In South Africa a carrot cake is sometimes called a “14 carat cake” referring to the best jewels that were made with 14 karat gold. So yes, a good carrot cake could be associated with good quality gold.

My cousin bought me a recipe book – ‘SAAM’ of Errieda du Toit, and can I just say that I am reading this book as others read story books. She took a century of South African recipes and shared the best of those in one book. Books like these makes me so proud to be South African. It is such fun to go through the stories of genuine South African recipes. We really do have a very unique food-culture.

Errieda took a carrot cake recipe from a book that was published by a church in Uppington. They baked a one layer carrot cake in the microwave for 6-8 minutes… I adapted that recipe, used sugar substitutes and rye flour instead of normal cake flour. I also changed the quantities to get a two-layer cake.

I tried to keep this carrot cake recipe clean AND NUTRITIOUS, low carb and low in sugar. It was still divine. The moist of the carrots is really all that you need.

For a two-layer cake you can use quantities as below. You can bake a single-layer cake by dividing the quantities exactly by two – just check the baking time and make sure your cake does not dry out (or use the microwave like they did in Uppington).

Ingredients;

  • 3 eggs, or 6 egg whites
  • 300 g of xylitol / brown sugar / coconut palm sugar (I used coconut palm)
  • 125ml oil
  • 125ml organic butter (melted)
  • 5ml vanilla essence
  • 500ml / 2 cups shredded carrots
  • 1/2 cup chopped dates
  • 1 cup finely chopped walnuts
  • 360g Rye flour
  • 7ml baking powder
  • 5ml baking soda
  • 10ml cinnamon
  • 2.5ml salt

Directions;

Mix the eggs and the sugar / xylitol. Add the oil, melted butter and the vanilla essence. Stir in the carrots and nuts until nicely combined. Sift in the dry ingredients and fold it into the egg mixture. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes at 180’c.

For the cream cheese frosting;

  • 250ml smooth plain full cream cottage cheese
  • 2-3 table spoons of castor xylitol / castor sugar.

Mix the castor sugar and the cottage cheese until smooth and add onto the cake once the cake has cooled off. You will see that I don’t use too much sugar in my cream cheese frosting – to keep it low carb.

A piece of this carrot cake could be a nutritious lunch – Enjoy!