Name: Lighter Carrot Snack Cake
Total time: 3 h 15 min
Ingredients: 12 ounces (340 grams) carrots , peeled; ⅔ cup (4⅔ ounces/132 grams) sugar; ¼ cup expeller-pressed canola oil; ¼ cup organic 1 percent low-fat milk; 2 large organic eggs; 2 teaspoons vanilla extract; 1 teaspoon baking powder; ½ teaspoon baking soda; ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon; ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1⅓ cups (7⅓ ounces/208 grams) whole-wheat flour

Why This Recipe Works

Carrot cakes typically use oil instead of butter for their fat, another plus. To maximize the nutritional punch of the carrots, we incorporated as many as the batter could handle without making it too difficult to spread or overly vegetal tasting. We tried replacing the standard white flour with whole-wheat and found we preferred whole-wheat flour's earthy, nutty flavor, which complemented the carrots. We included just enough sugar to make our cake pleasantly moist and sweet, but not so much that it overpowered the other flavors. Plenty of fragrant, warm spices complemented the carrots' natural sweetness. To streamline the process, we relied on our food processor to both shred the carrots and mix the batter. Instead of a traditional, super-sweet cream-cheese frosting, we topped our cake with our lightly sweetened, tangy Yogurt-Cream Cheese Frosting.

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Make foil sling for 8-inch square baking pan by folding 2 long sheets of aluminum foil so each is 8 inches wide. Lay sheets of foil in pan perpendicular to each other, with extra foil hanging over edges of pan. Push foil into corners and up sides of pan, smoothing foil flush to pan. Grease foil. Working in batches, use food processor fitted with shredding disk to shred carrots; transfer carrots to bowl.

Fit now-empty processor with chopping blade. Process sugar, oil, milk, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until sugar is mostly dissolved and mixture is emulsified, 10 to 12 seconds, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add shredded carrots and pulse until combined, about 3 pulses. Add flour and pulse until just incorporated, about 5 pulses; do not overmix.

Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until cake is light golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 26 to 30 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking.

Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Using foil overhang, remove cake from pan and return to wire rack. Discard foil and let cake cool completely on rack, about 2 hours. Spread frosting evenly over top of cake and serve.