Yes, I am calling this a fruity carrot cake, because it tastes, well, fruity!  It’s also very moist, and very delicious.  It’s also somewhat good for you, but I won’t tell if you don’t!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup almond meal or whole wheat flour (I did a combination)
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp. ground ginge

• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 cup evaporated cane juice
• 1 cup buttermilk (you can substitute sour milk or kefir)
• 3/4 cup applesauce
• 4 eggs
• 1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract

• 2 cups finely grated carrots
• 1 cup (8 oz) drained, crushed pineapple
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• ½ cup chopped dried cherries
• 1 cup flaked coconut (if desired)

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Butter 3 (8-inch) or 2 (9-inch) cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper and butter it.  Set aside.

Combine the flours, soda, salt and spices.  Set them aside.  In your mixer bowl, combine the sugars, buttermilk, applesauce, eggs and vanilla.  Mix until well combined.  Add the flour mixture, carrots, fruit and nuts, stirring until just blended.

Pour the batter into the cake pans, spreading to the edges.  Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from oven, and cool in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes.  Loosen the edges with a knife if necessary.  Lay a second rack on top of the cake pans and flip them over.  Remove the pans and parchment paper.  Allow to cool completely, covering with a towel if needed.

Spread your favorite cream cheese frosting (might I recommend my Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting?) in between the layers and on the top and sides.  A wonderful garnish is to use halved walnuts or pipe on some frosting carrots.

Cover and refrigerate overnight before cutting.

Enjoy

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NOTES:

Since I was using a food processor to shred the carrots, I also tossed in the cherries and pecans (I didn’t have walnuts on hand).  They came out minced – not quite ground, more than chopped.  It worked really, really well – especially since I have a kid around here who hates nuts.  I personally don’t much like coconut, so I left it out, but since so many people like it, I left it in the recipe.

For the whole wheat flour part, I was pretty much out, so I used almond meal for about 1/2 cup of it, then added the little but of whole wheat that I had and it came out wonderful.  It holds up pretty well to substitutions.

Sour milk may be used instead of buttermilk, since most of us have milk on hand, but not always buttermilk.  To make your milk sour, add a dash of lemon juice or vinegar.

I combined a few different recipes for this one… I found so many with the same basic ingredients, but I wanted something a little different.  I swapped cherries for the usual raisins and used pecans instead of walnuts (but just because that was what I had on hand).  I wanted to make it a little more healthy without sacrificing taste, so I went 50/50 on the flour.  It seems to have worked.  The pineapple is a must though – so yummy!

Oh come on… you actually thought I’d follow a recipe word for word?  Riiiiight.  Occasionally I do that the first time, but not usually.  After all, where is the fun in that?