Hello friends, hope you all are enjoying the holiday season and eagerly waiting to welcome the New Year. I'm doing great and so are the kids too. Just another month before my mother leaves to Chennai. Hopefully, I can manage the 3 kids/boys (yes 3, including the biggest kid my husband) after she leaves.
But I have to give it to my husband this time. He is helpful than ever when compared to the time we had our first son. I haven't baked anything in the past 3 months except for the sugar-free cake recipe I'm going to share with you all today.
Actually, I haven't even been cooking anything different as often as I used to do before. I'm thinking of getting back on track again from this week onwards, please wish me luck so that I can stick to my plan.
At this moment I would also like to acknowledge that we have been receiving a lot of sincere suggestions/feedback from visitors through emails. Thank you very much for showing genuine interest in the growth of this website.
We are working towards making this blog more user-friendly and interactive. You will be seeing a lot of cool and interesting features in the days to come. Again everything depends on how well I'm going to manage the 24 hours we have.
It's not just any carrot cake, but a fat-free, sugar-free, vegan carrot cake made with whole wheat flour. As I type this all I can remember is the Thanksgiving episode of Friends featuring Brad Pitt (watch the first 30 seconds of the video).
I know what must be running in your mind. "How yucky can it get?"
But wait my dear friends, you are in for a total surprise when you taste this sugar-free cake. I know I say this a lot in a lot of the recipes here, but you have to believe me when I tell this "healthy doesn't have to taste bad; it can be damn good and this cake is definitely delicious for the health conscious people and the rest of us."
The specialty of this recipe is that it doesn't require any added sugar or artificial sugar substitutes like most of the sugar-free desserts call for. The cake gets its sweetness from dates and raisins. The only fat is from the walnuts, if you are using it. The credit for this wonderful sugar free cake goes to Beverly Lynn Bennett.
I just made some minor changes and the cake turned out very good. As for whole wheat flour, I used freshly milled flour and didn't find any difference at all in the taste. I'm not sure how the cake tastes with store-bought whole wheat flour.
I also increased the number of carrots and nuts to make it healthier. Bake this sugar-free cake for yourself to indulge without any guilt during this holiday season or it can also be a perfect gift especially for the special someone who cannot enjoy treats made of sugar.
If you tried this Sugar Free, Fat Free Vegan Carrot Cake recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
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Recipe
Sugar Free, Fat Free Vegan Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 and ¼ cups Water
- 1 and ¼ cups Dates Chopped
- 1 cup Raisins
- 1 teaspoon Allspice Powder
- 1 cup Carrots Shredded
- 1 cup Walnuts Chopped , optional
- ⅓ cup Carrot Juice (or any other juice)
- As Needed Water or some more juice depending upon the consistency of the batter.
Instructions
- Preheat oven for 15 minutes at 375F/190C. Lightly grease and line an 8 or 9 inch cake pan.
- Sift together the flour, baking soda and powder and salt; set aside.
- In a saucepan, combine together the water, dates, raisins and allspice powder. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Place the shredded carrots in a large bowl. Pour the hot liquid mixture on top of it and let it cool completely.
- Once it is cool add the chopped walnuts and carrot juice; combine it well.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir well together.
- Pour the batter in the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Mine was done in about 40 minutes itself.
- If you have lined the cake pan with parchment paper you will be able to remove the cake just after 20 minutes. On the other hand if you have just greased the pan, it might take a couple of hours before you could remove the cake from the pan without breaking.
- This sugar free cake tasted absolutely delicious without frosting, but if you choose to frost wait for the cake to cool completely and frost it with your favorite frosting.
My Notes
- The original recipe calls for ½ cup each of shredded carrots and walnuts, but I have increased it to 1 cup each. I also used allspice powder instead a mix of various other spices because I didn't have them in hand.
- Also frozen orange juice concentrate has been used in the recipe, which I have substituted with carrot juice I had, which was not sweetened with added sugar. You may want to add about a tablespoon or 2 of water/juice to adjust the consistency of the batter.
saloni says
hi i wanna know u have used packet juice or fresh juice of carrot
Madhuram says
I used store bought carrot juice, but it doesn't have any added sugar. Juice just from carrots. Got it in Costco.
Vijaya says
Hi Madhuram,
Nice to see you back with amazing recipes. I tried this Carrot Cake recipe last weekend. The texture was good, but I felt it was less sweet than I would have liked it to be. Maybe I will add more dates / raisins next time. Also, I didnt have Walnuts and substitued it with Cashews. And, the liquids turned out to be too less and so I added much more water than specified. But overall, we liked the "healthy" cake. Thanks...
Vijaya
Madhuram says
Vijaya, I think the sweetness and consistency of the batter depends upon the dates we use. Mine too was quite thick. Regarding the sweetness, we as a family have reduced our sugar/salt/spice levels. So it can be us also.
jeya says
Hi madhuram
What kind of wheat did you use to make the flour?. I saw two types in the grocery store. - hard winter wheat and soft wheat -and was not sure which to buy.
Madhuram says
I used the soft wheat Jeya. I did try chapathis with it and it turned out great.
Ani says
I made this last night. The taste was good. But the cake was very dry. I also had to double the juice quantity because while mixing I felt the cake mix was getting very thick and needed little more liquid mix. Not sure what went wrong.
Madhuram says
Did you by any chance over bake it, because mine remained moist even after a couple of days.
asha says
Hi madhu,
i want to bake this cake for my son who is turning 4 next week. Apparently he is on a gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, nuts free and eggless foods. I want to know what flour to substitute for whole wheat flour. I shall omit the nuts. Your quick response is appreciated. Thanks.
Madhuram says
Why don't you try the gluten free flour mix available in stores? Check this link I found in Amazon.com. It has good reviews. I read that this can be used in all recipes except yeast bread recipes measure to measure in place of flour because it already has xanathan gum in it.
http://www.amazon.com/Authentic-Foods-Multi-Blend-Gluten-Free/dp/B00112CND8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Asha says
Hi madhu,
I did try with the gluten free flour and xanthan gum. But the end result was that the cake was hard on the top whilst it was superb inside. I had to shave off the top part just to enjoy the rest of the cake. Thanks a lot for the recipe.
Surinda says
Dear Madhuram
Hi, I would like to try this recipe. I was just wondering if I use
self-raising wholewheat flour, then how much baking soda and baking
powder do I need to add?
Thank you
S
Madhuram says
I haven't tried substituting self rising flour for regular flour. I would suggest using just 2 cups of the self rising whole wheat flour and omit the baking soda, baking powder and salt in the recipe. See if it works and please let me know the result.
Sonia@7spice says
Hi dear, wishing you and your family a very Happy New Year 2011!!! 🙂
RedChillies says
Hi Madhuram, hope you are doing well. Wishing you a very Happy New Year, hope you have a great year ahead!
Madhuram says
Thank you very much RC.
maanasi says
hi
i am planning to try baking this cake today - new year day - can u pls tell me what can i substitute for all spice powder or , if i want to make that powder at home what all sd i use .thank you .
happy baking !
happy new year !
Madhuram says
You can try a mix of cloves, ginger, mace and cinnamon.
Lisa says
This looks delicious! My husband is not a big fan of sweets, and I am trying to stay away from excess oil. My carrot cake recipe is full of oil. I'm going to have to try this soon! In the mean time, I'm going to share it with my blog readers. 🙂
Curryleaf says
AWESOME Madhu.I think we can also try this with beets as well. Thgh I do not know how the beets -dates combo will turn out ? Love the way the cake is prepared. Dates are perfect natural sweetners.
All the BEST to You with the 3 kids. :). I am POSITIVE that you will manage well. Do TAKE CARE of Yourself as well.
Madhuram says
Thanks Sweatha.
Jen says
This is on my to-do list for this week without school. It looks wonderful!
Sanjeeta kk says
The cake looks and sounds very healthy with wholewheat flour in it.
Veggies, fat & sugar free, fruits and nuts are the bonus 🙂
abc says
Lovely cake 🙂
Hari Chandana says
Looks absolutely tempting.. very delicious one 🙂
Rama says
Hello Madhu, I am a strict vegetarian yet love baking. Love your website. Seems to be a direct response to my needs. 🙂 I am going to try the carrot cake today. My husband loves it. Do you think I could use aluminium foil instead of parchment paper? I have that handy and dont need to run to the store to get parchment paper. Thanks again!
Madhuram says
Thanks Rama. I wouldn't suggest using aluminum foil. You can simply grease the pan with enough oil/butter and sprinkle some flour. That should be good enough, but you will have to wait a bit longer to remove the cake.
harini-jaya says
Whats with sugarless cakes this season? I myself hv tried a sugarless cake
with dates ..Very healthy indeed!
Rohit Sinha says
Just find eggless carrot cake, will try asap. thanks
Porkodi says
Yummilicious cake Madhuram!
nishi says
This is an awesome recipe Madhu!! I'll definitely try this 🙂 Merry chris
Christmas and a very happy new year!!!