SUPER HEALTHY CARROT CAKE
Pfffft! Just kidding!
It’s made with whole wheat flour and even dehydrated carrots with canned crushed pineapple but tastes waaaay too good to be healthy. Trust me, NO ONE will ever know that you’re using your food storage in this recipe.
Fresh Ingredients
4 eggs
Storage Ingredients
1 1/4 cups oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup dry dehydrated carrots
1 can crushed pineapple, drained (20 oz.)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup coconut (optional)
Cover dehydrated carrots with 3 cups of cool water and allow to soak for 20 minutes. Drain and grind into course bits. (3 cups of finely shredded carrots, packed, may be substituted.)
In large bowl, blend together oil and brown and white sugars. Add eggs one at a time, beating until blended. In another bowl, mix together the flour, salt, soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Add the flour mixture, about 1/3 at a time to the oil mixture, beating just enough to blend. Fold the carrots and pineapple into the batter. Add nuts and or coconut if desired. Pour batter into a greased and floured extra large cake pan, 10 1/2″ x 15″. Bake in a preheated, 350 degree, oven for about 1 hour. Cool completely before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
Cream butter, cream cheese, and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Frost cake and top with additional chopped nuts if desired.
This is our very top of the list, absolute best, number one, recipe for amazingly moist and rich carrot cake. Don’t let the creepy smell of the dehydrated carrots scare you away. No one has ever suspected that I’ve used the little varmints and I always get asked to share the recipe.
One tip you should know is that this carrot cake improves with age so if you can, make it a day or two ahead of time and then store it frosted and covered with plastic in the refrigerator. The rest will improve the flavor and it’s so nice to have a truly wicked dessert that doesn’t have to be fussed over at the last minute. This one’s been a winner. Every time!
Tags: carrot cake, ridiculously good
April 27th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Sounds yummy! Thank you for sharing your recipe.:) I don’t currently have dehydrated carrots in our storage, but I was thinking about buying some. This cake gives me a good reason to try them out. Just wondering why dehydrated carrots don’t smell good? I have “issues” with how things smell. I can’t stand the smell of dehydrated mushrooms or eggs.
Joyce
April 27th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
You really love me, don’t you? Here I sit, looking for ways to use up the last of my garden carrots, and there you go, posting another scrumptious carrot recipe! I don’t have dehydrated carrots in the pantry, but since carrots are fairly low moisture content, I think I can decrease my wet ingredients slightly and get away with it.
Better yet, since I have hens out back, and I have everything else in the pantry, I don’t have to go get anything to make this!
However, carrot cake this yummy may necessitate a gym membership….
April 27th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
(Duh, it says right in the recipe that I can use 3 cups shredded fresh. How embarrassing.)
April 29th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Woah Joyce! Don’t eggs and mushrooms smell sketchy even when they’re fresh? I’m with you on those “issues”. The dehydrated carrots just smell a little strong…and I was a little tense about them. First time I experimented with substituting for fresh carrots in the recipe, I was worried that the flavor might be funky, but it wasn’t! The flavor is great and when people ask me for this recipe they are SHOCKED to learn that I used dehydrated carrots. You gotta try it!
April 29th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Not to worry Laura! (You’ve been smokin’ a few of those carrots, right???)
Your fresh carrots are of course the very best option!
I’m mainly excited about using the dehydrated carrots in a nice carrot cake recipe because it helps ME learn another way to use food that would be very useful in an emergency. Until then—
Let them eat cake!
May 4th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Oh boy, if I wasn’t on a diet… That looks amazing! Love how you incorporate food storage into your recipes. It’s the way to do it.
http://preparednesspro.wordpress.com
May 4th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Thanks P-Pro. I should be on a diet! Thanks for reminding me!
May 6th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Hm…could one rehydrate the carrots with the pineapple juice?
May 6th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Great suggestion!!! Thanks Carolyn-
May 11th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
I made your carrot cake only I used a muffin tin and I replaced a few of the ingredients. I replaced the oil for an equal amount of white mashed beans, and I used dried eggs instead of fresh. They are very good no one knows there are beans instead of oil in them. Ann
May 12th, 2010 at 8:35 am
Ann! You are a smarty-pants! I love your mashed bean substitution. Does that healthy trick work in ALL baked goods?
May 12th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
The rule that i have heard is white beans for light things and black beans for dark like chocolate. I have replace it with oil or butter and it seems to work for both and i can’t tell the difference. use equal amounts. I haven’t tried too many thing but the ones i have seem to come out ok. Ann
May 13th, 2010 at 10:34 am
I’m trying it Ann! Thanks so much for the good example!