitting. The recipe above is the doubled version, as this cake is so moreish and mouthwatering you will be surprised how much of it you eat! The carrot and lemon work together to produce a welcoming and deliciously light orange flavour. For haters of carrot, you cannot even taste the vegetable in this cake, but you can appreciate the beautiful bright orange hue that it leaves behind. This is by far the best tasting gluten-free and dairy-free cake I have ever eaten (and I've tasted a lot of these). I feel that this cake recipe will be with me for many years to come.

INGREDIENTS

• 20g dairy-free butter or margarine, such as Nutalex, melted
• 1 1/2 cups densely packed almond meal 
• 250g carrots, peeled & grated 
• 2 tablespoons gluten-free self-raising flour
• finely grated zest of 1 medium lemon
• 4 eggs, preferably free-range, yolks and whites separated
• 200g caster sugar
• Equipment - pastry brush, electric mixer 

COOKING 

1. Preheat a fan-forced oven to 180 degrees celsius. Using a pastry brush if available, grease a medium sized (approx. 18cm x 8cm) loaf tin well with melted butter. Line tin with baking paper and grease again with remaining butter. 

2. Place almond meal and grated carrots in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add flour and lemon zest and mix well, using your fingers if possible, to make sure that there are no lumps of carrot in the mixture. 

3. Beat the egg yolks and caster sugar on high in an electric mixer for a minute or until thick and pale. Gently stir into the carrot and almond mixture. 

4. Wash and dry the electric mixer and beater well. Add the egg whites and whisk on high for a few minutes or until stiff white peaks form. Carefully fold the egg whites into the carrot and almond mixture until well combined. Pour batter into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. (If the top of the cake looks like it may brown, place foil on top of the cake and continue cooking). Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes. Run a knife along the outside of the cake and gently turn out onto a large plate or a cake cooling rack. Remove the baking paper and serve. 

Serves / 8-10 

Total Preparation time / 12-15 minutes 

Total Cooking time / 1 hour / 60 minutes 

x Emily 

LEMON & ORANGE POLENTA CAKE

It’s not an easy feat to make a gluten, dairy and wheat free cake taste delicious. Throw in the fact that you want a cake to be reasonably healthy and low in fat as well and its damn near impossible. I stress that this cake is for a special occasion, due to the plentiful amount of margarine in the recipe. A word to the wise; do not reduce the amount of margarine or you will be left with an inedible dry cake (my first attempt!). The polenta and ground almonds in the cake are a much healthy alternative to brown or white sugar and flour. The orange & lemon zest really gives a fruity tang to the cake that lifts the otherwise mild taste of polenta. I wish I could say that I had come up with this recipe myself, however the substance of the recipe came from ‘The Best Gluten-free, Wheat-free & Dairy-Free Recipes’ by Grace Cheetham.

INGREDIENTS

• 250g dairy-free margarine (such as Nutalex), plus extra to grease
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 4-5 tablespoons honey
• 200g polenta
• 100g almond meal (ground almonds)
• 1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
• zest of 1/2 a large orange 
• zest of 1 lemon and the juice of 1 lemon

COOKING 

1. Preheat a fan-forced oven to 180 degrees celsius. Lightly grease a cake tin with margarine. 

2. Using an electric mixer or hand-held electric whisk beat the margarine until it becomes light and fluffy (this should take a few minutes). Gradually beat in the eggs, one at a time and then the honey. 

3. Using a large metal spoon, gently stir in the polenta, almond meal and baking powder. Add the orange & lemon zest and mix well. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and firm to touch. Remove from the oven and leave the cake to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, before placing it on a wire rack to cool completely. 

Dust extra almond meal and lemon/orange zest on top of the cake if you wish. 

Serves / 8-10

Total Preparation time / 15 minutes

Total Cooking time / 35-40 (not including cooling time)

x E

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS (with MAPLE SYRUP)

Whilst I am loving the way I feel on this 12 week challenge, my mind cannot help by wander to past baking experiences. Just before I started this healthy eating quest, I baked some truly delightful blueberry muffins. Whilst not technically too bad for you (the recipe calls for no butter and a very small amount of sugar) the vegetable oil and maple syrup are not currently allowed during the challenge. As I dreamt about baking sweet treats today (Day 10), I decided that if I could not consume them I could at least write about them. Not quite as satisfying but it did make me feel like I had baked when I had not. Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook gave me the idea of adding maple syrup to muffins, which actually changes the entire taste.

INGREDIENTS

• 100ml maple syrup
• 100ml vegetable oil
• 125ml skim milk
• 225g blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, thawed)
• 250g plain flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• a generous dash of vanilla essence 

COOKING 

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees celsius fan-forced. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with circular paper cases. 

2. Mix the maple syrup, oil, milk and vanilla essence together, then stir in the flour, baking powder and brown sugar. Gently fold in the blueberries until just combined. 

3. Divide the batter between the 12 paper cases and bake in the oven for around 25-30 minutes or until the muffins are golden brown and cooked through (A good test for this is to place a skewer or blade of a knife into the middle of muffin; if it comes out clean the muffin is cooked). 

Makes / 12 muffins 

Preparation time / 15 minutes 

Cooking time / 25-30 minutes 

HUMMINGBIRD CAKE

I have always wondered what ingredients go into a ‘hummingbird’ cake. The name of the cake gives nothing away as to what these mysterious ingredients may be. I found a recipe for such a cake in a ‘Super Food Ideas’ cooking magazine a few weekends ago and decided to try it out. After a few illegible scribbles on my part containing slight changes to the recipe, I was ready to bake. Initially I thought that using pineapple in cake batter would make the end result soggy and taste somewhat like  pineapple topping on a pizza. How wrong I was. The pineapple makes this cake! As a huge plus, the recipe below is for REDUCED-FAT hummingbird cake. So no need to stop at one small slice. 

INGREDIENTS

CAKE 

• 2 cups self-raising flour
• a pinch of nutmeg 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup brown sugar, tightly packed 
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda
• 1 ripe mashed banana
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten 
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 
• 440g can pineapple pieces in natural juice (undrained)
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts
• cooking oil spray

ICING 

• 40g reduced-fat dairy spread
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar mixture 

COOKING 

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees *C fan-forced (180 *C regular oven). Lightly grease a round cake tin. (The tin I used was 4.5cm deep and had a 23 cm base). 

2. Pour flour, bicarb of soda, brown sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir well to combine, using a metal spoon. Stir in eggs, oil, pineapple, banana, vanilla and two-thirds of the 1/2 cup of walnuts until the mixture forms a batter. 

3. Pour batter into the prepared cake tin. Bake for around 45-50 minutes or until a skewer/knife you have inserted in the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn onto a plate or wire rack and leave cake to cool completely. 

4. Use an electric mixer to combine vanilla, spread and icing sugar until smooth. Spread icing over top of cake. Dust cake with remaining walnut pieces. 

(*C - degrees celsius)

x E