Pass the Plate

I don’t know about you, but I hate raisins. Why do they have to always ruin my desserts? And nuts? I’m not a big fan. It seems there doesn’t exist a carrot cake recipe that doesn’t include one or both of these. It’s something about the cake needing them for the texture or some silly business like that.

Well, I say hogwash! It can be done! Carrot cake lovers and raisin/nut haters, search no more!

Ingredients

• Flour 1½ cups 375 ml
• Baking powder 1 tsp 5 ml
• Baking soda ½ tsp 3 ml
• Salt ¼ tsp 1 ml
• Cinnamon ½ tsp 3 ml
• Ginger ½ tsp 3 ml
• Nutmeg ½ tsp 3 ml
• Egg, beaten 1
• Oil ½ cup 125 ml
• Vanilla 1 tsp 5 ml
• Granulated white sugar ½ cup 125 ml
• Brown sugar ½ cup 125 ml
• Carrots, grated or pureed 1½ cups 375 ml
  

  Don’t quite have quite enough carrots? Don’t worry about it, as long as you have at least half the amount above you should be fine. I tend to use whatever amount I have lying around and my muffins always turn out nice and moist.

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F / 190°C.
2. Grease your muffin or cake molds.
3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar until smooth.
5. Add the carrots to the oil mixture.
6. Combine your wet and dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Don’t over-mix it though, a lumpy batter is good.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes for muffins or 30-40 minutes for cake (check here for a better idea based on the size of your molds) or until an inserted toothpick comes out with no more than a few crumbs on it.

These are great on their own or with some cream cheese frosting. If you want to keep these for more than a week, make sure to refrigerate them.