Spiced Whole Wheat Carrot Cake

Dr Roshan Radhakrishnan
16
For my guest post today, I have Tina Basu showcasing her version of a healthy Spiced whole wheat carrot cake.

Why a Healthy Cake


Cakes are heavenly – admit it or not but a sinful cake always uplifts your mood. That however, not necessarily is great for your waistline or your got. Ever since I started baking for my son – who is two at this moment, I have been looking to make the cakes healthier. I try to avoid refined flower as much as possible because too much refined flour doesn’t help your gut. You can bake absolutely amazing stuffs by replacing refined flour with whole wheat flour, oats flour, almond flour or even semolina. Don’t believe me? Check these semolina and oats breakfast muffins – which turned out absolutely great. So here I am sharing a healthier version of this classic English Carrot Cake recipe.

What are the spices used?

The carrot cake is perfect for your evening tea time. You can enjoy it just like it without any frosting with your tea or coffee because it has all the nice flavours of aromatic spices. This recipe calls for cinnamon powder and clove powder. If you don’t have them, you can dry roast an inch of cinnamon bark and 5-6 cloves and dry grind in a mixer – that works perfectly well with it.

Why is the Spiced Whole wheat carrot cake healthy?

  • No refined flour – that has been replaced with whole wheat flour which we call atta -  yes you can bake with atta!
  • No butter – I am using regular vegetable oil.
  • Has loads of nuts – I am using toasted walnuts and almonds.
  • Carrots of course.
  • You can replace sugar with honey – if you want.



Ingredients

1.   Eggs – 2 whole
2.   Vanilla essence – 1 teaspoon
3.   Vegetable oil / canola oil – 180 ml
4.   White sugar – 3/4th cup powdered
5.   Brown sugar – 1/4th cup
6.   Whole wheat four – 112 g
7.   Baking soda – 1 teaspoon
8.   Baking powder – 3/4th teaspoon
9.   Salt – a pinch
10. Ground cinnamon – 1 teaspoon
11. Ground cloves – 1/4th teaspoon
12. Finely grated carrots – 1 and 1/4th cup
13. Walnuts and almonds – ½ cup toasted and crushed
14. Butter/oil – for greasing the baking tin


Method

  • Pre-heat oven at 180C/ 356F
  • Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.
  • In a mixing bowl break the eggs and add vanilla essence.
  • Add vegetable oil to the eggs and beat with a hand mixer for 30 seconds on slow speed. If you are mixing with a whisk, beat till the mixer becomes frothy and dense.
  • Add white and brown sugar gradually and mix again with a hand mixer for 30 seconds. Try not to dump all of the powdered sugar at one go or you will have a cloud of sugar all over you!
  • Add the whole wheat flour mix in two parts and fold with a spatula.

Pro Tip: Dont over beat cake batter when you are adding flour. Over beating will result in a tough and hard cake. I always switch to a spatula and fold batter when I am adding flour.

  •  Once the flour is folded add shredded carrots, spices and crushed nuts and fold again till everything is incorporated.
  • Let this batter rest for 10 minutes while you grease and line a baking tin with baking paper or a parchment paper. You can simply grease with butter and pour the batter, but I prefer using a baking paper – it makes un-moulding very easy and saves a lot of effort on washing up!


  • Pour the batter in the lined tin. I am using a square tin – it gives good chunky portions, you can use any shape or size.
  • Bake it for 40 minutes at 180C/365F
  • I use the convection mode in my microwave for baking. If you are using a stand-alone oven, at 20 minutes mark take the tin out and turn it to the other side to ensure even baking and coloring.
  • Let is cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack before slicing.
  • Dust some confectioners’ sugar or icing sugar and garnish with chopped walnuts.
  • You can also enjoy the spiced whole wheat carrot cake with some cream cheese frosting. But I prefer it just like this.

I hope you enjoyed this simple healthy classic recipe. Sometimes, a slice of cake, a hot piping cup of coffee and a novel makes life easier – if not for ever, for few hours for sure!
Let me know how you enjoyed once you have baked this rustic earthy carrot cake.


About Tina Basu

Tina is a self-confessed food obsessed girl and all her love for food is reflected in her food blog Twinkling Tina Cooks. She is a dessert lover and shares a variety of recipes on her food blog. She shares family recipes, classic renditions and innovative functional recipes on her blog. Tina Basu is also a freelance writer, author, blogger and a graphic designer and a food enthusiast. When she is not running around a little hyper active munchkin she blogs at Tina Basu  Being Real Not Perfect where she writes, fictions, lifestyle pep talks girly stuffs and hosts link parties and tutorials. Tina has been in the FMCG industry for over seven years working as a trade marketing and branding expert before quitting her job and becoming the lady boss in her own venture.


This post is written for the December bloghop #mymojo with Shalzmojo

Linking up for #wordsante with Namysaysso for every post deserves some love 

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16Comments

Let me know what you think.

  1. Yum! Saving it for later��

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  2. Very nice and healthy one!!!!

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  3. Even i use the same recipe to bake my cakes. I Started using Whole wheat flour in baking few months back and i was surprised with the result as they cake is never less fluffy :-)

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  4. I am always impressed by all you ladies who dream up such fantastic recipes, mainly because I am an awful cook. Nicely written!

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  5. Looks like the perfect accompaniment with evening tea!! Thanks for sharing Tina!!

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  6. I bake a lot with whole wheat flour - in many recipes you would never know the difference. Sounds yummy!

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  7. Oodles of goodness with great taste... thats tempting, Tina!

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  8. My friend used to bake for us carrot cake which was super yummy. Thanks for the recipe so I can try now :)

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  9. Yummylicious recipe! Definitely trying this one!

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  10. Second carrot cake recipe I came across today! Yummm! 😋 I need to put on my baking hat soon!

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  11. Yummm this is indeed a very good recipe as it incorporates so many healthy options into the cake - almost similar to the one I make but I have never added cloves before; will do so soonest!!!

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  12. Yummy and healthy...Addition of spices makes it more interesting.

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  13. Just the right start to this festive season! Yummy yummy... thanks so much Tina!! :)

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  14. Is there a subliminal message in this post? A second post on carrot cake. I must go down to the bazar and get some carrots and get baking!

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  15. I have always drooled over the food pictures by Tina, and this is another simple and classy recipe by her. Love it and I am saving it to try once - though my cakes are always a disaster... but this is worth trying for ;)

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  16. Never heard of a carrot cake and gosh it looks delicious. Passing the recipe to my mum as she's always looking for healthy dishes for all of us :)

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