Carrot Cake

I've often said that I love baking so much that if I had unlimited energy, time, and ingredients, I would bake forever. More accurately, if I had unlimited ingredients, I would bake every day. However, there are certain ingredients that run out faster than others, and sometimes you run out of exactly what you wish you had.

Specifically, I tend to run out of butter. There are only four sticks in a box and many recipes require an entire stick, such as cookies, brownies, and of course, cakes.

And that is why I love this recipe. Not only is it a cake that does not require butter, but it uses several carrots, which is something I always have too many of. This time around, I ended up using olive oil in the place of canola oil, having run out of that too, and it STILL tasted delicious. This is also a great recipe to make with a friend, so one of you can assemble the typical cake ingredients, and the other can be in charge of grating the carrots, which takes a bit of time and effort.

What you will need:

• 1/2 cup oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg white
• 1/3 cup apple juice
• 1 cup rice flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 cup grated carrots, packed (about two carrots)

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-inch round or square baking pan.

-In a medium-sized bowl, mix the oil with the sugar. Add the eggs and egg white. Mix until light and thick. This will take a minute or two with your mixer, and a little longer with a fork. Add the other ingredients. Beat well. The batter will thicken a bit. Pour into prepared baking pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle tests cleanly.

Voila!

This cake is mild, not too sweet, and the golden brown top and edges have just a tiny bit of resistance, giving it a delicious texture. This cake is wonderful frosted or plain, warm or cold. If you need frosting, I recommend using a classic cream cheese recipe such as this one: Cream Cheese Frosting. This one recommends the use of a couple tablespoons of milk for easy application, but in my experience, it's not really necessary.

Note: If you want a slightly taller cake, you can bake it in a 8-inch pan. If you are low on ingredients in general and only have two eggs, the corn starch version of this recipe is very similar, but does not require the egg white.

Also if you are new to cake baking, hold off on checking on the cake until at least 28 minutes into baking, when your cake looks pretty solid. Otherwise it will "fall", which happens when the inside of the cake is not yet baked enough to hold up the top, and, when it's disturbed in any way, it will collapse upon itself. It still tastes good when this happens but doesn't look as pretty.

(Thanks again to Roben Ryberg for writing "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free" and to the creator of the Cream cheese frosting recipe on recipezaar.com. This recipe was the rice based version of the carrot cake recipe. Corn starch, oat flour, and potato starch based versions of this recipe also exist.)