It took me a while but I finally updated this old Cooking Light carrot cake recipe. It's one of their all-time best lighter cakes.
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Less Sugar and Less Oil
This carrot cake has only 3 tablespoons of oil and ¾ cup of brown sugar, so unlike some of the old Cooking Light cakes, it's lower in both fat and sugar. Some of their old desserts are just low in fat but have quite a bit of sugar. The icing that goes with this is a good example. The original has 2 teaspoons of light butter, 6 oz of light cream cheese and 3 ¼ cups powdered sugar along with ¾ teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Alternative Sweeteners and Keto Flour
If you want to lower the sugar in this cake even more, you can use a good quality alternative brown sugar like Wholesome Yum allulose & monk fruit blend. That, or Magic Bake. Just for fun I tried making this with King Arthur's keto flour. While it's great for certain cookies and breads, it is too glutinous for this cake. I haven't yet tested with almond flour, but I'm thinking a mix of almond flour, coconut flour and psyllium would work really well here.
Light Carrot Cake Pan Size
You can see that this is a fun cake to play with, but the base cake is the old tried and true Cooking Light recipe. You can make it as a 9x13 inch cake or two 8-inch layers. I recently made it and divided it among 3 small loaf pans, and that worked well too. It should also work well as a layer cake, but if you make it as layers you may need to double the frosting.
Recipe
Cooking Light Carrot Cake Number 2
Ingredients
CAKE:
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour, spoon lightly into cup (220 grams)
- ⅔ cups whole wheat flour, spoon lightly into cup or weigh (85 grams)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¾ teaspoon allspice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon salt (I use ½ teaspoon)
- ¾ cup very tightly packed brown sugar (170 grams)
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups grated carrot (shred in processor, then chop) (300 grams)
- 8 oz can of pineapple, drained (save juice and use to soak the raisins)
- ½ cup raisins, soaked in pineapple juice and drained
- ⅔ cup buttermilk
Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened (regular or light)
- 4 tablespoons butter (regular or lighter spread)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 cups powdered sugar or Wholesome Yum Monk Fruit and Allulose Blend
- 1 tablespoon whole milk as needed (or cream)
Instructions
- Drain the pineapple and use the juice to soak the raisins for about an hour. Optional step.
- Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
- Whisk the flours, baking soda, salt and spices together and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil, then whisk in the eggs, one by one, followed by the vanilla. Stir in the carrots, pineapple, raisins and vanilla.
- Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
- Spread batter in the pan and bake at 350° for 28 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool, then frost with cream cheese frosting.
- Make the frosting. Beat the cream cheese, butter, 1 cup of the sugar, milk and vanilla until creamy. Taste test and add more sugar to taste.
Nicole says
Oh, my bad! I guess I should actually read the articles BEFORE looking at the recipes. Sorry you didn't win, but hey you won "THE Bakeoff" instead which is a much NICER pay off!
Anna says
Thanks, Nicole! That was from last year's CL cook-off and I didn't win. The winner was a delicious blueberry-lemon cupcake created by Gloria Bradley. Cooking Light is still accepting entries for their next cook-off, so if you have a lightened up favorite, you should enter.
Nicole says
What? no reference to your recipe in Cooking Light? There I am flipping my pages on the bus ride home and I see your face beaming back at me. Way to go on being a finalist! Hope you win! Going to try your cake for Easter. Sounds Tas-TY! Mmmm! Good luck.
Nicole
Claire says
Looks great! I really like carrot cake, too.
Cassandra Tan says
That's why they put the sudafed behind the counter.....they make it into crystal meth. But dear heavens, how do you get through springtime without sudafed and/or claritin?
Anna says
Bev, I didn't have the right kind of cream cheese on hand and had to use tub style. My icing is a combination of tub style, butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon. I can't remember the proportions.
Krista, I wondered for half a second if anyone would notice I subbed walnuts for pecans. What happened was I just had a little bag here I wanted to get rid of...but yes, it was out of character. I hope the pecan growers of America aren't upset with me.
KristaMB says
I just about fell out of my chair when I read that you used walnuts instead of pecans. 🙂 You always use pecans! Sorry to hear that you're sick, but hey- at least the crack let you bake up a storm!
Bev says
I adore carrot cake!!! Actually, I'm not sure which I like better....the cake or the cream cheese icing. 🙂 Sorry to hear you're not feeling well. Sending "get-well soon" wishes your way.....