blog recipe #39 of 365

Hello my friends 8)
I am a HUGE lover of carrot cake, as equal as my love for chocolate!!! Until recently, I had no idea how many calories was in a serving of carrot cake........It is a whopping 574 calories a serving!!! That scared me and really bummed me out! In all the recipes I looked up called for 1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil 8(
With that said I have made it my mission to recreate a healthier version, with way less calories.  Tonight was the first night I have tried, and I managed to have some success, and it tastes great! however it was alittle crumbly, so I am thinking it needed alittle more avocado... so I added it to the recipe below. If anyone has any other suggestions I am all ears!! 
With the recipe below, I have managed to bring the calorie content down to 314 calories per serving with the icing, and 204 calories per serving without the icing!!!! That is a HUGE difference 8) 
I hope you all enjoy the healthier version
To make this recipe gluten free, try using amaranth flour, coconut flour, quinoa flour (one or all of these) equivalent to what the recipe calls for.  You will have to use xantham gum for a binding agent though.  And to make dairy free, use tofu instead of the cream cheese 8)
Happy Cooking

Carrot Cake

Preptime: 20mins  Cooktime: 40-50mins

Cake:

1 ½ cup spelt flour

½ cup coconut flour

4 eggs

3 cups carrots (grated)

3 Tbsp honey

4 Tbsp coconut oil

2 avocados (pitted and blended creamy)

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

½ cup chopped pecans (optional)

Icing:

3 Tbsp earthbalance butter

4 Tbsp organic cream cheese

1 Tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350  ͦ F

In a medium bowl, beat egg, oil, avocado, honey, and vanilla.

In a second bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.  And the flour mixture to the egg mixture.

Next mix in the carrots, and pecans until mixed well.

Pour mixture in a 9x9 oiled cake pan.  Bake for 40-50 mins.

For the Icing mix butter, cream cheese, honey and vanilla with a hand blender until smooth and creamy.

Once the cake is done, let cool for 20 mins.  Place the icing on top of the cake.  Serve.