Carrot cake squares recipe
Created by The Tesco Recipes team
This healthy bake has all the classic flavour of an indulgent carrot cake recipe, but makes a healthy treat as the cake is sweetened with apple, banana and sultanas and cut into snack-size squares. Perfect for an afternoon bite with a dollop of yogurt or packing up in a picnic or lunchbox on the go.
See method- Serves 16
- 20 mins to prepare and 55 mins to cook
- 170 calories / serving
- Freezable
- Vegetarian
- Healthy
Ingredients
- 100ml sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
- 300g carrots, peeled and grated
- 1 apple, grated
- 1 banana, roughly mashed
- 1 orange, finely grated zest
- 100g sultanas
- 3 eggs
- 250g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- ½ tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- fat-free fromage frais or quark, to serve (optional)
- extra cinnamon or orange zest, to serve (optional)
Each serving contains
- Energy
- 715kJ 170.0kcal
- Fat
- 9g
- Saturates
- 1g
- Salt
- 0.4g
- Sugars
- 8g
of the Reference intake
Carbohydrate 21.8gProtein 3.2gFibre 1.8g
Method
- Preheat the oven to gas 4, 180°C, fan 160°C. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.
- Put the oil, carrots, apple, banana, orange zest and sultanas in a large bowl, then crack in the eggs. Beat together until fully combined. In a separate bowl, sieve the flour, spices and baking powder together and mix in the salt.
- Gently fold the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until combined, it will be quite a stiff cake batter when all the flour is added. Transfer the mixture to the lined tin and level the top.
- Bake for 50-55 mins until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins, then remove to a wire rack and cool completely.
- Cut into squares and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Individual squares can be wrapped up for picnics or packed lunches or serve as a pudding with a dollop of fat-free fromage frais or quark and a sprinkling of orange zest or cinnamon on top, if you like.
- See more Carrot cakes
Freezing and defrosting guidelines
Plain cake can be frozen. Cook and cool as above, then wrap the whole cake well in a double layer of clingfilm and foil. Defrost fully to serve. In order to enjoy optimum flavour and quality, frozen items are best used within 3 months of their freezing date. For more tips on freezing and defrosting food, read our article Love Your Freezer.
