Lowfat Carrot Cake?

Do you ever read those monthly features in Cooking Light magazine? You know, the ones where they take a cream puff that would normall have 1550 calories and 89.7 grams of fat, and they transform it into a delicious cream puff with 22 calories and .5 grams of fat? Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but the chefs and contributors at that company do come up with some pretty tasty dishes that are pretty healthy, too.

I remember one month's feature was carrot cake. Traditional carrot cake with cream cheese frosting had something like 1000 calories and 85 grams of fat, more fat than your daily allowance. And, if you're a lover of carrot cake or any cake, is it really humanly possible to eat just one slice? Doubtful. So they transformed the cake into 430 calories and 17 grams of fat, or something like that. Better, but not exactly healthy-ish. So I found a Martha Stewart recipe (of all places) that was a little more reasonable, and I've kicked up the "healthy-ishness" up another notch.

Lowfat Carrot Cake
Adapted from Martha
This moist cake is easy, simple and quite delicious. If you must devour more than one piece of carrot cake goodness, this is the one that won't make you feel so guilty afterward.


1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled into the measuring cup
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon or 1/2 t. cardamom
1 large egg + 1 egg white
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup + 2 TB plain lowfat yogurt
2 TB canola oil
1 cup finely shredded carrots, packed (about 2 carrots)
Glaze: 2 TB milk + 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon/cardamom. In a second bowl, combine eggs, sugars, yogurt, and oil.
step 2: Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until smooth. Fold in carrots. In an 8-inch round cake pan, spray with non-stick oil and dust with flour. (line the bottom with parchment paper if you like) Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 40 minutes.
step 3: Let cool in pan on a baking rack for 10 minutes, then transfer cake to cooling rack for 20 minutes. Drizzle with glaze and serve proudly.

This cake                                        Starbucks' Carrot Cake Bar

I apologize that I had to break the news about the Starbucks bars. But, on the bright side, you can make something a little less bad for you! :) Happy baking!

Laurel