Carrot Cake with Sweet Potato Frosting

As requested, here are the recipes for the carrot cake and frosting I made for my dad's birthday.  

Recently, Dad has been having problems with his memory. He'd forget where he was at some points, forget where he was going, and what he was supposed to be doing. His doctor took him off of sugar and gluten completely. Apparently sugar can create a type of plaque that builds up on the brain and leads to dementia and Alzheimer's disease!  SUGAR IS BAD, MMMKAY?! 

Birthdays in general aren't such a big deal for me, but my dad's has always been a special day. He's the head of the family, after all; and his favorite cake is carrot cake. So, since he is on this new diet, we (and by we, I mean me since Mom has no self confidence in trying new creations) had to come up with a recipe to make Dad's favorite a gluten/sugar free possibility. 

I adapted my cake recipe from this recipe on ElanasPantry.com and the sweet potato frosting from WholeNewMom.com which has cupcake recipe with it. The cake recipe uses some form of sugar (sugar, agave, honey, etc.) so I had to make adjustments and use stevia powder and liquid drops. If you can have sugar, by all means use the original recipes, I won't be offended, nor will I even know! BUT, I just don't recommend sugar in anything with all the things I have learned about it! I hear agave nectar is a very good alternative, but it's got too much of a glycemic index for us. So, Sweetleaf Stevia it is! 

Carrot Cake

·         3 cups Namaste Foods Perfect Flour Blend

·         1 teaspoon sea salt

·         1 teaspoon baking soda

·         1 tablespoon ground cinnamon  

·         1 teaspoon nutmeg

·         5 eggs

·         30 -35 drops liquid stevia

·         4 teaspoons – 2 tablespoons of powdered stevia (I did the 4 tsps but 2 tbs is = to 1 cup sugar, so if you like sweet, do more.)

·         ¼ cup  coconut oil

·         3 cups carrots, grated

·         1 cup  chopped walnuts

         Almond Milk

In a large bowl, combine  flour, salt, baking soda, powdered stevia, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, liquid stevia and oil.  Stir carrots and walnuts into wet ingredients.

Stir wet ingredients into dry and mix well.  I had to add a few splashes of almond milk, probably about 1/4 cup, to get a 

good cake batter consistency. 

Place batter into  9x13 inch baking dish and bake at 325° for 25 minutes

Cool to room temperature and spread with sweet potato frosting

Sweet Potato Frosting

   1 cup sweet potato puree*

   5-10 tsp cinnamon, to taste   2 tsp fresh lemon juice   1 tsp vanilla   25-35 drops Sweetleaf Liquid Stevia(or use a flavored liquid, also by Sweetleaf, to jazz it up.)   6 tsp coconut oil, melted

   4-8 tbsp full fat coconut milk (canned, not cream of coconut)

*To make sweet potato puree, wash one medium to large potato, prick with a fork a few times and place on a baking sheet (line with parchment paper to make clean up a breeze) and bake at 400°F for 30-40 minutes until tender. OR microwave on baked potato setting.

Let cool a bit. The skin should peel off relatively easy at this point. Scoop out the filling and place in a mini food processor or blender and puree. Now you are ready to make the frosting!

1.  Before you begin, ensure all ingredients are at room temperature or warmer.

2.  Using a hand mixer or kitchan aid mixer beat all ingredients into a bowl, scraping down the sides a few times. Adjust flavors to taste.

**If you want chocolate frosting, add ¼ cup unsweetend cocoa powder, I love dark chocolate, and add more stevia to desired sweetness, probably about another 20-30 drops or about 1 tbsp powdered. If you use powdered, I would mix the powdered stevia in with the cocoa powder before adding it to the sweet potato mixture.