It’s been a while since I last shared a new recipe. I’ve just been caught up with work and life, and haven’t had time to post. These carrot cakes, however, have been some time in the making.
I know what you’re thinking – carrot cake? How hard could it be? And it’s not exactly difficult, but perfecting this gluten-free recipe has been. I should also mention that carrot cake is not my favourite cake (controversial I know).
Most carrot cake recipes are oil-based and typically involve combining the wet and dry ingredients. However, some gluten-free recipes take a different approach, requiring you to beat together the eggs and sugar until light and pale in colour.
The latter is the technique I was using initially, but could never get the right results. For example, the cake would have too much air and sink in the middle, or the crumb would be too delicate that it fell apart when cut.
I experimented with a few adjustments, such as altering the amount of oil and adding different flours to improve structure. However, these versions were also unsuccessful.
Eventually, I realized that the method itself needed to change. I reverted to combining the wet and dry ingredients, and this simpler approach finally gave me the result I was looking for.
The cream cheese frosting presented another challenge. Whenever I made it in the past, the consistency was either too loose or it turned out grainy and split. I tried countless adjustments to fix this, including altering the butter to cream cheese ratio and experimenting with cold versus room temperature ingredients.
Upon doing more research, what makes this frosting so temperamental is the cream cheese itself, which is 60% water. If you add the cream cheese at the start and beat it for a long time with the icing sugar, you will inevitably end up with a loose frosting.
The trick is to make a normal buttercream first, then incorporate the cold cream cheese at the end, mixing until just combined. This should yield a smooth, creamy and pipeable frosting.
You can bake this cake in a 20cm tin, or do individual ones like I did here. Let me know if you have any questions.
Gluten-free Carrot Cake
Makes one 20cm cake or 9 mini cakes.
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 115g olive oil
- 170g brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 100g almond meal
- 105g brown rice flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 250g grated carrot (around 3-4 carrots)
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 150g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 300g icing sugar
- 250g cream cheese, cold
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
Carrot Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20cm cake pan with baking paper. For individual ones, I simply spray the pan with a non-stick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the oil, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until well combined.
- In a sepearte bowl, combine the almond meal, brown rice flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda and xanthan gum.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix until and smooth batter forms. Then add the grated carrot and stir until evenly distributed.
- Transfer the batter into the prepared baking tin. Bake for about 25 minutes (for mini cakes) or 35 minutes (for larger cakes).
- Allow to cool in the baking tin for about 20 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until light and pale in colour, about 5 minutes.
- Gradually add the icing sugar, in 3 batches, mixing well in between each addition.
- In a small bowl, mix the cold cream cheese with a spatula until smooth.
- Add the cream cheese, lemon juice and vanilla extract to the butter mixture. Mix on low speed until just combined and there are no more lumps of cream cheese.
- Spread or pipe the cream cheese frosting onto the cooled carrot cakes. Decorate with toasted walnuts if desired.
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