Prep time required: 20 minutes
Serves 12 

Wouldn’t life be so much better if you could eat cake completely guilt free?  My healthy carrot cake is the answer!! It is free from refined sugar and is packed with vegetables, fruit and nuts…yet it really does taste as good as the sugary version (in my opinion).  This means its not only good as a sweet treat, but also as an afternoon snack to take to work, or even a pre-gym pick-me-up.

Ingredients:

• 320g carrots, grated
• 80g dates, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp honey
• 3 large eggs
• 150g coconut oil
• Zest of 1 orange
• Seeds from 8 cardamom pods
• 160g plain flour
• 120g desiccated coconut
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 120g chopped walnuts

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to Gas Mark 3 and grease and line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper.
2. Mix the carrots, dates eggs, coconut oil and orange zest together in a mixing bowl.
3. Stir in the rest of all the ingredients except the walnuts.
4. Blitz the mixture in a food processor or blender and then stir in the walnuts.
5. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 65 minutes.  You’ll know when its cooked when a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. Store in an airtight container.