Healthy Low Carb Carrot Cake Recipe With Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

Name: Healthy Low Carb Carrot Cake Recipe With Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 70 min
Yield: 12 slices
Ingredients: 1 cup Almond Flour ((90 g)); 1 cup Shredded Coconut ((90 g)); 1/2 cup Coconut Flour ((45 g)); 1/2 cup Low carb brown sugar (packed (105 g) (sub 2/3 cup granulated erythritol plus 1/2 teaspoon maple extract)); 1 tablespoon psyllium husk powder, ((or ground husks)); 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon; 1 teaspoon ground ginger; 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice; 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom; 6 large eggs; 3/4 cup full fat coconut milk; 1 teaspoon stevia glycerite; 4 ounces shredded carrot ((113 g)); 2 ounces chopped walnuts ((56 g)); 12 ounces regular cream cheese, softened ((337 g)); 4 tablespoons butter, softened ((56 g)); 1/4 cup Sukrin Clear Fiber Syrup ((60 ml) (or 1/4 cup heavy cream)); 3/4 cup low carb powdered sugar ((90 g) ); 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

By Kim Hardesty

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This recipe delivers classic carrot cake flavor and texture with a sensational whipped, ginger-cream-cheese frosting. Low carb, gluten-free, grain-free and dairy-free (cake).

There have been a lot of carrots in my CSA boxes the last several weeks. More carrots than this household typically eats. I’m talking beautiful heirloom carrots, the kind that taste….. well, “carroty”. I have been using them in our weekly soups and in our salads as well as sending them to school as snacks for the kids. But with the two most recent CSA deliveries, I found myself with a glut of these sweet and earthy root vegetables. What does one do with a glut of carrots? One makes healthy carrot cake of course!….. and low carb carrot cake muffins…… and low carb carrot cake cupcakes, LOL!

I’ve always been a carrot cake fan and I like mine best with raisins and walnuts and lots of spice. Oh, and let’s not forget the cream cheese frosting. But I don’t like just any cream cheese frosting. I like mine whipped into a fluffy confection that is soft and creamy and totally dreamy – but not too sweet.

BAKING IS SO COOL. It’s completely satisfying to take dissimilar ingredients and mix them with humble eggs, leavening agents, and exotic spices to create something completely different in form, texture, and flavor. That’s what I love about it — the transformation. I like the juxtaposition of the before and after just like in the photos above. Earthy, unrelated and unrefined ingredients becoming a heavenly creation – like this delicious classic carrot cake.

But this isn’t just a classic carrot cake, it is a healthy low carb carrot cake. And to keep it low carb, I deliberately chose each ingredient in order to deliver the most enjoyable flavor and texture possible. The shredded coconut shaved 1 carb off of each serving, and the coconut flour let me use more eggs and coconut milk – which in turn gave me a 2 inch cake, large enough to split in half and frost.

The psyllium powder lent it’s binding power and added a little structure to this cake, helping to keep it gluten-free and dairy-free (as whey protein powder contains dairy and oat fiber is not certified gluten-free, psyllium was the best choice for my family). You may think I’m daft trying to keep the cake dairy-free when the ginger cream-cheese frosting is not, but I wanted our dairy-free and paleo friends to be able to enjoy the cake, too. They can make this great diary-free frosting from Real Food RN for theirs.

I tested several versions of this low carb carrot cake recipe. Missing the raisins I so adore in a good carrot cake, I subbed rum soaked goji berries, which you can see in the wooden bowl above, opposite the grated carrots. I loved the goji berries in the carrot cake and they added a little extra moistness, color, and flavor. But at the end of the day, I decided that they were not absolutely necessary and left them out of the final recipe. If you’re interested in how I incorporated them, ask in the comments.

I also decided to experiment with the new Sukrin ingredients I was so graciously gifted by Sukrin USA. I was very happy with the results. BUT DON’T WORRY, I AM INCLUDING SUBS so anyone with a well stocked low carb pantry can also enjoy this wonderful classic carrot cake. If you are unfamiliar with Sukrin, it is a new line of non-GMO, sugar-free, gluten-free and low carb products from Scandinavia. You can read about them and see the product line in my Sukrin post.

Here is how I used them:

Sukrin Gold: Using Sukrin Gold in the carrot cake, lent a great brown-sugar depth of flavor to the cake. Sukrin Gold is an all natural brown sugar replacement made from erythritol, tagatose, stevia and gluten-free malt extract. It has the aroma, texture, appearance and sweetness of brown sugar. Replace 1:1 in recipes.
Sukrin Fiber Syrup Clear: I used Sukrin Fiber Syrup Clear in the fluffy cream cheese frosting. Sukrin Fiber Syrup Clear is a clear viscous liquid resembling corn syrup. It is sugar-free, 60 % as sweet as sugar and made from prebiotic fibers. It behaves very similarly to corn syrup and added a silkiness to the frosting that is hard to achieve with erythritol alone.
Sukrin Melis: I love this product. Sukrin Melis, a blend of erythritol and stevia, is a 1:1 powdered sugar substitute. This product dissolved beautifully into the cream cheese frosting producing neither the metallic/sharp aftertaste some detect when using erythritol, nor the cooling effect that bothers others.

Overall, I was very pleased with the Sukrin products in this recipe. Again, I WILL OFFER SUGAR FREE INGREDIENT SUBS for those who do not have or are not interested in using the Sukrin products.

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[Disclosure: This recipe contains affiliate links.]