Passover-Friendly Carrot Cake Recipe
Author: Blair Penn
My whole life I have juggled with having my birthday occur somewhere within Passover – 8 days in the Jewish tradition during which it is forbidden to eat chametz. Chametz encompasses grains like oats, wheat, or barley that have had contact with water for more than 18 minutes. In other words, during this holiday, practicing Jews cannot have bread, pasta, pastries, and most importantly— cake
Since my birthday, April 22, usually falls on Passover, I always had to get creative with my birthday cakes. The regular default cake during the years when my birthday occurs during Passover is a chocolate flourless cake. In my opinion, however, a chocolate flourless cake doesn't contain the amount of sweetness or fluffiness needed of a proper birthday cake. They are much flatter than cakes made with flour, which have this airy, spongier texture because they are able to rise whereas flourless cakes are denser and more compact.
On top of my birthday cake having to be a boring flat flourless cake most years , I also think the dessert spreads after Passover seders — coconut macaroons, matzah bark, and flourless chocolate cake — are getting way too repetitive. For my 20th birthday and Passover, I am tired of the same bland birthday cake and dessert spread. This year, I decided to take matters into my own hands by trying to make my absolute favorite type of cake— a carrot cake, but flourless. .
I scoured the internet for the best recipe and then settled on one from bob’s red mill—
Recipe:
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 50 min
Servings: 6-8
Ingredients
4 eggs separated
1 cup sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Almond Flour
¼ tsp Ground Cinnamon
¼ tsp Ground Ginger
1 cup Grated Carrots (50 g)
¼ cup Golden Raisins (40 g)
Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a 7-inch pan
2. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat egg yolks and sugar until they become thick, pale yellow in color and increase to three times their original volume. This should take around 5-10 min. Then add the vanilla extract.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together almond flour, cinnamon and ginger. Then pour the egg yolk mixture into the flour mixture. Stir well. Next, add carrots and raisins and mix well.
4. In a clean mixing bowl, whip egg whites on medium-high speed until they form stiff peaks, about 5 minutes.
5. Gently mix one-quarter of the whipped egg whites into the batter. Once mixed, fold in the remaining egg whites, being careful not to deflate them.
6. Gently pour the batter into the prepared pan.
7. Bake for 30 minutes, then increase the oven temperature to 325°F and bake an additional 15–20 minutes. You’ll know when the cake has finished baking when it's lightly browned across the top, a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, and the top springs back when gently pressed.
8. Allow the cake to cool for at least 10 minutes and then use a knife to separate the cake from the pan
9. Enjoy!
Upon trying the batter as I was prepping it, I decided not to make the fluffy egg white icing that the recipe listed to pair with the cake. The batter was already so flavorful, so I wanted it to stand alone. The one thing I wish I would have added to my cake would have been pecans or walnuts, however, the use of almond flour still gave it a nutty undertone.
The upside of this cake being flourless was that it came out extremely moist and dense. Since it didn’t have the same airiness as cakes made with flour, I decided to double the ingredients so the cake would look bigger and feed all the hungry people at my seder that night. I didn't add much cinnamon in the first batch of batter. But when I repeated all the steps over again in the second batch I made, I added about triple the amount of cinnamon. This entirely changed the color of the batter - as you can see by the swirl on the cake.
Prepping and making the cake was also relatively easy – but since the cake was so moist, it took extreme care to keep it from falling apart and without the icing, it did not look as presentable as I would have liked. Despite its appearance, everyone who was at my seder tried my carrot cake and absolutely loved it! My cake, which was meant to serve 16 people, was finished by only 7 people!
This recipe showed me how versatile almond flour is and how many high-quality baked goods can come of it. Since this carrot cake was such a big hit, I will definitely make it again for Passover next year.