Carrot cake with coconut and pecans

I haven't baked gluten-free before and was dreading the process of mixing my own gluten-free flour mix.

"Xantham gum?!" I cried to myself, tearing at my hair. "I have never even seen such a thing in the stores (though admittedly I have never looked)! And in Australia we do not have this quote unquote Pamela's Ultimate Baking Mix thing that all these American recipes talk about. I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO MAKE THIS CAKE AND THE EVENING WILL BE RUINED."

"Oh for the love of-!" said a colleague exasperatedly. "There's pre-mixed gluten-free flour in the supermarket. It's in the health food aisle."

And she was right.





Carrot Cake

1/2 cup light vegetable oil
1 cup organic light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup plain yogurt (or coconut yogurt)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon honey (or agave)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon mix of nutmeg, clove and allspice
2 cups gluten-free baking flour mix (I bought a White Wings pre-mix)
Pinch of baking powder
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots (I used 2 large carrots)
1/2 cup golden raisins or currants
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans (or walnuts)

Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease a 9-inch springform cake pan.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, add the oil and beat, then add the brown sugar and beat until smooth.

Beat in the yogurt, vanilla, honey, cinnamon and spice.

Add baking flour mix and beat until combined.

Add coconut, carrots, raisins and nuts. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine.

Spread the batter evenly in the cake pan and place the pan in the center of a preheated oven.

Bake until the cake is firm, and a wooden pick inserted into the center emerges clean. Mine took about 1 hour but it could take less - the original recipe suggested 45 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack before frosting with cream cheese icing. Sprinkle with coconut, if desired. (I didn't.)


Cream Cheese Icing

120g softened cream cheese
2 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract, to taste
1-2 cups icing sugar
A squeeze or two lemon (or other citrus) to taste

In a mixing bowl beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the vanilla.

Add in the sugar, 1 cup at a time. The original recipe calls for 3 cups (!) but I found 1 to 1.5 cups more than sufficient. Also, I cheated, because I ran out of icing sugar, and supplemented it with caster sugar. Ha.

Squeeze a little lemon or other citrus juice into the frosting and beat till smooth. Add more sugar, if needed, to thicken, or add more juice to thin.


Adapted from Gluten Free Goddess


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Oh hey. My Coconut Bread recipe was transformed by Bryn into a most awesome comic strip for the latest issue of Beef Knuckles. There is even a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference! :DDDD So you should totally pick up a copy if you get a chance. Also because the zine is actually good.

Baked Snapper

I have the foodiest housemates of all time! It's great because we're always pushing ourselves to make good food, encouraging one another to try new recipes, and sharing the results. So take tonight - I wanted to try this recipe, offered to feed the two housemates who were home, they decided to bake a carrot cake, and it ended up being an impromptu two-course dinner! \o/





1.5 kg snapper (I used 2 snappers, each about 0.6 kg)
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Several sprigs wild fennel (I just used the ordinary, tame fennel)
1 lemon
2 medium leeks, quartered lengthwise, sliced into 2cm pieces
3 medium carrots, peeled, cut into 2cm dice
3 medium potatoes (desiree, nicola or other yellow-fleshed variety), cut into 2cm dice
1/2 cup good quality tomato pasta sauce or drained crushed tinned tomatoes
1/2 cup dry white wine


Use an oven-proof flat dish that will hold both the snapper and vegetables, and can be brought to the table. Pour in a thin film of extra virgin olive oil.

Wipe fish inside and out with damp paper towels. Score skin on one side to allow even heat penetration. Brush fish with extra virgin olive oil. Salt and pepper inside and out. Rub with fennel stalks so seeds fall onto oil skin (okay, tame fennel is de-seeded, so I just sprinkled some dry fennel seeds on the top) and tuck the rest of the herb inside the cavity.

Cut 3 slices of lemon, quarter each slice, and tuck into score marks. Squeeze the rest of the lemon over the fish and then cut spent lemon into 2-3 pieces and place in the cavity. Transfer fish to oiled baking dish (or if you're me you had it in there before).

Preheat oven to 200 C.

In a separate, heavy-based frying pan cook leeks and carrot in extra virgin olive oil, covered, on moderate heat. Stir from time to time. It may take 20 minutes for the vegetables to be just tender.

Cover potatoes with cold water and bring to boil. Cook for 5 minutes, drain, dry with a cloth. Toss in 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Scatter leeks and carrots around the fish. Scatter potatoes on top of the leeks and carrots. Season vegetables lightly. Mix tomato and wine, pour around the fish.

Drizzle with oil if you like, cover with aluminum foil, bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil for last 10 minutes.

Serves 4.

From a recipe by Stephanie Alexander