I made this wonderful carrot cake yesterday for a friend’s birthday. I wish I could take credit for such a great recipe, but I found it at www.elanaspantry.com a site filled with all sorts of gluten-free treats. On Elana’s site she recommends icing it with her coconut cream frosting. Instead, I iced my cake with a Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting which I found at http://simplysugarandglutenfree.com . If you’re dairy free, stick with the coconut cream,  but if you’re like me and want the traditional cream cheese frosting,  try this one, it’s delicious.

Ingredients:

3 cups almond flour

2 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 Tbs cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

5 eggs

½ cup raw honey

¼ cup grapeseed oil (or almond oil)

3 cups grated carrots

1 cup dates, chopped

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)

In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, honey and oil.

Stir carrots, dates and walnuts into wet ingredients.

Stir wet ingredients into dry.

Place batter into 2 well greased, round 9 inch cake pans.

Bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes. Cakes are done when a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool in pans for one hour.

Frost cakes with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

 

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

8 ounces Neufchatel cream cheese, at room temperature

2 tablespoons light agave nectar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup cold heavy cream

Whip Neufchatel cheese, vanilla, agave and salt with electric mixer until smooth and light.

In a separate bowl, whip heavy cream until stiff peaks form.

Stir ¼ of whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture. Gently fold remaining whipped cream into Neufchatel cheese mixture until combined.

Can be made one day ahead. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Hint: Put mixing bowl and beaters that you’re going to use to whip the heavy cream in the freezer for 10 minutes before using them. The chilled bowl and beaters will help the cream to whip properly. Also, make sure the cake has cooled completely before icing it.