Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Icing

Not crazy about eating your vegetables? Then add them to your cake! Vegetables such as beets, zucchini and carrots, are sometimes included in cake recipes to add moisture and texture, with the added boost of providing vitamins and minerals to dessert! This carrot cake recipe offers beta-carotene from the carrots and omega-3 fatty acids from the walnuts, both important for heart health! (We recommend substituting Neufchatel cheese for the cream cheese – an equally smooth and flavorful, but lower-fat option).

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup unbleached flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1 cup carrots, grated
• 3/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350° F. Flour and butter one nine-inch cake pan. Cream sugar, butter and eggs. Sift flour before measuring. Resift flour with salt, baking soda and spices. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and stir until all of the flour is moistened. Fold in carrots and walnuts. Put batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350° F until the cake shrinks from the sides of the pan and the center springs back to a light touch (approximately 30 minutes). Cool for 10 minutes in pan and reverse onto a cake rack. When cool, frost with cream cheese icing.

Cream cheese icing

• 1/3 cup butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Cream butter and sugar. Add cream cheese and vanilla and mix until smooth. Makes six to ten servings

Learn more about the nutrition services provided by Bastyr Center for Natural Health.

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