SKINNIER CARROT AND PINEAPPLE CAKE, A high-fibre Indulgence

CAKES FOR BUSY GRANNIES: CARROT CAKE WITH A TANTALIZING TANGY TWIST

Worthy AND Wicked: yummy and healthy

Cakes fall into two categories: worthy and wicked.  A worthy cake is made of 'health-giving' ingredients, usually involving things like beetroot, tofu and avocado.  These cakes taste surprisingly cake-like though oddly...worthy.   Wicked cakes are full of sugar and fat and things designed to satisfy that sweet craving.  They taste both wonderful and bad - completely bad for you.  

Carrot cake started out healthy.  The original carrot cake, from a Food Aid recipe back in the '60's, featured wholemeal flour, muscovado (black) sugar and (rather a lot of) oil.  For most bakers, it was the first time they'd replaced butter with oil and encountered wholemeal flour.  The Food Aid cake was tasty.  It was unusual, especially with cream cheese instead of icing.  It was dense.  It took two hours to cook!  

Gradually carrot cake morphed into the white flour, white sugar product, with carrots and a few heart-friendly nuts thrown in as a nod to healthy eating, that we see today.  Basically fabulous-tasting but not-very-good-for-you cakes.  

Skinnier Carrot Cake was developed by 67 to put the 'healthy' back into carrot cake without losing its splendid wickedness. The recipe replaces some of the plain flour with wholemeal flour (for heart-friendly fibre).  The sugar is dark brown (not black) and there's less of it; a little unsweetened coconut (which turns sweet when baked) has been added. The amount of oil has been reduced, replaced by buttermilk (or yoghurt) to aid digestion. And, to pique interest and up the 'healthy' quotient, wedges of tangy fresh pineapple accompany the carrot.  The icing has less cream cheese, less icing sugar and less butter; it's much lower calorie.

Yes, there is still a lot of sugar but if portions are kept small, the cake won't ruin your health.  While not exactly health-giving it is far better for you than conventional cake.  And it tastes wicked.
   
Once you've measured out the ingredients, it's a simple matter of mixing dry into wet and adding a few bits and pieces.

The cake keeps well; still tasting excellent the day after baking. Leftovers are brilliant in the World's Speediest Trifle.      

Skinnier Carrot and Pineapple cake was served as a 'treat' to volunteers who give up their weekends to campaign.  It went down a storm - they loved it.  

Cost: £3.50'ish (2016 prices)
Serves: recommended 24 (3 vertical x 8 horizontal slices)

Ingred: 
   215gm/7.5oz light brown sugar
   30gm/1 oz dried unsweetened coconut
   240 ml light vegetable oil
   80 ml buttermilk/OR 75% yoghurt, 25% water
   3 large eggs
   2 tsp vanilla

   270gm/9.5oz plain white flour
   125gm/4.5oz wholemeal flour
   2 tsp cinnamon
   1 tsp nutmeg
   1 1/2 tsp baking soda
   1 tsp salt
   

   16 oz/500gm carrots, coarsely grated
   1 mug fresh pineapple wedges (or drained, tinned)

 Icing:
    115gm/4oz room-temperature reduced-fat cream cheese 
    57g/2oz room temperature butter 
    56gm/2oz icing sugar
    1/3cup finely chopped drained pineapple fresh or tinned 

Method:
   Special equipment: 2 cooling racks

1. Preheat oven to 180c/160 fan/350f/gas 5
2. Line a 11x7 in/28x17cm pan or equiv with greaseproof paper
3. In a large bowl, using electric beaters or a stand alone mixer, beat oil, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, sugar and coconut until light yellow; it will take a few minutes
4. Add vanilla; mix
5. Using a whisk, mix flours and spices in a bowl; on low speed, mix the dry ingredients into the wet, stopping to scrape at at bottom and sides to ensure all is mixed.
6. Add carrots on low speed; stop as soon as they are incorporated
7. Pour batter into pan; use a spatula to spread it into the corners and level it out 
8. Drain pineapple; add a tablespoon flour; toss; scatter across the batter & push just below the surface 
9. Bake in the centre of the oven 55-60 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean
10. Cool in tin on cooling rack 30 mins
11. Place second cooling rack on top of tin and turn over; remove tin and peel off greaseproof paper
12. Use 2nd cooling rack to turn cake right side up; leave to cool completely
13. Icing:  whip cream cheese, butter & lemon juice until well blended; add sifted icing sugar and stir; the mix will be thinnish and a bit sloppy but spreadable.
14. When cake is completely cool, spread on icing

Comments: 
'The cake was very moist and good; the pineapple gave a wonderful fresh burst.' 

Tips: 

• if you've forgotten to leave out the cream cheese & butter overnight, zap it in the microwave for 20 seconds
• another cake that manages to bridge the worthy-wicked divide is Nigella Lawson's Vegetarian Chocolate Cake   

                          Recipes I on the Nav Bar for more cakes...

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This recipe has been developed by B  Lee/ Bright Sun Enterprises and may not be reproduced, in any form, without the author's written permission.