Soft Carrot Cake

Happy September everyone! I hope you’ve had a lovely start into the new month. Punctually with the change came the rain, sadly. It surely seems like autumn has arrived now and I doubt that we will have another heat wave flying over Zurich (though I wouldn’t mind a little more summer).

If there is one thing I love doing on rainy days it’s baking. As much as I have loved the summer heat waves, turning on the oven was a pain.. So here’s to the more chill days coming up! I love good carrot cakes, and with good I mean free of gluten and lactose, soft and spongy. This cake is exactly that – it really tastes amazing when warm (also good when cooled down), but tastes amazing when re-heated a minute or two in the microwave. So really, it’s one of those comforting foods when everything starts getting dull with the constant rain or for late autumn. It should be getting sunnier again this weekend but I am flying to Germany later tonight and sadly the weather hasn’t favored me over there! But now,.. to the recipe.

What you need

3 cups of freshly grated carrots (around 450 g)
1 ½ cups brown sugar
1 cup olive oil (or any other vegetable oil if you don’t like the taste)
2 cups gluten free flour
4 fresh medium eggs
2 tsp baking powder
2-3 tsp cinnamon (3 if you love cinnamon like me)
a hint of salt

What to do

1) pre-heat the oven to around 180°C
2) make sure to grate the carrots upfront and add those into the bowl first
3) add the sugar, oil, and one cup of flour – now blend it well
4) add the rest of ingredients one by one and mix well until everything is blended well
5) the dough should taste a little sweet yet oily at first
6) put the dough into a baking dish and leave it in for 45-60 min
7) make sure to check on the cake from time to time – if no dough sticks to the toothpick (or something similar), the cake is ready!
8) give the cake a good rest of at least 20 minutes – this way it won’t break

Now you can

1) eat it whilst it’s still a little warm, served with a hot cup of tea or coffee
2) let it fully cool down and enjoy it in the warmth (inside or outside)
3) re-heat it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes if you prefer it warm

The cake will easily last you a week when kept in the fridge and several weeks when kept in the freezer.

With that, I wish you some happy-food-thoughts!
xo