One Bowl Carrot Cake: Healthier and Easier

One of my all time favorite cakes is Carrot Cake.  WIth a few exceptions:  always with walnuts and never with raisins or pineapple.  How do you like your carrot cake?

I call this a "healthier" carrot cake recipe for a few reasons.  First, it reduces the quantity of white sugar and switches to raw sugar.  Additionally, I not only reduced the quantity of oil, but swapped to grapeseed oil, which has more nutritional benefits than vegetable or canola oil. (read about it here)  To continue a reduction in calories and fat, I reduced the amount of walnuts in the recipe. Lastly, I upped the quantity of carrots for more moisture and added sweetness, not to mention fiber.

Here's a simple recipe that I love, and this has a little less sugar and fat then the recipe featured in my cookbook.  And, the fact that you can make it in one bowl means it really can't get much easier!

Ingredients:

2 C unbleached all purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp Cinnamon

2 tbsp water

1 1/3 C of raw (turbinado) sugar 

1 C grapeseed oil* (or any oil you'd like)

4 large eggs

3 ½ C grated carrots

½ C of finely chopped walnuts (this helps ensure a little bit of walnut in every bit since we reduced the quantity by half)

 

Yield:  Recipe makes 2 9”inch rounds, 1 10-cup Bundt, about 20 cupcakes or 24 mini bundt cupcakes, or 2 loaf pans..

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees.

2.  Grease and flour your baking pan of choice.  (you can use a baking spray with flour)

3.  Mix oil, water, and sugar together in one bowl.

4. With a spoon, mix in one egg at a time.

5. Sift together cinnamon, flour, salt and baking soda.  Slowly add to the egg mixture. Stir with a spoon until combined.

6. Add grated carrots.  Stir. Note:  Batter will be thick at first, but keep stirring.

7. Add walnuts, stir.

8. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

• Cupcakes/Mini Bundt Cupcakes: Bake about 18-20 mins
• Layer Cakes:  Bake about 25-30 minutes
• Loaf Cakes:  Bake about 45 minutes.

9.  Skip the frosting and eat warm.

4 Responses to “One Bowl Carrot Cake: Healthier and Easier”

Author comments are in a darker gray color for you to easily identify the posts author in the comments

1. The Duo Dishes says:

   March 13, 2013 at 9:28 pm

   No raisins?! Definitely need the walnuts (pecans OK too) and raisins. Pineapple is fine, but it can make the cake too sweet, so it's usually not a preference. Woooo! Some of us out here are very particular about our carrot cake. Love the use of grapeseed. You could probably reduce the oil by half and use unsweetened applesauce for an even lighter dessert. Just a question…what if you used 2 whole eggs and 2 egg whites, beating the egg whites to soft peaks and folding them in? Wonder if that would work and also reduce calories/fat. Playing with recipes like this is always interesting. 

   Reply
   • kissmybundt says:

     March 14, 2013 at 8:27 pm

     Everyone is particular about they way they like their carrot cake One could reduce the oil and substitute with applesauce: it’s been done and it’s fine. I just chose not to for this recipe. In terms of your question, you could use 2 whole eggs and fold in whipped egg whites. That will change the texture of the cake, but again, it would be a fine substitution. Cutting the oil by an applesauce substitute and cutting the 2 egg yolks would cut calories and fat, at least 100 calories per serving (rough estimate)

     Reply
2. kaneneo says:

   March 25, 2013 at 12:25 pm

   Yogurt would be a great thing to eat if you have a large portion of it.

   Reply
   • kissmybundt says:

     April 2, 2013 at 10:29 pm

     People do love yogurt!

     Reply