Awesome Gluten-Free Carrot Cake

Celebrating our daughters is an honor and a blessing. So when my daughter turned 36 this year I offered to make a birthday cake for her celebration. I love to bake but she has become the baker in our family and a master gluten-free baker at that. Since the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree she does credit me with introducing her to alternative flours as a result of my own love of healthy baking. She, however, has taken the art to a whole other level. Baking is in her DNA inherited both from me, and the Italian women on her father’s side.

So when I asked her what kind of a cake she wanted, she replied, “gluten-free, dairy-free*, low sugar, carrot cake with butter cream frosting and no pineapple!” Yum. Carrot cake is one of my favorites and she had given me a challenge. As I began looking in earnest through my shelves of cookbooks and at online recipes I was shocked at how hard it was to find a good, healthy, sheet cake recipe, sin the pineapple and too many cups of sugar. Luckily one of my older cookbooks, The Deaf Smith Country Cookbook: Natural Foods forFamily Kitchens, by Marjorie Winn Ford, originally published in 1973, had a basic recipe that I was able to adjust. This resulted in an awesome carrot cake recipe that will hopefully save you time searching for something better. The gluten-free mix of flours comes directly from my lovely daughter, who as I mentioned earlier, is a master gluten-free baker.

*eggs AOK

Yield: 1 sheet cake (9X13)

4 lg. organic carrots, grated fine (approx. 3 C.)

1 cup organic white rice flour

¾ cup + 2 tablespoons almond meal/flour

¼ cup combination of flax seed meal and coconut flour

½ tsp guar gum

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup golden raisins

4 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

1/3 cup cold-pressed sunflower oil

1 teaspoon fair trade cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp cardamom

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp fair trade vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 ½ tsp aluminum free baking powder

¼ cup almond or coconut milk

Mix dry ingredients separately from wet ingredients. Add wet to dry and stir well until evenly moistened. Pour into an oiled and floured 9 X 13 cake pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes at 350º. Remove from oven and cool completely on rack before frosting.

Sin-full Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz. package of organic cream cheese, softened

½ cup (1 stick) organic butter, softened

Confectioners sugar to taste (approx. 1 cup)

Whip until smooth and creamy. Frost liberally!