I’ve adapted this recipe from Tim Spector’s The Food for Life Cookbook and make it at least once a month. Everyone in the family eats it and it’s amazing how little sugar you can use and something still tastes great. If you’re used to high sugar this may not hit the spot for you but if you’re like me and eat very little sugar but like a bit of cake then you may love this. This is gluten free and dairy free but not suitable for vegans with the eggs (you can probably sub by using flax seed ‘eggs’ but I never do this). I usually make this as one big cake but I don’t have a picture of it so here is one of the cupcake-size ones I made this week.

You can use honey if you prefer, instead of maple syrup.

Ingredients

For the cake

85ml of extra virgin olive oil
100ml of kefir or plant-based yoghurt. I use coconut yoghurt as I rarely have kefir in.
3 eggs
Two tablespoons of maple syrup (you can probably cut this down further, I will experiment but I’ve already cut it down from the four tablespoons Tim has in his original recipe)
50g brown sugar – I use dark, you can use light
285g ground almonds
Two tablespoons of cinnamon (yes tablespoons)
Four tablespoons of pumpkin seeds or other seeds of choice
50g of walnuts – I toast them first
Two teaspoons of baking powder
One teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt
200g of carrots, grated (I do this in the Magimix because my goodness I hate grating things).

For the topping

185g plant based yoghurt – I use coconut
Two tablespoons of tahini
One teaspoon of vanilla extract
One teaspoon of maple syrup
Zest of half an orange (this makes it look pretty but don’t sweat it if you don’t have it, I often don’t)
Two tablespoons of pumpkin seeds
Berries if you like – makes it look super pretty.
I also use toasted flaked almonds sometimes.

What you do

Oven to 180C. Use a 20cm lined spring form cake tin or this makes 12-14 cupcakes sizes (use muffin cases).

Mix together the olive oil, yoghurt or kefir, maple syrup and sugar. Then add the ground almonds, cinnamon, pumpkin seeds (or other seeds), walnuts, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.

Mix together. Now fold in the carrots and put in the tin and bake for about 45 minutes. If making as muffins/cupcakes they take about 20mins.

When done remove and let cool. To make the topping mix the yoghurt, vanilla, maple syrup together then plop on the cake/cupcakes and sprinkle on the seeds/orange rind/berries.

Keep in the fridge. These are also great on their own with no icing and as such can travel in lunch boxes.