Skinny Mini Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese - Gluten Free

Say hello to the gluten and refined sugar free Skinny Mini Carrot Cake. Now before you run for the hills thinking, "This is not the carrot cake for me," let me tell you that this recipe has my mother's stamp of approval; and she is a tough nut to crack when it comes to gluten free anything. I'm not sure I have ever made a baked item that was gluten free that she actually enjoyed, and I promise you that she is always brutally honest with me! With zero refined sugar and no gluten, you can feel good about your cake and eat it too.

Skinny Mini Carrot Cake

Time: 1 hour Servings: 2 - 9" cakes

Ingredients:

Cake

• 2 cups oat flour

• 1 3/4 cup pecan meal

• 2 tsp. baking soda

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1 TBS cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg

• 2 TBS butter, melted

• 3 eggs

• 1 cup buttermilk

• 1/2 cup maple syrup

• 2 cups carrots, finely grated

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• 1/2 cup shredded coconut

• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple

• 1/2 cup pecan pieces

Icing

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened

• 1/3 cup maple syrup

• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°

2. Combine all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix until fully incorporated, set to the side

3. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, combine butter, eggs, buttermilk, maple syrup, and carrots, mix well

4. Add your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients in two batches. Allow each batch to fully mix in and then add the rest of the dry ingredients.

5. Add vanilla extract and mix

6. Fold coconut, crushed pineapple, and pecan pieces into the batter by hand

7. Divide batter between two prepared 9" cake pans

8. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack

9. While cake bakes, using a stand mixer or hand mixer, make the frosting by combining all ingredients and mix until very, very, very, well combined and no lumps of cream cheese can be seen

10. Once cakes have cooled completely, frost each layer, garnish with extra coconut and pecans, and enjoy!

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Tips & Tricks

1. Can't find oat flour? Don't want to buy oat flour? No worries! I did not look for oat flour nor buy oat flour. I grabbed my blender and container of old fashioned oats, measured out two cups, and blended into a fine powder. You could also use a food processor.

2. If you look close enough at my batter picture, you can see that I used pineapple chunks instead of crushed pineapple. I've done both and in a pinch, pineapple chunks will work fine but I really, really recommend using crushed pineapple instead. It spreads evenly in the batter and you get a little pineapple flavor in every bite.

3. When I make my cream cheese frosting, I use the whisk attachment on my mixer and whisk the hell out of it. It creates a much smoother and fluffier cream cheese frosting than using the paddle attachment does.

4. A lot of people love raisins in there carrot cake, I personally am not a fan of raisins...at all. But to each their own and if you love raisins then by all means, please add them and any other add-ins that you fancy.