This was a total hit in my house on Easter! Tasted extremely similar to your traditional recipe, without all the sugar and carbs! Wish I had made two, because it was GONE!
Ingredients
Cake:
12 Tbsp softened butter, or a stick and a half
3/4 Cup powdered monkfruit sweetener or equivalent (swerve, allulose, etc)
5 eggs (room temperature)
1 Tbsp molasses, totally optional and you might worry about the carbs but it only adds like 1 net carb per slice (if that) and it deepens the flavor so much. Trust me. Use it.
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 Cups almond flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt (I used pink Himalayan)
2 Cups grated carrots (I don’t have a grater, so I used a food processor, which was incredibly easy) measure loosely, don’t pack it!
1/2 Cup of crushed walnuts for your batter, and another 1/2 Cup for topping
Icing:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 Tbsp butter, softened
1 Cup powdered monkfruit or equivalent
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp heavy cream (you can adjust to your liking, but I like a smoother icing)
Directions:
Cake:
Preheat your oven to 350 F, and grease two 9 inch round baking pans. Or if you have parchment paper, line with that. Much easier to get the cake out unscathed!
In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sweetener until smooth. Takes a few minutes. Once that happens, add in the molasses, vanilla, than one egg at a time. This ensures you won’t have any whites not combined.
Add in your dry ingredients SLOWLY to avoid a smoke bomb in your kitchen. Beat on low until well combined. Then fold in your carrots and nuts.
Add equal amounts of your batter to each cake pan. This batter is pretty thick, so it was really easy to separate them for once. If you’re OCD like myself, invest in a food scale.
Bake for 30 minutes, and let cool completely before even touching it.
Icing:
While the cake is in the oven, start your icing.
In a large mixing bowl add in your butter and cream cheese and whip it up until it’s nice and smooth. Then add in your sweetener. Then the vanilla. If your icing is the consistency you like, then you can 86 the whipping cream. I usually end up adding quite a bit, but I just go on looks and taste. So you can totally make it your own! Even if it gets too runny, you can add more sweetener in if needed. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake.
Once cakes are cooled, add icing how you like it, top with your remaining nuts, and enjoy.
I hope whoever is currently reading this is finding themselves well. I know some of us are scared for ourselves, our families, our children. However, we are all in this together, and we all need to keep pushing! This is such a weird time in all of our lives, and I just wanted to get some of my thoughts out here in the open.
If you’re new here, my name is Ashley and I started a low carb diet August 20th, 2019 and have stuck to it ever since! The hardest part was that I have the biggest sweet tooth imaginable, and I knew unless I learned how to bake low carb/keto friendly I wouldn’t be able to stick to my plan. So in October, I dedicated part of my life to making things I used to love having for dessert. I have so much fun doing what I do each day, and sharing it with all of you. I only wish I could post more, but life is a extremely busy chore!
At my heaviest, circa 2012-2013, I weighed 285 pounds. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had my first bout with depression. I went through a earth shattering break up. I cried myself to sleep for about a year straight. I know that seems utterly ridiculous, but when the first love of your life who was also your best friend for like 8 years breaks your heart, it may take awhile to recover. Everyone is different, but it took me a long time to get over. I turned to eating more than ever before, and I had found a job I loved and had money to blow on fast food daily. Looking back, I cannot believe I didn’t gain more than what I did.
I struggled with being overweight as a child since around 1999-2000 and up until now. (That’s a story for another day) Through all of those 20 years I would try diet after diet after diet with no results. However, at the end of 2013 I was determined to change. I was going to the gym like 4-5 times a week, eating low calorie and low fat, and lost like 30 pounds or so. Then as most of us know all too well, I fell off the wagon when summer came along. Gained a little bit back and was hovering at 260.
In July of 2017, I was up to 280, and I had enough. A wonderful new friend of mine was living her vegan lifestyle. She had been doing so for a LONG time and still is, and there is no doubt in my mind that she will continue that forever. She inspired me to try it as well. I seriously LOVED it! I stuck with it for a year and a half, lost 35 pounds. I don’t even remember why I quit, I think I just fell into the temptation of fast food again. It’s so hard.
I managed to stay around 245-255 after I quit, just because I was still working out here and there. I was still eating insane amounts of calories. For example, I would order a mexican pizza with sour cream, a crunchwrap supreme, a chicken quesadilla, and a large soda of some sort from Taco Bell. Somehow, I ate it all! That was roughly around 1,800 calories, just for dinner. I usually had fast food for breakfast too, and with that I was probably consuming close to 3,500 calories on the days I had fast food twice. (which was quite often, at least 4 times a week)
In July of 2019, my grandmother passed away. It absolutely crushed me, I will never forget how bad my mental health got. It took everything I had to go to work. When I would get home from work I would just lay down in my room for the rest of the day just crying, hating myself, and wanting to die. It got so bad in fact, that I finally went to a new doctor and shared my feelings with her. She officially diagnosed me with severe depression and anxiety. I always had a suspicion that I had anxiety, but I never knew how bad it actually was until I started taking medicine for it and started therapy. NEVER feel ashamed to get help. We are all worthy. Everyone is different, and medicine may not work for you…but even though I had a constant migraine for two weeks, once that cleared up I was a brand new woman. I only wish I had done it sooner.
In that same week that I was diagnosed with those, I also got yelled at by my doctor for high cholesterol levels, and my weight. That was enough for me to realize that I did not want to continue living the way I was. I decided I was going to get healthy for the last time ever. For the first time ever, I didn’t have a binge day. (that day that you eat everything you’re gonna miss before you start a diet) I started immediately. As if I could catch a break, that same week my brother was being deployed overseas. I was dealing with so much, I am proud to say I made it through.
So fast forward to present day, I am sitting at 208 while I’m writing this, even though I was 203 before they closed the gyms up due to COVID-19. This has been so tough. Working out at home is not easy in the slightest, and I never thought in a million years I would ever miss going to the gym every day. I am trying my best, but it is a struggle. Temptation is around constantly. Plus being unemployed right now, I swear all I do is nap and eat. Starting tomorrow, I am putting everything I have into getting under 200. I am so close, and putting it out there I feel like I have to hold myself accountable to do so. I have the eating down, it’s just getting off the couch to workout I have to change. Wish me luck!
If you’re still here, I appreciate you reading, and learning about me. I want to share more personal stuff in the future, because it is so freeing, and I’m not afraid anymore. I love who I have become, and who I plan to be. If you already know me personally, you know me a lot better now.
Dear COVID-19, please go away soon. I miss my friends, family, and the gym.
