Spiced Carrot Cake with Coconut Cream

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, 
and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth 
seeking the successive autumns."  
-   George Eliot  

 The leaves, the smells, the air, the colors, and the golden hued desserts that adorn our tables...autumn is delicious indeed! 

This particular cake, gluten, grain and dairy free, is a sure welcome to October and the chilly months ahead. The coconut cream lightly sweetend by honey is the perfect accompaniment to the folds of carrot, cinnamon, and nutmeg. So while you are donning your smart wool socks and contemplating finishing that scarf you left on your knitting needles last year take a pause to observe this beautiful interim season. Gracefully autumn comes, quickly she goes. 

Spiced Carrot Cake 

(tweaked from The Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook)

• 3 cups blanched almond flour
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 TBS cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 5 eggs
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 cup grapeseed oil
• 3 cups carrots, grated
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup walnuts

In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, honey and oil. Stir carrots, raisins and walnuts into wet ingredients. Stir wet ingredients into dry. Place batter into 2 well greased, round 9 Inch cake pans. Bake at 325° for 35 minutes. Cool to room temperature and spread with coconut cream frosting. Serve.

Coconut Cream

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/2-1 cup honey (depending on how sweet you like it)

Heat the coconut milk and honey in a saucepan until hot and incorporated. Remove from heat and stir in the coconut oil until melted. Place mixture in a jar or bowl and place in the freezer for about 35-45 minutes or until the frosting/cream has thickened. If it is too frozen just leave it on the counter for several minutes until it is spreadable. 

Enjoy!

Comments

[Jaclyn]

so pure! i love it, no doubt i will be making this within the next week! thank you! beautiful :)

[Corrine]

This recipe looks scrumptious! Beautiful photos too!

[fresh365]

You just reminded me that I have a good 5+lbs of carrots buried in my fridge that need to be used. What is more perfect than cake?!

[Whitney]

oh. my. WORD. this looks amazing!! gluten AND dairy free? you're speaking my language. :) seriously cannot wait to try this (I actually have all the ingredients!) i'll let you know how it goes. :)

[Annie]

I love baking with almond flour. This is definitely going on my "to do" list. Thank you!

[Jennifer]

This looks absolutely scrumptious!!!!!! Love the fallish quotes!

[Alexa @ Sohdalex]

Okay. So you say the word coconut around me....and in negative five seconds whatever you are talking about is on my plate and already half eaten. I love coconut. This cake is stunning! And I love how healthy the recipe is! A screen shot has been taken and this is on my make when I return to my kitchen list. I probably won't leave the place for months ;) But who cares if their is coconut, right?

[Sini]

Wow! Dairy and gluten free! I absolutely love carrot cake especially in the colder months. What a brilliant idea to combine some coconut cream with it! I will keep this recipe in my mind and tell you how it turned out as soon as I have a) tried it b) returned from the heaven of tastes that probably awaits me.

[lindentea]

The cake looks so yummy, can't wait to try it! Thank you for sharing.

[Brittany]

this looks fantastic. the quote is lovely too. :)

[Dimitra]

I adore carrot cakes and this one looks amazing! I will definately try it! Thank you!

[Anja (Savorychicks)]

I thought this one here (http://www.savorychicks.com/2010/05/ultra-moist-carrot-cake.html) would be the world's best carrot cake and I was determined not to try any other carrot cake recipe anymore... But your recipe sounds so delicious, I am going to try for sure!

[Natasha]

amazing! the carrot cake, your site, photography, everything!

[Erin (Blue Egg Kitchen)]

First of all, I LOVE that George Eliot quote (and all of her writing, for that matter); I've never heard it and couldn't agree with it more. As for the recipe, this is a must-make for me, as it uses so many of my go-to ingredients--almond flour, coconut oil, coconut milk.

[bridget]

this looks SO GOOD

[ilovepom-poms]

Looks Delish! Will try it soon! Still doing the veg-fruit-nuts-legumes-only* thing and feeling better than ever! C x
(*That means no gluten, no sugar, no dairy, no meat, no caffeine, no alcohol ...)

[Sara]

wow wow wow i need this! I am trying to be really good for wedding dress time in two weeks, but I CANT WAIT to bake when we get back! This is first up ;)

[Katie]

I made this cake hoping it would come out as lovely as yours! But mine was a little too salty - is it intentional to call for 2 tsp. of salt? Just curious. I will be making this again but with half of the salt. Love the photos!

[Coco]

Oh Katie Im sorry it turned out too salty! How bizarre, I've made this cake four times now and it only comes out sweet and delicious! Did you perhaps use tablespoons instead of teaspoons? Yes, two tsp of salt it the correct measurements but if you want you can cut it down to 1 :) Let me know if you make it again!

[k jane]

CAN'T WAIT TO TRY THIS!!

[David]

What a great recipe! I love your coconut cream – I have never heard of anything like it before, it sounds so good! And your photos are always so perfect.

[Marcie]

Hi, I know this is an older post but I was hoping you could answer a question. I made this for Thanksgiving and it was a big hit with my family of many dietary restrictions. However, I was wondering if it would be possible to make the cake portion of this recipe in a loaf pan instead? The icing was the hardest part to make and our least favorite part to eat. I think it would make a lovely loaf, but I am not experiences with baking with almond flour and was afraid it wouldn't turn out.

[Coco]

Marcie, Im so glad you enjoyed this cake and Im sorry to hear the icing did not float your boat! Did it not taste good or was it too runny? As for making this into a loaf, I think it is possible but you will definitely need to bake it longer and it might come out pretty dense. To be safe I would split the batter into two or three smaller loaf pans and see if that works. Let me know how they turn out!

[Marcie]

Thanks for the quick response! The icing was a little difficult for me because if it got too cold it would harden up, and if it got too warm it would get a bit runny. When it was at the right temperature it was fine. We're just the type of people to eat the cake and leave the icing anyway, so I decided not to mess with it this time.

Thanks again for the help I will let you know if the loaf turns out well.

[Britney]

Hello!

First I want to say I love your blog! I made this cake not too long ago and the icing did not turn out for me...it harden in the freezer as you said but after I spread it on the cake it started soaking in as it got more room temperature and after about 30 minutes there was no icing left because it had dissolved completely. The actual icing tasted great though! Is it strictly serve and then top with icing or did I do something wrong? Thank you!

[Sirica]

For this coconut cream, do you use coconut milk as in So Delicious Coconut Milk or the can type of coconut milk? Thanks!!! Love you site!!!

[Rosie @ Sweetapolita]

Coco, your site is completely and perfectly divine. Gorgeous! I just adore the authenticity of this cake, along with all of your other recipes. As a cake baker, I haven't had a lot of experience baking gluten free/dairy free, etc. but you're so inspiring. Thanks for sharing all of your beautiful work!

[Megan]

Can this cake be made with regular flour? and if so, do I need to use less, more, or the same amount of flour? Also, my husband really doesn't enjoy anything cooconut...do you have another icing suggestion?

[Lindsay]

Wow this looks soooo good! Any way to make this into cupcakes instead of a cake? Probably cook less?

[Sonja]

Hi there, just wanted to say that I used this recipe to make a simple cake in a brownie-pan (so its square-shaped instead of round) and it worked out perfectly! I halved the recipe and added a little less salt (because of an earlier comment). Sadly didn't have any coconut milk/oil, so couldn't make the coconut cream. However I mixed some powdered sugar with a bit of orange juice for a nice glaze, which was also yummy :) Thank you for such a great recipe with relatively low sugar content (compared to other recipes I've found on the internet). Will be making this one again (with coconut cream!).

[Adriana]

Hi there! I know this is a bit late, but I was wondering if I could substitute coconut oil for grapeseed oil? I have coconut and use it often, but grapeseed is never in my pantry, and I wouldn't use it much. I'm thinking the flavor that comes from the oil in the cake could pair up with that of in the icing? What do you think?