Classic Carrot Cake

After spending my entire three-week Winter Break sinking my teeth into every single dessert I saw—sugar cookies, hazelnut cake, raspberry truffles, and more—I decided to skip all sweets as my New Year’s Resolution during my sophomore year of college. Yes, I now bake and blog as a living… And I enjoy a small treat once, twice, or sometimes three times a day. But that holiday season, my sweet tooth completely spiraled out of control! 

That year, I originally challenged myself to shoot for just one quarter—10 weeks, plus another week of finals—without dessert. After those three months passed, resisting treats basically became second nature, so I decided to continue and see if I could go the entire year without a single dessert.

For the record… Dark chocolate does NOT count as dessert. Just like your 8 glasses of water, a small square or two is a daily necessity!

The weekend my birthday rolled around in late June, I had to leave town for a few days. When I returned, I opened my apartment door and found bright purple and yellow crêpe paper strung all around the living room and hanging from the ceiling fan. Matching balloons came flying around the corner, closely followed by my two roommates shouting, “Happy birthday!!”

Ingredients:
for the cake

• 1 ½ c whole wheat flour (measured correctly)
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ c maple syrup
• ¼ c plain nonfat Greek yogurt
• ¼ c nonfat milk
• 2 c freshly grated carrots (about 3 medium)

for the frosting

• 8 oz nonfat ricotta cheese
• 3 tbsp plain nonfat Greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp agave
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F, and coat a 9”-square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. To prepare the cake, whisk together the flour and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the maple syrup and Greek yogurt, thoroughly mixing until no large clumps remain. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and milk, stirring just until incorporated, beginning and ending with the flour. (For best results, add the flour mixture in 3 equal parts and the milk in 2 equal parts.) Fold in the carrots.
3. ................................

for full recipes please see : amyshealthybaking.com

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