Carrot Cake Loaf with Cream “Cheese” Icing

May 2, 2011 By Leanne Vogel July 18, 2015

This weekend was a lazy one. I’ve had a stuffy nose, fever, and headache for 2 solid days. As soon as I felt something coming on last Monday, I stocked up on camu camu and oil of oregano. It helped, but it wasn’t enough. On Saturday, I asked you on Facebook: What’s your strategy for getting rid of a cold? Your suggestions were fantastic!

epsom salt bath
napping
peppermint tea with honey
ginger
garlic juice – the intention was there… but I couldn’t go through with it!
colloidal silver
netipot
inhale tea tree oil in a steam bath

I went for my netipot, peppermint tea, napping, a nice hot bath, and some carrot cake loaf. Wait, what? That wasn’t on the list?

Carrot Cake Loaf with Cream Cheese Icing

As I was laying around this weekend, I got to thinking about my photography and steps I could take to improve it.

Take a photography class. Nope, no time and it costs too much $$.
Ask Kevin to help me. Valid option, but he’s busy too.
Use others’ work as inspiration for my own. Ding, ding, ding!

I realized that I use so many recipes + techniques as inspiration for my cooking, but rarely do the same for my photography. Find an image I like, take inspiration from it, make it my own, and learn something along the way. So, I decided to test it out and use Angela’s recent photography as an inspiration for this post [who better to get inspiration from than Angela?] All in all, it really helped!

Carrot Cake Loaf with Cream Cheese Icing

Author: Leanne Vogel

Recipe type: Gluten free, Dairy free, Refined sugar free, Yeast free, Corn free

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 70 mins

Total time: 1 hour 30 mins

Serves: 1 loaf or 8 slices

This classic [gluten free] carrot cake loaf is packed with healthy fats, fiber, and is free of refined sugars.

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

1 cup blanched almond flour
½ cup quinoa flakes
½ cup arrowroot flour/powder
½ cup coconut/coconut sugar
¼ cup flax seed, ground
¼ cup coconut flour
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon himalayan rock salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Wet Ingredients

2 eggs
½ – ¾ cup coconut milk *see note
½ cup extra virgin coconut oil OR extra virgin olive oil *see note
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Add-ins

1 cup carrots, grated
½ cup raisins
½ cup walnuts
1 batch of cashew cream “cheese” icing

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 7.5? x 3.5? loaf pan. I used a silicon loaf pan so no greasing was needed.
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients.
Add wet to dry and stir until combined. The batter should be a similar consistency as muffins – creamy and thick, but not doughy and firm.
Stir carrots, raisins and walnuts.
Scoop batter into prepared pan and bake for 60 – 70 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Allow to cool for a couple minutes before removing it from the pan [if you’re not using a silicon pan, keep the loaf in the pan for 1 hour] Allow to cool for a total of 2 hours.
Drizzle with cashew cream “cheese” icing and serve.

Notes

I ended up using ¾ cup of full fat coconut milk. Start with ½ cup and make sure you have the desired consistency [explained above]. If you live in a drier climate, you may have to go up to ¾ cup.

I used olive oil because ½ cup coconut oil is expensive! I think it would have tasted richer with coconut oil, but either one will do the trick!

View Nutritional Information (once on page scroll down) Combine this loaf with Maple Mystery Butter and you’ll have a breakfast that no one can resist.

Carrot Cake Loaf with Cream Cheese Icing2

All you Canadians out there, are you voting today? Do you have a tried and true strategy for getting rid of a cold/flu? I always bundle myself up and put tiger balm or peppermint oil on my feet and slap on some woolly socks. Don’t knock it till you try it, folks! Do you use others’ photography as inspiration for your own? Did you come across a blog this week that you fell in love with instantly? Care to share? Anja’s Food 4 Thought. Have you visited? AMAZING! My favorites so far: almond coconut balls, quinoa coconut porridge, and coconut almond oat crunchies [easily made gluten free]. What can I say? I’m a sucker for coconut.