Healthier carrot cake

This delicious carrot cake is great for afternoon tea or for kids school lunches. Packed with vitamin E its a fun way to enjoy getting these harder to obtain nutrients. The World Health Organization and the EAT Lancet recommends consuming less than 5% energy from added sugar and this contains only 1% of energy for the average persons requirements. For weight management, skip the cake and opt for a variety of unsalted walnuts and almonds to obtain healthy fats several times a week (a serve is 30 g of nuts five times a week is recommended in the DASH diet) and a piece of fruit instead.

Ingredients - serves 12

Cake ingredients

• 250 g of almond meal

• 300 g of grated carrot

• 40 mL of sunflower oil

• 0.3 cup of maple syrup

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp of cinnamon

• 1 tsp nutmeg

• 1 tsp of vanilla essence

• 2 eggs

  Cream cheese icing ingredients

• 50 g of cream cheese

• 0.5 cup of Greek yogurt

• 0.25 cup of icing sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Methods

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line a cake tin with baking paper. Mix dry ingredients together, In a separate bowl mix oil, maple syrup and egg together . Combine the the wet and dry ingredients and stir gently until combined. Fold in carrot . Pour into prepared tin and bake for 25-30 minutes until skewer comes out clean. Cool cake, Make icing by combining ingredients in a bowls. Frost cake when completely cooled. Sprinkle with walnuts and serve.

Energy per serve 779 kJ; Protein, 5.3 g; Carbohydrate 11.6 g; Added Sugar 7.9 g; Total Fat 12.9 g; Saturated Fat 1.8 g; Dietary Fiber 2.6 g