Refined sugar-free carrot cake

Whilst sorting out my paperwork the other day, I came across several dozen scraps of paper with various recipe notes scribbled on them. Presumably recipes I created, experimented with, baked,or planned to bake. None had titles and none had sufficient detail to make sense of.

So I vowed that next time I experimented with a recipe that turned out ok-ish, I would write it up straight away.

Yesterday I made a healthier version of carrot cake with no refined sugar. Using plenty of dried fruit, grated carrot and a little date syrup gave it sufficient sweetness.

The kids weren't convinced to start with but ended up asking for seconds. If you have a very sweet tooth, this probably won't satisfy it but if you're used to alternative baking, then in my opinion, it tastes good.

Ingredients:
190g self-raising flour
100g ground almonds
50g raisins or sultanas
50g mixed dried fruit
60g walnut pieces
2 tsp mixed spice
200g of eggs (around 3 large eggs or 4 small/medium ones)
100ml olive oil
300g carrots (grated)
60g date syrup

Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 160c. Grease and line an 8 inch loose-bottomed cake tin.
2. In a freestanding mixer mix together the oil, eggs, mixed spice, ground almonds, flour and date syrup.
3. When well combined, add in the raisins and mixed fruit, the walnuts and grated carrot.
4. Pour the batter into the baking tin and bake between 30 to 40 minutes. Check after 30 minutes and bake until a skewer comes out clean.

I'm wondering whether a teaspoon of baking powder would help it rise a little more next time.

If you need to make your own mixed spice - you can find instructions here on our minute-make carrot cake recipe post.

For those with a sweeter tooth, you can always whip up a little cream cheese frosting (soft cream cheese plus icing sugar to sweeten or use honey or maple syrup to sweeten it).

It also tasted good with some double cream poured over it.

So less than pretty photos and a rushed write-up but at least it's here in case I wish to bake it again rather than trying to make sense of a scrap of paper with scribbles on!