Magnificent Carrot Cake

My lovely friend Amy and I found this carrot cake recipe on 101cookbooks.com. We'd been talking about doing some baking without using sugar and different things we could use to substitute. We loved this recipe because it is naturally sweetened by the dates and banana's.. (we also added in a tiny bit of honey). We changed around a few things according to what we could find in our cupboards.. e.g almonds instead walnuts.

This is how Heidi (101cookbooks) describes this recipe "dense, rich, rustic, walnut-studded, and carrot-flecked." I also like the icing idea... no icing sugar, just cream cheese mixed with a little maple syrup or agave nectar. "Imagine a traditional carrot cake colliding with your favorite banana bread, and you'll have an idea of where this recipe will take you." Heidi suggested playing around with different add ins... so we did! ginger, honey, lemon zest and juice, and i used rice flour and millet flour to make it gluten free.

2 cups plain/wholemeal/gluten free flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts or almonds
4 ounces unsalted butter, heated until just melted
1/2 cup dried dates, seeded and finely chopped into a paste
3 ripe bananas (1 1/4 cups), mashed well
1/2 lemon (juice and zest)
1 1/2 cups grated carrots (about 3 medium)
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 eggs, lightly whisked

6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3 tablespoons agave nectar or maple syrup (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 180C. Butter a cake pan and line it with baking paper.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Stir in the walnuts and set aside.

Stir the dates into the melted butter, breaking up the dates a bit. (We used a saucepan and simmered the butter and dates for a few minutes while stirring).

In a separate bowl combine the bananas, carrots, lemon zest and juice. Stir in the date-butter mixture, breaking up any date clumps as you go. Whisk in the yogurt and the eggs. Add the flour mixture and stir until everything just comes together. Spoon into the prepared pan. Bake for about 50 - 60 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

While the cake is baking whip together the cream cheese and maple/agave nectar. Taste. If you like it sweeter adjust to how you like it. When the cake has completely cooled ice the top of the cake with a spatula.

YUM! Mine has just come out of the oven... review to come! X