Spiced Halloween Carrot Cake

Here is a healthy halloweeny twist on the traditional carrot cake. I have added butternut squash and mixed spice to make it more seasonal and totally grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free as well as low-sugar. Your kids will gobble this down, and won’t even know it’s healthy!

Finding cakes that are healthy and delicious can be quite a challenge. Many children with gut problems do not tolerate grains well and many of the kids I look after in my clinic need to be on a low carbohydrate diet such as the Specific Carbohydrate or Paleo diet. Many more need to be gluten and dairy-free.

I love this recipe because it is so easy to make as you can mix all the ingredients together in one bowl, no need for a whisk or worrying about getting enough air in the mixture. You do need to bake it in a fairly cool oven to prevent the nuts from burning.

Spiced Halloween Carrot Cake

• 2 tbsp Coconut oil (Tiana or Biona cooking oil with little to no coconut flavour)
• 2 tbsp Honey
• 100 g Carrots (Peeled)
• 100 g Butternut squash (Peeled and deseeded. You can also use pumpkin if you have some handy.)
• 150 g Ground almonds
• 2 Eggs
• 50 g Pecan Nuts (Chopped plus a few extra whole ones for decoration)
• 25 g Raisins
• 1 tsp Mixed spice
• 0.5 tsp Salt (Pink Himalayan or Celtic)
• 0.5 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

Cake Tin Requirements

• Cake tin (7 inches/18cm in diameter.)
• Parchment paper (Cut into a 7 inch diameter circle to line cake tin.)
• Coconut oil (A little to grease the bottom and sides of the cake tin.)

1. Set the oven to 160 degrees.
2. Melt the honey and coconut oil in a saucepan on a medium heat.
3. Grate the carrot and butternut squash. I like to do this with the grater function of my Magimix but you can do it with a hand grater.
4. Mix all the ingredients well in a bowl using a fork.
5. Lightly grease a cake tin with some coconut oil and line the bottom of the tin with parchment paper.
6. Pour the mixture into the cake tin.
7. Place a few pecan nuts on the top of the cake for decoration.
8. Bake for 50 minutes in a 160 degree oven
9. Cool on a rack and lightly dust with unrefined icing sugar if you want.

Baking, Snacks & Treats