Healthy Carrot Cake Recipe
A delicious and moist cake, a healthy alternative to the classic carrot cake. This healthy carrot cake recipe can be made in a 13x9 or as a layered birthday cake so you can celebrate and stay in shape.
Servings: 16 servings
Calories: 328kcal
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 4 eggs.
- ½ cup brown sugar.
- ½ cup granulated white sugar.
- ¾ cup apple sauce.
- ¼ cup oil
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 cups grated carrots
- ½ cup walnuts chopped (optional).
For the cream cheese frosting and filling**
- ½ cup raw honey.
- 2 8oz cream cheese, room temperature.
- 2 (5oz) vanilla Greek yogurt cups.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and dust two 8 inch round cake pans or 9x13 inch pan.
- In a deep bowl, beat eggs and vanilla then add both brown and white sugar and continue beating.
- Add oil then apple sauce and mix well.
- In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix.
- Finally fold in the carrots and pecan if using.
- Bake in the prepared pan(s) until done.*
- Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. In a bowl beat cream cheese, yogurt and honey until well combined. Refrigerate until the cake is done and cooled.
- If you are making a two tier cake, add half the filling over one cake and cover with the other one.
- Decorate with the rest of the frosting.
- Refrigerate to set for a couple of hours before serving.
Video
Notes
- If you will not make a two tier cake and then use only half of the icing recipe.
- The frosting is a little bit soft, If you need a more stiff frosting to make flowers and more decorative shapes, you'll need to add some powdered sugar. I've used a lot of icing as I've made a two tier birthday cake.
- You can use chopped pecans instead of walnuts as well.
- You can bake in a 13x9 pan and only use half of the icing or just dust the top with some powdered sugar instead of frosting, or maybe even healthier and skip the frosting all together.
- Cake and frosting are not too sweet like the ones we usually get at the stores. For us it was just right and we did not even miss the extra sugar. I had a little bit of leftover frosting which my kids put to a good use . They scooped more on their cake pieces, but guess what? I was not freaking out and yelling at them to stop.
- Please check the nutrition disclaimer policy.
Nutrition
Calories: 328kcal | Carbohydrates: 39g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 73mg | Sodium: 395mg | Potassium: 252mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 26g | Vitamin A: 4456IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 108mg | Iron: 1mg