In Europe, the Carrot cake is traditionally made with hazelnut meal and it makes a lovely change.  Grind your own hazelnuts or buy in bulk from a health food store.  Hazelnuts also have a lower GI of 10, compared to Almonds’ GI of 18.  This is my favurite gluten free recipe version for Carrot Cake.  

Serves 16

Ingredients

• 500g (4 large) grated carrots
• 3 cups (300g) hazelnut meal (or almond meal)
• 3 X- large eggs
• ¼ cup (60 ml) macadamia nut or olive oil
• ¼ cup (45-50g) Perfect Sweet™ xylitol
• 1 cup fresh raspberries  (Optional:  Omit if you want to reduce sugar)
• 2 tsps pure vanilla extract
• 2 tsps cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 2 tsps gluten free baking powder

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 160℃.
2. Combine carrot, hazelnut meal, eggs, oil, xylitol, raspberries, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder.
3. Mix well until combined.
4. Pour into a prepared 20cm square baking tin.
5. Bake for 1 ¼ hours or until cooked.
6. Remove from the oven and cool completely in the tin then turn out.
7. Serve alone or topped with ricotta cheese topping.

Keep in the fridge for up to 6 days or freeze in individual servings in freezer bags for a quick snack.

Ricotta Topping

Ingredients

1. 250g ricotta cheese (Optional: low fat ricotta cheese)
2. ½ cup of Perfect Sweet ™ xylitol
3. 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Method

1. Mix all ingredients together and spread evenly over cooled cake. Decorate as desired.

Tip

We originally made this gluten free cake many years ago with dried cranberries but as many of our customers don’t want dried fruit anymore because of the high sugar content we changed the recipe and gave them an alternative fruit option.