Otherwise, it has a tendancy to be really dry. Maybe carrots are really porous and absorb all the liquid that would otherwise go into the "cake" itself??? Another way to alleviate this is to add pineapple. Tastes pretty good that way too!

Because that's what a carrot cake IS....a rich, spiced cake with carrots and fruit and sometimes nuts.
There are recipes out there which only call for 3/4 cup of oil.
Asking why a carrot cake has so much oil is like asking why challah has so many eggs and so much sugar. That's what Challa IS...an eggy sweet bread.
Without lots of oil, a carrot cake is just a spice cake with carrots. It's the oil that makes that desne moist texture.
Linda C

I think they often have too much oil. I hate the way some carrot cakes leave a layer of oil on the plate.
Since it's my husband's birthday cake every year, I worked out a recipe that uses butter. When you convert a recipe from oil to butter, you can decrease the sugar.

I substitute apple sauce for the oil. Have done a side-by-side taste test, can't tell the difference. Cake is healthier too!

Wow, you guys are collectively a fount of great information! Thanks for the replies so far...

rob..., can you say more about using pineapple--chopped fruit? juice? what ratio substitution and do you keep some of the oil in?

colleen..., do you substitute equal amounts?

Now that sugar was mentioned, I do find that most carrot cakes I've tasted are too sweet as well as too greasy. I would also really like to hear about results from reducing the amount of sugar.

I love carrot cake, it is one of my favorites. And I love the fact that it is dense and moist. But I also agree that many recipes are too rich and too oily. I make a lighter healthier version of bannana bread and always get raves on it, so I think there is a happy medium, the cake can be made less rich and still be yummy.

Here is one I posted on Sol's diabetic recipes thread. It is from Rick Gallop's GI diet Cookbook.

As I mentioned on the other thread I have not tried this recipe myself but all of the recipes I've used from his book have been terrific.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Source Rick Gallop - The GI Diet

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cardomon ( yeah!!)
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup olive oil
3/4 cup Splenda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup liquid egg
2 cups grated carrot
1 medium apple cored and grated
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup juice packed crushed pineapple (unsweetened) drained
1/2 cup toasted chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Oil an 8 or 9 " round cake pan

Mix together first nine ingredients.

In a separate bowl mix oil, Splenda and vanilla until smooth. Beat in egg. Stir in carrot, apple, applesauce, pineapple and walnuts. Pour over flour mixture and stir until moistened, Spread in prepared pan.

Bake for 45 - 5o minutes until cake tester comes out clean.

Let cool 15 minutes. Run knife around edge and invert onto rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Icing

4 oz light cream cheese
1/4 cup yogurt cheese ***
1 TBSP Splenda (or to taste)
1 TBSP frozen Orange Juice concentrate
1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat together until smooth.

*** Yogurt Cheese

Place non fat or low fat yogurt in a sieve lined with cheese cloth. Place sieve over bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 4. Discard liquid and transfer yogurt to a bowl

Chase-
Copied the recipe but I have never heard of Yogurt cheese and I assume it is different then plain yogurt?
Lois

Lois

The notes at the very bottom of my post explain how to make Yogurt cheese from yogurt. Basically it is just yogurt that has been drained of all liquid.

I bet Greek yogurt (my Trader Joes has non-fat and its GREAT) would do the job. More and more markets are carrying it.

Olive oil?

Years ago Marlene Sorosky published a "lighter" (relative to other recipes) carrot cake with buttermilk subbed for half the oil.

It's still very moist and dense, though as with most of these recipes, a bit heavy on the sugar. I've only made it with cream cheese frosting (a different recipe than hers) but the buttermilk glaze might be a nice alternative.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Marlene Sorosky's Blue-Ribbon Carrot Cake

Chase-
Pardon me ! I stopped at the end of the Cream Cheese Frosting and didn't read on. Another senior moment.
Lois

This forum is awful about starting cravings. Now I'm thinking "Yeah, I could take carrot cake to the next meeting!"

That recipe looks yummy with one exception....how the heck to caluculate the amount of real sugar to use instead of that cursed Splenda. I don't love any cake enough to suffer the Splenda headache. Anyone have the backward conversion for making it with sugar (or honey)?

Beanthere, I was thinking the same thing. I think the baking splenda is substituted in the same proportion as sugar. DH will use Splenda but I just can't take it, I would rather cut down my serving instead. I would even cut down the sugar a bit as there seems to be enough fruit in it to sweeten it, just taste the dough is what I would do. BOTOH, carrot cake is not on the top of my list, thankfully. DH loves it, however.

Yes, leaveswave, I use the same amount of applesauce as the recipe calls for oil.

Zucchini bread also uses a lot of oil. Has anyone tried substituting apple sauce for oil in that?

Everytime i see a post about carrot cake ....I Must post...TRY LINDA'S RECIPE,ITS FANTASTIC!!!!!! I made it again for Easter everyone raved!!!!

In my experience, whenever I have tried using Splenda for baking for my diabetic friends, the results seem to taste OK right out of the oven, but the taste doesn't seems to hold up well over time, AND the baked goods don't keep as long, they seem to mold relatively soon. Being single and not overdoing it, I often have baked goods mold on me before I can eat them all. I've had Splenda breads and Splenda pies mold on me. To me, they also seem to develop a chemical aftertaste.

Splenda seems to work best sweetening fresh things, like smoothies. At least that has been my experience. Maybe if you bake with Splenda and use up the results relatively soon you won't have that problem. I think Splenda and sugar can be substituted equally.
I almost always cut down the sugar in baked goods recipes. You can easily sub 3/4 cup sugar for 1 cup, and even 2/3 cup for 1 cup, depending on the recipe. Also, to lighten things up, when a recipe calls for two eggs, I sub one whole egg and two egg yolks.
Carrot cake also seems to take well to making it with half whole wheat pastry flour.

LOL Eileen I have two 9x5 loaves of Linda's carrot cake in my freezer - its DS #1's new breakfast since TJs discontinued his beloved 'marbled tea loaf'.

My goodness Jessie....I'll have to send you my recipe for apple cake with gravy....or my whole grain, craisin sunflower seed bread.
Wondering....does he eat it with the frosting? LOL!
Linda C

Mentioning whole-wheat carrot cake reminds me of the ones I had to make in the '70's, when DH wouldn't eat any eggs, sugar, or white flour. The eggs were the hardest to bake without, of course.

How much is "1 medium apple cored and grated" in cups do you think? I have rather small apples and wonder if I should use 2.
Clare

Linda - I didn't use the glaze or frosting. Was debating posting that or not...not that I didn't want to, I just um er forgot to read that far down. Oh well! Oh and if he doesn't like raisins (omitted), he wouldn't touch the craisins either. Heathen.

I picked your recipe because it did have the least oil, and I was looking for one that used buttermilk and pineapple.

Next time I'll add flaked coconut because he likes that.

Aptosca: you've touched on one of my pet peeves - I'd rather there be '1 cup' or 'X grams/ounces' of grated whatever. Juice of one lemon drives me nuts too. Sigh.

My grands don't like raisins in stuff either....I chopped the raisins in the cuisinart ( as I do the craisins) and they never knew....just added texture and sweetness...like it needs it!
My kids and the grands would starve rather than eat anything with coconut....I love it.

I love a good carrot cake...I hate it when they are too oily. My SIL made Fine Cooking's version a few weeks ago and it was fantastic. The cream cheese frosting was to die for and the cake was terrific. I see the recipe does have one cup of vegetable oil and 1/4 cup of toasted walnut oil. I'll ask my SIL if she cut that down at all.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fine Cooking's Carrot Cake

This is my favorite cake....how about substituting that brown rice syrup they have in the health food store. - maria

Carrot cake for breakfast sounds good to me. Isn't it Annie's daughter who justifies pie for breakfast because it's fruit, grain and dairy?

Terrapots, I mean headache in the literal sense. :) Everytime I eat/drink something that has Splenda in it, I'm reaching for the aspirin within the hour.

Ipink -- I noticed when we had the store that the coffee flavorings with Splenda would go bad LONG before the expiration date. Sometimes fermenting, but more often developing a mold. Got to the point that I pulled all but the three most popular SF flavors and kept them in the fridge. We never had an issue with the (same brand) ones made with sugar.

I'm trying to make a low fat, low or no sugar, whole wheat carrot cake. I have a to-die-for carrot cake (triple layer) with white flour,sugar, oil, and CALORIES, FAT AND SUGAR.... and substituting whole wheat doesn't do it. Spenda subs well for sugar, and yogurt can be used instead of oil, or a combo of yogurt and canola oil...but the whole wheat doesn't work. I want to do 100% whole wheat. Has anybody done this or can anyone send me a recipe???

I don't remember who posted this recipe or the link to the recipe, but it is very, very good. Although it has no added sugar and is lower in carbs (great for diabetics like me), it's not low in fat or low in calories. I usually make mini-muffins rather than a cake, for portion control. I haven't yet made the frosting, so I can't comment on it.

The Fantabulous Whole Wheat Carrot Cake
16 servings in 9"x13" pan (12g net carbs; 15g total carbs including 3g fiber)
24 mini-muffins (8g net carbs; 10g total carbs including 2g fiber)

2 cups white whole wheat flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup Splenda for baking or
1 Splenda Quick Pack for even fewer carbs
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I like more)
4 eggs (I use jumbo eggs)
1 cup canola oil (or substitute with some apple sauce)
2 cups grated carrots
1 cup unsweetened crushed canned pineapple, drained

Combine dry ingredients. Beat oil and eggs until frothy; stir in carrots and pineapple. Mix wet ingredients with dry until just mixed - do not over mix. Put into greased baking pans of your choice.

Bake at 350° - 15 min for mini-muffins; 25-30 min for 8"x8" pan; 30-40 min for 9"x13" pan.

Cool in pans several minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.

Sugar-Free Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/2 cups cream cheese (1 1/2 8 oz. brick)
1 1/2 tbs. butter, softened
16 packets of Equal (or less to taste)
2 tsp. vanilla
0-2 tbs. milk to thin frosting if needed.

Let cream cheese softened to room temperature. Add softened butter and beat with mixer until creamy and smooth. Add vanilla and sweetener.

aptosca: Here's a conversion website that I use alot. It's especially helpful for converting different sizes of whole fruit into other weight and volume measures. However, it had conversions for chopped apples, but not grated.

sosdogs: I forgot to say I freeze the mini-muffins or keep them in the fridge. This gets around the mold problem.

Here is a link that might be useful: GourmetSleuth

A couple of weeks ago a quick search found me a recipe that used some oil and more crushed pineapple - it was a website with reviews and it had lots of reviews and stars so I made carrot cake cupcakes for work. They were a big hit and I will say they were flavorful and moist. My personal issue was I wasn't a big fan of the texture when I bit into some of the crushed pineapple, seemed crunchy but in an odd way. I might try an applesauce recipe next.

I've gone on to try whole wheat with applesauce, and it was a big dry but better. I used 1/4 c of powdered non fat milk to add some bulk to make up for Splenda not having the bulk of sugar. That worked well. But it's still coarse compared to real carrot cake. Do you think whole wheat pastry flour would work better?

Linda, is your recipe for only ONE layer? And doesn't olive oil give it a weird taste?