Spiced carrot and banana cake


I do love a bargain… as does my fab friend Jo – who spotted some bargain 9p carrots and just had to buy them for me lol! So I thought I’d better put them to good use in a spiced carrot and banana cake! Perfect autumn flavours! Simple to make, super tasty, and really light and moist! This is about 375 cals per slice if you cut it in to 8-10 (it’s a nice deep cake!)

You will need:

4 large eggs

140g sugar

250ml sunflower or almond oil,m

275g self-raising flour

1 large ripe banana (approx 175g)

200g carrots

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

Preheat the oven to 180 C

Grate the carrot coarsely and place to one side.

Put the eggs, oil and sugar in a bowl and beat to combine.

Mash the banana with a fork and add that, the flour, baking powder, spices and carrots to the mix and beat it together.

Pour in to a 20cm tin and bake for 45 – 50 mins or until golden brown, firm in the middle and shrinking away from the sides of the cake tin.

Cool in the tin for 10 mins and then place on a wire rack.

Enjoy! 🙂

Xx

Advertisement

Marmalade Loaf – low gluten, dairy-free


My mum makes excellent marmalade, marmalade so good even Paddington Bear would be licking his little furry lips 🙂 Soooo as it’s mother’s day weekend and in honour of my amazing Mum and her expert culinary skills I’ve decided to use her yummy marmalade and make a marmalade loaf! This is dairy-free and low-gluten. The oil makes it super moist and the tanginess of the marmalade really goes well with the sticky sweetness of the loaf. If you liked my scrumptious carrot cake or Banana bread you will definitely like this 🙂 If you find marmalade a bit too bitter for your liking, just up the amount of icing sugar in the glaze, or use a different preserve for the glaze.

200g Spelt flour (you could use a gluten-free flour mix if you prefer)
100g Raw golden caster sugar
1 tsp ground all spice
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
zest of 1 Orange
zest  of ½ Lemon
100g Currants, raisins and sultanas
140ml Olive oil or Almond oil
5 tbsp Homemade seville marmalade
125ml Soya milk
1 tsp White wine vinegar
2 tbsp Raw golden icing sugar
1 tbsp Coconut Palm Sugar/ raw unrefined sugar

Pre-heat oven to 150 – 160C. Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper.  Put the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, ground allspice, caster sugar, orange and lemon zest and dried fruit into a bowl with a pinch of salt and mix together. Put the oil and 2 tbsp of the marmalade in a pan and heat very gently to soften the marmalade. Don’t let the mixture get too hot. Once the marmalade has melted stir in the milk (it won’t combine properly but just give it a good mix). Pour all this into the flour mixture, add the white wine vinegar and mix well. Pour the batter into the loaf tin and place in the oven for an hour, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

While the loaf is cooking you can make the glaze. Add 3 tbsps marmalade and 2 tbsp water to a pan. Heat gently and add the icing sugar. Stir and continue to warm gently until it’s bubbling and syrupy. You may need to add more icing sugar to taste and to ensure it goes sticky. Whilst warm it will be runny though so allow to cool slightly if unsure. You can always reheat to make it liquid again.

When the loaf is cooked remove from the oven and pour the glaze onto the top of the load and sprinkle with the coconut palm sugar. Let it cool in the tin and don’t try to cut it until it’s cool (or if you’re like me, ignore that last bit of advice and have fun picking up all the crumbly bits as it falls apart 🙂 )

Scrumptious Carrot Cake


Everyone loves carrot cake!

I’d been asked to make a “normal” carrot cake by my family so I decided to try to do the dirty on them and see if I could create a carrot cake that tasted like the full fat, full sugar, dairy-filled version but didn’t have any of that stuff in it. So  I came up with this dairy free, low gluten version using unrefined sugar and they didn’t even notice! In fact they said it was the best carrot cake they’d tasted – I almost didn’t have the heart to let them know it was a healthy version 😉

The apple puree as an egg substitute keeps this cake super moist. You can buy the pureed apple but it’s so easy to make I wouldn’t bother – just peel, core and slice some bramley apples and whack them in the microwave with a spoonful of water and blitz until soft 🙂 This recipe’s been featured on www.pureformfitnesskitchen.com 🙂

sticky, moist and simply delicious 🙂

175 g Coconut palm sugar (or other raw, unrefined sugar)

175 ml Almond oil (or other neutral oil e.g. olive oil, hazelnut oil etc)

9 tbsp of Apple puree – homemade

140 g grated Carrots

100 g Raisins

grated zest of 1 large Orange

175g Spelt flour

1 tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp Ground cinnamon

½ tsp Grated nutmeg (freshly grated is best)

For the frosting:

1 cup Silken tofu

2 tbsp Almond oil/coconut oil/olive oil

2 tbsp Lemon juice (to taste)

3 – 4 tbsp Maple syrup or Agave nectar (to taste)

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Valencia orange extract (optional – to taste)

Preheat the oven to 160 C / gas 4. Line an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment and lightly oil with almond oil.

Put the sugar, oil and apple puree into a large mixing bowl and mix gently with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange zest.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and spices into the bowl and gently mix all the ingredients together. The mixture will be fairly runny. Pour this into the tin and bake for 40 – 45 mins, until it feels firm and springs back when you press it in the middle, and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 mins then turn it out and cool on a rack. This cake can be frozen at his point, or go on and frost it and eat it now!

For the frosting – blend all the ingredients together. Adjust maple syrup, lemon and orange extract to taste. If you find it is not sweet enough add 1 tbsp of unrefined golden icing sugar. Once blended spread on to the cooled cake and enjoy! 🙂