Are you ready for a unique, easy & healthy carrot cake recipe? This is a one layer cake with a light and creamy mousse topping. And to make it extra carroty, I incorporated carrots in both the cake and the mousse layers. Here’s how to make it:
For the cake layer I used a mix of oat flour and all-purpose flour. The regular flour provides gluten, which is very important in this recipe. Between the carrots and walnuts, the cake can become quite crumbly without gluten. On the other hand, the oat flour provides some nutrients such as fiber, protein, and iron, making this recipe healthier than that of a traditional carrot cake.
I personally dislike raisins, so I chose not to use them in this recipe. However, if you like raisins (or cranberries), you could add a handful to the batter.
Now for the mousse, I went with a wild idea. Firstly, I chose to make a mousse with cream and gelatin. I find it a lot lighter than cream cheese frosting. If you do not eat gelatin, you can use agar agar, which is plant-sourced.
Secondly, I chose to also incorporate carrots into to mousse. This gave the mousse a nice orange color, but not much carroty tase. Thus I also added some passionfruit juice for extra flavor. Passionfruit is very aromatic, but sour. So the mousse is not too sweet.
As a result, this cake is very versatile. Since it’s not too sweet, it is a great cake to make during a heatwave. But also, thanks to all the spices in the batter, it is also a great cake to bake for fall or winter.
I also used vanillated sugar instead of vanilla extract in the mousse. You can find it on Amazon and at any grocery store that carries European produce.
To bake the cake layer I used a cake pan of 23 cm (9 inch) diameter. Please note the baking time of the cake will differ with a differently sized pan. You will know your cake is ready when you insert a toothpick in the center of the cake and it comes out clean.
See more cake recipes here.
And this is how to make the easy & healthy carrot cake:
Easy & Healthy Carrot Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 cup (100 g/ 3 ½ oz.) oat flour
- ⅔ cup (100 g/ 3 ½ oz.) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (100 g/ 3 ½ oz.) granulated sugar
- 1 stick (115 g/ 4 oz.) unsalted butter
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- ¼ cup (60 ml/ 2 fl. oz.) cream (35 % fat content)
- 50 g (1 ¾ oz.) walnuts, chopped
- 3 medium carrots, finely grated
- 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 2 tbsp. unsalted butter for greasing the baking pan
- 3 tbsp. oat flour, for dusting the baking pan
For the mousse:
- 1 cup (240 g/ 8 ½ oz.) plain yogurt (3% fat content)
- 1 cup (240 ml/ 8 ½ fl. oz.) whipping cream (35% fat content), cold
- ½ cup (60 g/ 2 oz.) icing sugar
- ½ cup (120 ml/ 4 ¼ fl. oz.) fresh passion fruit juice
- 1 small carrot, finely grated
- 2 tbsp. vanillated sugar
- 1 pouch (7 g) powdered gelatin
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F).
- Sift the all-purpose flour, oat flour, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg into a bowl. Add the baking powder, whisk well and set aside.
- Gently melt the butter over low temperature. Make sure the butter does not bubble. Once melted allow it to cool down.
- Crack the eggs into another bowl, add the sugar and beat at high speed with an electric mixer. The mixture is ready when almost triple in volume and light in color. Then add the vanilla extract, cream, salt and whisk. Using a spatula add the flour mix to the eggs bowl in three-four steps, mixing after each step until the flour is well incorporated. Make sure not to over mix. Add the grated carrots, melted cooled butter, and mix with the spatula. Fold in the walnuts.
- Grease the cake pan with butter and dust it with oat flour. Pour batter into cake pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake has fully baked and is ready to be taken out of the oven. Once baked, take the pan out of the oven and allow the cake to sit for 5 minutes in the pan. Then invert it onto a rack and let it cool to room temperature.
For the mousse:
- In a small bowl, place ¼ cup cold passion fruit juice and gelatin. Allow the gelatin to hydrate for 5 minutes. Place the remaining passion fruit juice into a small pot over low heat. Once it begins to simmer, take it off the heat. Pour the hydrated gelatin over the warm juice and mix well. Allow to cool down to room temperature.
- In a large bowl, place the cream and beat it to a soft peak. Add the vanillated sugar and beat to a stiff peak.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the yogurt, icing sugar, and grated carrot. With a spatula, gently incorporate the yogurt mix into the whipped cream. Gently pour the gelatin-passion fruit juice mix and incorporate.
- Place plastic wrap over the bottom and sides of the cake pan. Pour the yogurt mousse into the cake pan. Place the baked cake (bottom up) over the mousse. Refrigerate 2-3 hours, or until the mousse has set. Invert onto a plate and gently remove the plastic wrap.
