Success! My very sceptical parents (sort of) embraced this sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free carrot cake. I came home to Sussex this weekend and carrot cake is my Dad’s favourite so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try this Deliciously Ella recipe. My mum’s cupboards are now filled with chia seeds, brown rice flour, and coconut oil, but I think I managed to convert her. It also gave me an excuse to buy a load more medjool dates – my new fave.

The cake came out quite dense, similar to a raw cake, but it’s likely that I probably took it out of the oven too early. It was delicious all the same! As long as I instructed my family and neighbours not to think of your average carrot cake before trying this, they all loved it and the entire cake was eaten this weekend! Sorry Jenna…

Shopping list: 400g brown rice flour (or alternative), 120g ground almonds, chia seeds, 65g raisins, 225g pineapple (I just chopped up a whole small pineapple, which may be another reason why the cake came out quite dense…), 300ml almond milk, 150ml maple syrup, 3 carrots (the carrots in Waitrose were MASSIVE so I just grated 2 of these), 3 bananas, coconut oil, 10 medjool dates (Waitrose sell these already pitted – it’s the little things in life…), almond butter, cinnamon.

I realise that this is quite a long shopping list… And I have come to realise that healthy cakes/bakes can be much more expensive to make than savoury recipes. However, they’re great for special occasions and this is the recipe that won over my family this weekend.

Many of these ingredients I also already had in my cupboard, such as flour, chia seeds, coconut oil and cinnamon. These are quite good investments and meant I didn’t need to spend as much on new ingredients for this recipe.

Gimme the carrot cake:

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. My Mum has a fan oven back in Sussex so I went for 160 degrees Celsius. (She also has lots of lovely, pretty mixing bowls and utensils that I got to use!)

2) Pour the brown rice flour into a mixing bowl with the ground almonds, 2 tablespoons chia seeds, and the raisins.

3) Place the pineapple, almond milk and maple syrup into a blender and blend. I really missed my Nutri Bullet at this point… Think I’ll be packing it along with all my other necessities next time I visit home! Once smooth, pour into the mixing bowl.

4) Next, grate the carrots. As per, I didn’t bother peeling the carrots but if you’d prefer to then don’t let me stop you. Stir the carrot into the mixing bowl until it forms a smooth batter. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: grated carrot gets EVERYWHERE! Sorry, Mum.

5) Grease 2 cake tins with coconut oil and split the batter between the two. Bake for about 30 minutes and then cool.

6) In the meantime, make the icing. Place the bananas, dates, 2 tablespoons almond butter, 1 tablespoon coconut oil, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 4 tablespoons water into a blender.

7) Once the cakes have cooled, divide the icing between the two and sandwich together. Enjoy!