Gluten Free Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake is a staple birthday and Christmas dessert in my family! While there are many ways to make carrot cake, I think that my family's recipe takes the cake – pun intended!

In our version, we use Olive Oil instead of Vegetable Oil and add in crushed pineapple and we certainly do not include raisins in our carrot cake.

Ingredients:

2 cups GF All Purpose Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

½ tsp Salt

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1 tsp Ground Nutmeg

½ tsp Ground Allspice

4 Eggs

2 cups Granulated White Sugar

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 ¼ cup Olive Oil

2 cups Shredded Carrots

8 oz Crushed Pineapple, drained

1 cup chopped Pecans

1 cup Shredded Coconut

1. Preheat your oven to 350F and butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.

3. In a larger bowl, beat eggs on medium-high speed for 2 minutes or until light yellow. Slowly add in the sugar and vanilla until combined. Then beat for 1 minute.

4. Reduce the speed and gradually add in the olive oil.

5. With your mixer on low, add in the flour and spice mixture until combined.

6. With a spatula, fold in the carrots, pineapple, coconut, and pecans.

7. Divide the batter equally between the prepared cake pans and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. It is a very moist cake so don’t be alarmed if the toothpick isn’t totally clean – just make sure there is no raw batter.

8. Remove from the oven and cool for 10-15 minutes in the pan and then remove from the pans and cool on a wire rack.

9. Wrap your cakes in saran wrap and then aluminum foil and place in the freezer until you are ready to frost. This will make the frosting process much easier!

10. Use your favorite cream cheese frosting for the perfect compliment to the carrot cake!

If you want to really elevate your cake, toast 1 cup of coconut, 1 cup of pecans, 3 tbsp butter, and 3 tbsp sugar in a pan on the stove and let it cool until it hardens. Use half of this in between the cake layers and half on top of the cake for decoration.