Rustic, sweet and heavenly fragrant, Carrot Cake with tangy Cottage Cheese Frosting is super HEALTHY and easy to make dessert. It's nutritious, made with whole wheat flour, loaded with nutrients, refined sugar-free and low-calorie. The family favorite spring cake!
Carrots are in season so let's overdue with carrots, shall we... ;) Last week I made some raw Carrot Cake Energy Balls, which are like tiny versions of real carrot cake. So today I thought, well why not give you a recipe for the real deal... The Carrot Cake - my version... a healthier version.
If you tried my Carrot Cake Energy Balls, I’m 100% sure you will love this carrot cake too. Well, to be completely honest, this recipe is a quite classic one but I modified it a bit, to be more nutritious and healthier. SO this Carrot Cake is made without unnecessary/empty calories.
This cake is made from whole grains – whole wheat flour, and it’s naturally sweetened with fresh carrots and honey. Instead of cream cheese, that is usually used for making a carrot cake frosting, I used cottage cheese. Cream cheese is full of fats and loaded with additives while cottage cheese contains less fat, and it’s full of healthy proteins.
Also instead of using butter to bind the ingredients in frosting, I used super healthy coconut oil. With mentioned small modifications, I turned classic fatty and sugary carrot cake into nutritious and HEALTHY spring dessert in which you can enjoy without thinking of unnecessary calories, unhealthy sugars, and fats. Great, isn’t?!
I spiced this Carrot Cake with warm spices – cinnamon and nutmeg that gave the cake an overwhelming scent and flavor. Carrots nicely softened the biscuit in the oven and turned this cake into a moist and flavorful beauty that matched perfectly with sweet and sour cottage cheese frosting.
This Carrot Cake may be simple... but it's absolutely my favorite spring dessert. Rustic, sweet and heavenly fragrant, moist and made with all HEALTHY ingredients. AND it's sooo easy to prepare. I love it!
My husband isn't the biggest carrot cake fan (Yeah I know!... like WHAT?!) ... but this Carrot Cake passed his ultimate test. Carrots are so cleverly hidden in a batter that you won't even noticed it. Still, carrots enrich this cake with natural sweetness and give the wonderful texture.... and, of course, all of its nutritional and healthy benefits.
I hope you liked this recipe, and I really hope you'll make this Carrot Cake many times this spring. Actually, carrots are in season throughout the whole year, so you can enjoy in this healthy Carrot Cake whenever you want.
Enjoy!
Recipe
Carrot Cake with Cottage Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 4 eggs
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin coconut oil melted and cooled
- 5 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-3 tablespoon milk cow's low-fat or plant milk
- 2 cups raw carrots grated
For frosting
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 2 tablespoon Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin coconut oil melted and cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 356F (180C).
- In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices.
- In a separate bowl whisk eggs. Add melted but cooled coconut oil, honey and vanilla. Mix well.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. Stir in grated carrot and mix well with a spoon. Add milk if the mixture is too thick.
- Pour the mixture into the baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes (check with a toothpick, if it comes out clean the cake is ready). Remove from the oven and allow to cool. During that time, prepare the frosting.
Frosting
- Mix all ingredients with the electric mixer until the mixture is smooth.
- Let the mixture set for 20 minutes in the fridge.
- Spread on top of the cooled cake.
- Keep in an airtight container refrigerated until serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Martha Tsakiri says
I followed the recipe, that's the most blunt, unsweetened cake I have had.
Megan says
Made this with regular flour and I added a dash of icing sugar to the cottage cheese icing (to be sure my kids and husband would eat it without suspicion haha) it worked!
The cake is fantastic, great recipe :)