AdSense Full Screen test

Monday, May 7, 2012

Low Fat Carrot Cake with Pineapple and Walnuts


 Fruits + nuts + veggies = cake?!! and a delicious one :-)

This recipe is featured on RecipeNewZ

RecipeNewZ - great recipes, desserts, mains, cooking, baking
Source: Adapted from Amanda’s Cookin’

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 2 (out of 5, the most difficult part shredding carrots)

Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp orange zest
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 2 ½ cups (3-4 large) shredded carrots
- ½ cup applesauce
- ⅓ cup canola oil
- ½ cup pineapple chunks + ¼ cup pineapple juice (from a can)
- ¼ cup walnuts
Total: 13x9 pan, 16 servings

Directions:
1. Finely chop pineapple chunks and walnuts and shred the carrots.
2. Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9x13 inch baking pan with no-fat cooking spray.
3. Beat the eggs slightly, add the rest of the liquid ingredients, and mix. Add the sugar and mix until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. At the very end add the pineapples, the carrots and the walnuts.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake until the cake is nicely browned and the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 40-50 minutes, depending on your oven (50 minutes in my case).
5. Let the cake cool in the pan before cutting and serving.

Afterthoughts
- This is a really wonderful cake: it’s moist, it’s sweet, it’s delicious, it has a little crunch thanks to the walnuts, it keeps well in the fridge. It can also be frozen, but it will be eaten in no time at all :-).
- Amanda’s recipe had cinnamon and raisins, 2 ingredients which I unfortunately have not yet learned to love. So I had to find substitutions, and I think orange zest and pineapples worked just fine. The original recipe also had frosting, but again I, with my strange taste buds, prefer most cakes sans-frosting, so I skipped that part (which also saved me about 50 calories per serving ;-) ). Check out Amanda’s post for the original version.
- This recipe was my SRC assignment. "Now what is SRC?", you might ask. It’s the Secret Recipe Club, where every month each member is assigned another member’s blog and is supposed to choose a recipe from it and post it on a predetermined reveal date. No-one knows who’s got whose blog, so it’s a lot of fun to browse all the posts when they are revealed. I discovered many wonderful food blogs though SRC. And this month I had the honor of making something from the blog of the inventor and founder of the club: Amanda of Amanda’s Cookin’ :-). She has a wonderful blog, you absolutely must visit it if you have not yet. It was very difficult to choose only one recipe, but when I received my assignment I had a lot of applesauce and carrots, which I wanted to use up. So I figured this carrot cake was meant to be made. I baked it the day after I had received my assignment :-).
- I also want to thank Jane Bonacci of the Heritage Cook, who is our group organizer at SRC. The organizers are doing a lot of the logistical heavy lifting to make the participation more fun for the rest of us, and for that I am very grateful! And Jane has a beautiful blog too :-)


21 comments:

Chats the Comfy Cook said...

I like carrot cake and a low fat recipe is just what we need. It is a lovely looking cake.

Amanda said...

How wonderful, and your adaptations sound fabulous! LOVE the idea of the pineapple - yum! Thanks so much, your cake looks stunning and I am SO glad you enjoyed it! :) :)

Lesa @Edesias Notebook said...

Wow, very pretty!

Amber | Bluebonnets and Brownies said...

I've made carrot cake with both raisins and pineapple, so I think you made a pretty solid choice there. My hubs loves carrot cake, but he's not a fan of cinnamon either, so I'll have to try this for him. I bet he'd love it.

Sarah @ The Pajama Chef said...

what a beautiful carrot cake!

Chris @ TheKeenanCookbook said...

The pineapple and orange zest sound like great substitutions! Looks delicious! We tried your Spinach and Feta Bread for our SRC pic- it was delicious!

denise @ singapore shiok said...

Hi! It HAS been a while!Congrats on your photo sharing site, I will of course join in the fun :)

Btw - that carrot cakes looks beautiful, like a restaurant offering. Nice that it's healthy too!

Yasmeen said...

Yum! I'm always lightening up classics, because I just can't live without them (but can live without what the sugar does to me... not good).

This cake looks light and delicious. Love the pineapple addition.

Sandra said...

Carrot cake look sooo good! Love the presentation, and Congrats on the new site...I already fell in love with it!!!

Kim Bee said...

This is to die for. Looks so good. I love how you styled the plate. Perfection!

Biren @ Roti n Rice said...

Your carrot cake with pineapples and walnuts look great! Have not made a cake in a while. This is a good one to start. Congrats on the recipe sharing gallery!

Gintare @Gourmantine said...

This looks such a cute carrot cake and for me the same: raisins are one of the things I have not yet come to love.

Nami | Just One Cookbook said...

I haven't had carrot cake for ages! Looks wonderful and I love how you plated this. Really pretty!

Sylvie @ Gourmande in the Kitchen said...

Wonderful presentation! An elegant way to serve carrot cake.

Pencil Kitchen said...

My mom's favourite cake is always carrot cake. This is perfect for mother's day! :)

Lisa said...

Another healthy, low-fat, gorgeous dessert! You know I'm definitely trying it - plus I LOVE carrot cake. It looks beautiful..the photo and plating is gorgeous! Excellent SRC choice!

Divya A said...

Wow looks delightful!! Very lovely presentation!!

Nancy said...

Carrot cake is one of my all time favorites. But I don't often make it because of the calories. Thanks for sharing this low fat recipe. Looks so pretty and good.

Angie's Recipes said...

Love how you presented the cake...very unique and pretty.

Hannah said...

Gorgeous plating! It looks so much fancier than the average carrot cake.

DCAja said...

love from jakarta