5 Ingredient Carrot Cake by the StoneSoup blogger



After cooling in baking pan




Right out of the oven

 Jules Clancy, the genius behind the cooking blog StoneSoup has fabulous recipes - 5 ingredients or less.  Her approach is that more ingredients doesn't necessarily add value and that simple foods are great foods.  She's developing a slew of recipes using a minimalist approach. 

Today I've prepared her carrot cake, and yes, it's only 5 ingredients.  Brilliant!

A while back I prepared her almond cake here and I've tucked the recipe away for future use, as well as this adaptation of carrot cake.  These recipes are keepers.

Four of 5 ingredients - eggs, almonds, carrots, veggie oil.  Plus brown sugar.

Most weekends, I"ll shred a bunch of carrots and keep them on hand for a variety of dishes.  It's easy to reach into the fridge and haul out a tub of pre-shredded carrots and add a handful of carrots to soups and salads.  The carrots that I shredded below made enough for 3 packed cups of carrots.  I have a shredding disc for my Cuisinart food processor that makes short work of this task.  For the ground almonds, I"ll throw them into the Vitamix in the dry-ingredient container and turn them into flour.

Vitamix 5200 making short work of turning raw almonds into meal

Almond meal

250g (8 1/2 oz) brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable or peanut oil
3 eggs
250g (8 1/2 oz) almond meal
250g (8 1/2 oz) carrots, coarsely grated

1. Preheat your oven with a baking sheet on the middle shelf to 180C (350F).
2. Line a 20cm (8in) spring form cake tin with baking paper. Grease the base and side with a little oil.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar and oil.
4. Add eggs, one at a time mixing to combine. Stir in almond meal and carrots.
5. Pour cake mixture into the prepared tin and level off with a spoon.
6. Bake for 1 hour, or until the top is golden and feels firm to the touch. Cool in the tin.

Next time I will shredd the carrots a little finer and grind the almonds a little more.  Thanks Jules, a fantastic recipe - veggies and desert all in one, a keeper. 

Astrid