Gluten Free & Paleo Carrot Cake

This paleo carrot cake is soft, moist, and one of the best I’ve ever had! Spread with cream cheese frosting or creamy paleo date frosting!

Folks, I’m on the last one, so it’s time to celebrate.

The laaaaaaast one.

I won’t say it’s been fun, easy, or exactly something I’d want to repeat. My Mom officially announced that “Linnaea, your time management skills are not what I thought they were.” I have to agree with her. My time management skills are not what I thought they were. Every single time, it’s been down to the wire.

But now, this is it. I’m midway through writing the last college scholarship application.

Word of advice to any pre-college students out there reading this blog: Don’t.

Don’t go to college. Don’t buy a car.

Yes, the car. See, I don’t own one yet, and recently I’m beginning to doubt that I want to. Driving is bad enough for me because I get lost every three blocks. I even recently got lost in my own hometown. And only 3,000 people live there.

The main problem with driving, however, is that cars break down. Take a look at this recent episode in the grocery store parking lot:

After returning from a successful shopping trip for kombucha and spinach (yeah, we eat real healthy), I got into the car, turned on the engine, and saw the oil light blink on and off several times. No biggie. I got this.

I got out, lifted the hood (after some experimenting with how exactly to lift the hood), found the oil thingy, and pulled it out before realizing I needed some kind of napkin to wipe it off.

Ten seconds later, after crawling around in the car trying to find said napkin: Removed oil thingy again, wiped off, re-inserted. Oil looked fine. Repeated just to be all OCD and absolutely certain. Oil thingy looked fine.

Now the real troubles begin. After putting the oil thingy back, I contemplated the difficulty of closing the hood, finally settling on slamming it down good and hard. Unfortunately, this resulted in the front grill falling off onto the pavement and landing on my feet. After hopping around in some level of pain while making absolutely certain that nobody saw that (one benefit of living in a small town), I tried reattaching the grill. It didn’t seem to want to stick.

Not to mention that the hood was still not closed.

The end result is that even with help from a friend’s dad, that hood never did close. He ended up using wire to hold it down, and I drove home with my hood partially open and my front grill safely stowed in the back seat. Luckily my parents were not overly angered because this was, after all, “the kid vehicle,” which they’ve designated as the chosen destructible car.

Did I mention that it’s a minivan? I mean, so much for any level of coolness I might’ve had. A minivan with a missing grill is even less cool. One friend suggested I paint purple dolphins on the sides, but I really don’t see how this would help. Or why purple dolphins came to mind.

So, yeah, should probably buy a car. Or maybe just reconsider this whole college proposition. I mean, it might be better to just live at home and bake really good food that will make my family want to keep me around.

Yes, I realize that entire car/college monologue was completely unrelated to food, or to this perfectly delectable carrot cake. I’ll make up for that by waxing lyrical about this carrot cake in the following paragraph:

This gluten-free and paleo carrot cake is moist, sweet, and perfectly complimented by the crunchy pecans and the slight chewiness of the toasted coconut. Nobody would ever realize that it’s paleo, and if you give many paleo carrot cakes made from this recipe away on the streets, you will make many friends.

Hey, do you think if I sent this cake to the scholarship people instead of some boring essay, I’d stand a better chance of winning?

Gluten Free & Paleo Carrot Cake

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

1 hour

 

This paleo carrot cake is soft, moist, and one of the best I've ever had! Spread with cream cheese frosting or creamy paleo date frosting!

Author: Linnaea

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: About 10 servings

Ingredients

• Dry Ingredients
• ½ cup coconut flour
• ¼ cup cassava flour (or 1½ tablespoons more coconut flour)
• ½ teaspoon gelatin
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• Wet Ingredients
• ½ cup honey
• ½ cup coconut oil
• ¾ cup olive oil
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups finely grated peeled carrot
• 1 cup nuts, chopped (optional, you can use pecans or walnuts or both)
• 1 cup shredded coconut (optional, adds great texture)
• ½ cup coconut, toasted or untoasted, for garnish on top
• Frosting for cake (see link to frosting recipe below this recipe)

Instructions

1. Grease one 9" or 10" round springform pan with olive oil. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Whisk together the coconut four, cassava flour, gelatin, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. In another bowl, beat together the honey, coconut oil, olive oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth and well-combined (about 30 seconds).
4. Add the flour mix to the oil/egg mix and beat well.
5. Stir in the carrot, nuts (optional), and 1 cup shredded coconut (optional, recommended).
6. Put the cake in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean (a few dry crumbs on the knife are okay--just no streaks).
7. After removing from the oven, use a rubber spatula to quickly separate the edges of the pan from the cake. Remove the round springform pan siding and allow the cake to cool. Removing the pan sides right away allows the cake to cool more quickly on the edges while the center continues to firm up, making for a more evenly cooked cake.
8. Cool completely before frosting (frosting recipe idea below the recipe). Sprinkle with toasted or untoasted coconut (your choice).
9. Refrigerate until eating.

Notes

See below recipe for frosting ideas!

3.5.3226

And now for some super awesome frosting!!

I’d recommend that you use this recipe for date frosting. It’s smooth, creamy, really good, and does NOT taste like dates. Of course, since this is carrot cake you should eliminate the peanut butter and cocoa. In place of those ingredients, add about 2 tablespoons more coconut cream.
And enjoy. I recommend that you sprinkle the top with toasted or untoasted coconut.

I recently made this carrot cake with the date frosting for an event. Here it is:

This photo was taken by my sister, Melanie!

And, yeah, the frosting recipe you see on the cake is not the date frosting recipe I’ve linked to above. I’ll be publishing the frosting on the cake soon…just as soon as I perfect the recipe. Until then, use that beautiful date frosting. It really is good. I might actually prefer that to the coconut frosting you see in the pictures.