Do you like carrots?




The bright orange colour?
The happy crunch it makes when it meets your teeth?
The gentle sweetness?




I do.







These days I often just wash and eat them as they are – a mobile snack.




On other days when I have more energy, I cut them into sticks and eat them with a yummy yogurt-mustard-garlic dip.




So I decided it was time to use this bright and happy vegetable in a cake.







Not a carrot cake smothered in so much cream-cheese frosting that you can’t taste the carrot any more.




No way. In this cake, the carrot is the star.







It’s also really healthy and good for you. So reach for that third slice like you own it, sistah.




There’s something so happy about the colour orange, isn’t there?




Look at this freshly squeezed orange juice. Sunshine 🙂







I made one large cake and 2 mini cakes with this recipe.







The cake isn’t too sweet at all, and it’s crazy moist.







Here’s the recipe if you want to give it a whirl.




Carrot and olive oil cake
Recipe adapted from: The Diabetes cooking book




Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 90 mins
Serves: 10




Ingredients:




250 g plain flour, sifted
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
250 ml olive oil (I used Leonardo Olive oil)
100 g brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tbsp honey
juice and zest of 1 large orange, plus juice of one more
400 g carrots, roughly grated
50 g walnuts, roughly chopped
butter, for greasing




Method:




1. Preheat the oven to 160º C. Place the flour, cinnamon, and baking soda in a large bowl and mix to combine.
2. In another bowl, mix together the olive oil, sugar, eggs, honey, and juice of 1 orange. Add this to the flour mixture and mix well until smooth. Add the orange zest, carrots, and walnuts and mix to evenly distribute in the batter.
3. Grease a 9-inch round cake tin with butter and pour the batter in. Bake in the preheated oven for 90 minutes, or until set and firm.
4. Remove the cake from the oven, and while it is hot, pierce it all over with a toothpick. Drizzle the juice of 1 orange all over the cake. Let it cool in its tin and absorb the juice, before turning out onto a wire rack or serving plate. Eat warm.