Celebration Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

One year anniversary. First birthday. Whatever you may call it, it’s an exciting reason to celebrate!

It’s been one whole year since I hit submit on my very first blog post. So it is celebration time here!! I cannot believe it has only been one year. It feels so much longer. And if you take into account the months of planning, website building, name brainstorming and writing, not to mention the years of dreaming, it would be much longer. But let’s just go with the first post. That way, we can celebrate. And we all know that celebrations call for cake! Hooray!

So here you have it, Friendly Little Kitchen’s very first birthday cake, and it’s a double decker. A healthier spin on the classic Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese icing. It has much less sugar than your typical carrot cake, which means the sweetness is not overpowering and you can actually taste all of its lovely ingredients.

Being a special day for Friendly Little Kitchen, I was determined to make a special cake, one that represents what I believe in – not focusing on what you can’t eat but embracing what you CAN eat. So of course, this cake is low FODMAP, fructose friendly, gluten free, includes a lactose free option, and most importantly, absolutely 100% delicious.

Celebrate with me, embrace what you can eat, and enjoy every bite of this cake! It will help remind you that it’s not impossible to still enjoy beautiful food. In fact it’s very very possible, and it can be fun and easy.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
1 cake (*double recipe for layer cake)

1 1/3 cup gluten free SR flour 
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup dark muscovado sugar (or brown sugar)
2 medium carrots, grated
1/3 cup pineapple, crushed
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup coconut, shredded

Cream Cheese Icing
125g cream cheese, room temperature (I used Liddells lactose free)
1 tbsp rice malt syrup
2 tbsp natural greek yoghurt (I used Chobani which is a low lactose alternative but omit for a lactose free option)

Preheat oven to 180°C and grease a round 8-inch cake tin. Prepare ingredients, grate carrots (lightly squeeze some juice out) and chop walnuts. Combine flour, spices and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, olive oil, vanilla and sugars until creamy. Add flour mixture and whisk until smooth. Add walnuts, coconut, pineapple and carrot, stirring after each addition. Mix well then pour into prepared tin. Bake for 35 minutes.

To make the topping: Mix together cream cheese, yoghurt and rice malt syrup until smooth. Once the cake is cool, spread over a thin layer of icing and top with toasted walnuts. Store refrigerated.

*To make a layer cake: Double the cake and icing recipe. Allow cakes to cool completely. Stack the cakes as they are, icing in between. Or if you want to be extra fancy, cut a smaller circle out of the middle of each cake before stacking. This gives the impression of extra height. We used a round container as a stencil (and then ate the extra cut offs). Doing this with a friend makes it a lot easier and fun – thanks Robbie!

Enjoy.