Carrot Cake research - Dairy Free
 

I do not eat many replacement grain things or sweets, but lately I have been on this jag for carrot cake. I have bought one from an excellent home based GF bakery, but it has canola oil in it - which does me in.

I am looking at my old faithful cookbook & have found a couple of recipes that look great with the added benefit that most of these carrot cake recipes do not have dairy in them.

I think that the one that I am going to try has 3 cups of grated carrots & 2 cups of flour. But before I go to all the pain of making a couple of these & reinventing the wheel. Does anyone have a tried & true great carrot cake??

There is a recipe in Carol Fenster's Special Diet Solutions, & I have a couple other bookbooks & one on order, but I want something that is REALLY good & like old fashioned homemade.

Since I do not like cream cheese anyway, I prefer to ice mine with powdered sugar icing & ordered mine from the bakery that way.

Also, has anyone made this type cake with all almond flour or a combination of almond & tapioca flours?

oh too funny, I just compared my old recipe to Carol Fenster's & it looks like Carol's is an adaptation of my old recipe - same 4 eggs, 2 cups sugar, etc...

Here's one I love (but haven't had in ages). I like the frosting on this better than cream cheese frosting. :) The whole cake is dairy-free and works fine that way. I always make it with canola oil, but any mild-tasting oil should be fine. Olive oil's strong taste tastes weird in baked goods, so I don't recommend using that. But something like corn oil or safflower oil should be fine.

Carrot Cake
===========
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (eg. canola)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups of your favorite gluten-free flour mix (I like: 3/4 cups potato starch + 1/2 cup garbanzo flour or garfava flour + 1/2 cup brown rice flour + 1/4 cup cornstarch)
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. nutmeg
5 cups grated carrots
1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (eg. walnuts) (optional)
1 cup raisins (optional but good!)

Mix the flour mix with the xanthan gum (to keep the xanthan gum from clumping). Then stir everything together. Grease and flour 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. When cool, frost with frosting recipe below.

Frosting
========
1/4 cup mild tasting oil (eg. canola)
1/3 cup almond milk or soymilk or ricemilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 to 4 cups powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients, using the lower amount of powdered sugar. Keep adding powdered sugar or almond milk (or rice milk or soy milk) and stirring until the frosting is the right consistency.


If you try this, I'd be curious to know how it comes out!

-Valerie

Yummy,
 

Valerie, thanks so much this cake sounds so good. i will let you know when I try it. Canola oil does not do very well in my system. I use extra light olive oil in all my baking and frying. It is just a good all purpose oil, not a strong taste like the Extra Virgin Olive Oil...

Bordens None Such Mincemeat &
 

I thought I would squeeze this question in here, the new boxes of borden Nonesuch Mincemeat does not list any gluten, it has corn starch as an ingredient. I couple of years ago I read that this was not GF. Then about last year someone on this list was using it in cookies or something & I pM'd them that I had read that it was not GF. So noooow, is anyone using it & is it GF or not. I have not called the company yet, but I will next week if no one knows.

Then the next thing is that all the old recipes that I have call for Crisco, well I am not into eating any crisco or other saturated fat anymore. All I use is extra light olive oil. Is this what ya'll are doing? & have you had success converting your old recipes?
thanks

Carrrot Cake Dairy Free
 

When I called the company earlier this year about the None Such Mincemeat, the company assured me that it was GF. Hope that this helps.

Marilyn

Thank You
 

Marilyn, Thanks for posting that you had called the company. I am so excited to be able to use this in some cookies. I made these for over 30 years before going GF.

I do not have a GF recipe yet, but the secret to making these is to mix up the oil, sugar & eggs & then break up the mincemeat into that mixture & stir it up really well, till the coloring from the mincemeat starts to get into the egg mixture, then add the dry ingredients & then a lot of chopped nuts. There is no way that this would not be good !!!! & dairy free, yippeee

Hi, the boxed mincedmeat is GF as posted. When I called to check earlier this year, they said that the mincedmeat in the jar is not, so be careful as to which one that you purchase.:)

boxed mincemeat
 

got the one in the box, that is the best kind for cookies!!!
thanks

mmm ... carrot cake sounds delicious!