Healthy Buckwheat Carrot Cake
Looking for a sweet, flavorful and dessert-like (yet healthy) snacking cake? Well, good news, this Healthy Buckwheat Carrot Cake is it! Each slice is full of spices typical to Carrot Cake, such as cinnamon and nutmeg, along with the classic orange specks from freshly grated carrots, plus a little hint of citrus to brighten it all up.
Except, there’s something a little different between a regular old carrot cake and this carrot cake. This cake good for you!
And it is sweet, satisfying and flavorful enough to be eaten on its own. You don’t need a heavy, buttery and sugary cream cheese frosting! But, if you did, this healthified version is definitely the way to go.
Without the frosting, this cake is portable so you can take it with you on the go to school, work, the gym, wherever. It’s the perfect pick me up and you’d never know it’s actually good for you, nutritious and totally guilt-free!
^^ Now THAT is the perfect breakfast (or lunch or snack or dessert) right there!
This Healthy Buckwheat Carrot Cake is so nutritious and delicious you can enjoy it all throughout the day.
Say what?
It’s sugar free, low fat, high fiber, gluten free, dairy free, AND vegan?!? I’ll take a slice right now thank you very much. Wait, make that two 😉
Healthy Buckwheat Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 230g (2 cups) Grated Carrots **
- 2 tsp Lemon Zest or Orange Zest
- 300g (2½ cups) Buckwheat Flour
- 2 tsp Double-Acting Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1½ tsp Apple Pie Spice
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 246g (1 cup) Unsweetened Applesauce
- 1 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
- 2 tsp English Toffee-Flavored Stevia Extract
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 tbs Apple Cider Vinegar
Instructions
- **Grate the carrots and zest the lemon/orange. Place the carrots on a paper towel to drain off the excess water.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and spray two 8" cake pans with cooking spray and line with parchment paper circles.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the buckwheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, apple pie spice, and salt.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the applesauce, almond milk, stevia extract, and vanilla extract.
- Whisk in the grated carrots and zest. Whisk in the vinegar.
- Dump the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients and whisk together. Scoop the batter into the prepared cake pans, spread them out, and bake for ~34 minutes, or until the surface springs back when tapped.
- Flip cakes onto a wire cooling rack and let cool completely. Slice and serve with your favorite nut butter (I used cashew butter), pure maple syrup, and/or fresh fruit!
Recipe Notes
Mmmm, a nutritionally balanced cake (with only 90 calories, might I add). Totally breakfast material.
I topped my Buckwheat Carrot Cake with big spoonfuls of homemade cashew butter and a generous drizzle of pure maple syrup.
Because us Canadians know how to do things right.
This moist and flavorful Buckwheat Carrot Cake is whole grain, high fiber, refined sugar-free, and full of protein, so it’ll keep you full and satisfied all morning long.
There is nothing more delightful than a slice of cake in the morning 🙂
Be happy. Eat cake.
Duh.
.
With love and good eats,
.
– Jess
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Indulge − no strings attached!
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This carrot cake looks awesome! Definitely the best part about it is how healthy the recipe is.. I must recreate it!
Thalia @ Butter and Brioche-
Aw thanks Thalia! I hope you like the cake 🙂
-Jess
I love carrot cake- it’s a favorite in my house. My default is Elana’s Pantry carrot cake with almond flour– but this looks like a great alternative that I could eat for breakfast 🙂 And I love when breakfast tastes like dessert! I like to semi-dry crushed pineapple in the oven, then mix it with cream cheese, for a high protein “frosting.”
Michelle @ Vitamin Sunshine-
Ooo I’ve wanted to try Elana’s carrot cake for SO long now! She has actually been one of my favorites bloggers for over four years, before I even started blogging myself 🙂
Crushed pineapple sounds like it would make a great replacement for the applesauce. YUM! Great idea Michelle 🙂
-Jess
Hello. You have a beautiful blog and thank you for sharing these healthy dessert recipes. I made this buckwheat carrot cake twice and i am not quite sure of the right consistency of the batter. The one that I make ends up beeing very sticky (it is kind of hard to spread it in the cooking pan) and it seams that it does not rise at all in the oven, dispite it containing baking powder. The end product is very dense and moist. I really like the taste of the cake but i am not sure if am I am making the batter as it should be. It would be really nice to have some pictures of the cooking process.
Thank you so much! The batter in this cake is supposed to be very dense, heavy and slightly sticky. The cake isn’t meant to rise much, but it shouldn’t have been dense… it should be pretty fluffy. Did you make any ingredient substitutions or did you make sure to use a kitchen scale?
-Jess
Have to say it looks great but at the end you really show how stupid you are because it should read WE Canadian. Because us Canadian shows that you are wrong.
Trixie, How rude!
We all make grammatical errors or spelling errors from time to time. I’m sure you have as well.
it doesn’t mean you are stupid.
Hello,
I would like to try this cake for my 18 month old who is allergic to many food products.
I’m a bit confused as think one step is missing here. we have dry and wet ingredients in two separate bowls. When and how do we mix them about and when do we add grated carrots pls?
Sorry about that, I fixed the instructions! Hope your baby likes the cake Parul 🙂
Made it tonight so he will try tomorrow. His mommy is definitely enjoying it 🙂 it’s light and fluffy. I made my own home made apple sauce.
Could I use coconut milk instead of almond?
Absolutely! 🙂
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I need the recepie pleace
Absolutely Loved it
Tried it. Got a heavy, wet texture. Not cake-like texture. No ingredients substituted. This has happened with several of your recipes. Videos would certainly be helpful to check texture as we prepare.
Is there a way to repurpose a failed cake?