Healthier apricot carrot cake

Cake with vegetables should be healthy AND tasty, but usually you get one or the other. This Healthier apricot carrot cake is virtually one-bowl, simple, and healthy without sacrificing taste. #meandthemoose #healthycakerecipes #healthycake #carrotc…

Cake with vegetables sounds healthy, but is usually far from it. This version lightens up the traditional recipe with dried apricots, applesauce, and coconut sugar; reduces the fat and swaps in coconut oil; and swaps out half of the white flour for whole wheat. Add in walnuts for Omega-3s (or leave them out to make this school safe) and you have a healthier option for your Easter table that’s equally delicious and showstopping.

Take me to the cake!

Cake with vegetables should be healthy AND tasty, but usually you get one or the other. This Healthier apricot carrot cake is virtually one-bowl, simple, and healthy without sacrificing taste. #meandthemoose #healthycakerecipes #healthycake #carrotc…
Healthier apricot carrot cake | Me & The Moose. This healthier carrot cake uses no refined sugar, reduces the fat, and increases the veggies to make a cake that is equally light and delicious. #meandthemoose #carrotcakerecipes #carrotcake #healt…

I’m still struggling with the eternal question: Is it worth it to healthify desserts? If my kid factors into the equation, then yes. He’s often satisfied with a “healthy” sweet. I, on the other hand, really wanted a doughnut for breakfast and no amount of healthy treats was going to cut it.

However! If there’s a recipe ripe for healthifying, a dessert starring a vegetable is it.

Cake with vegetables should be healthy AND tasty, but usually you get one or the other. This Healthier apricot carrot cake is virtually one-bowl, simple, and healthy without sacrificing taste. #meandthemoose #healthycakerecipes #healthycake #carrotc…

I started recipe testing this cake by dumping everything into a bowl and calling it a day. The results were delicious, but dense, so I decided to do as others have done and whip the eggs and sugar at the start to make the crumb a bit lighter. Often, cake directions tell you to cream butter and sugar / butter and eggs / sugar and eggs (as in this case) until they’re “light and fluffy.” Unfortunately, the coconut sugar is so dark that you’ll never really achieve this. What you want instead is just to aerate the eggs, sugar, and other liquids. Don’t worry about it too much, just make sure that you see lots of bubbles once all of the liquid is combined.

Healthier apricot carrot cake | Me & The Moose. This healthier carrot cake uses no refined sugar, reduces the fat, and increases the veggies to make a cake that is equally light and delicious. #meandthemoose #carrotcakerecipes #carrotcake #healt…
Healthier apricot carrot cake | Me & The Moose. This healthier carrot cake uses no refined sugar, reduces the fat, and increases the veggies to make a cake that is equally light and delicious. #meandthemoose #carrotcakerecipes #carrotcake #healt…

Alone, this cake is delicious, but tastes like a muffin or a quick bread, not a cake. But slathered in cream cheese frosting, this is a CAKE.

Can I tell you a secret about making the frosting? I don’t measure the sugar. You heard that: I don’t measure the sugar. I mix in a couple of large spoonfuls and then add more to taste. I like a frosting that isn’t too sweet and the beauty of cream cheese frosting is the tang, which gets totally masked by too much sugar.

Healthier apricot carrot cake | Me & The Moose. This healthier carrot cake uses no refined sugar, reduces the fat, and increases the veggies to make a cake that is equally light and delicious. #meandthemoose #carrotcakerecipes #carrotcake #healt…
Healthier apricot carrot cake | Me & The Moose. This healthier carrot cake uses no refined sugar, reduces the fat, and increases the veggies to make a cake that is equally light and delicious. #meandthemoose #carrotcakerecipes #carrotcake #healt…
Healthier apricot carrot cake | Me & The Moose. This healthier carrot cake uses no refined sugar, reduces the fat, and increases the veggies to make a cake that is equally light and delicious. #meandthemoose #carrotcakerecipes #carrotcake #healt…
Healthier apricot carrot cake | Me & The Moose. This healthier carrot cake uses no refined sugar, reduces the fat, and increases the veggies to make a cake that is equally light and delicious. #meandthemoose #carrotcakerecipes #carrotcake #healt…

Apricot carrot cake

Adapted from Bake from Scratch and Natasha’s Kitchen

Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes (about 45 minutes of active time, including frosting the cake)
Yield: 8 GIANT slices, 10-12 normal slices

1 cup apricots, chopped
1 Tbsp flour (AP or Whole Wheat)
4 eggs
1 cup coconut sugar
¼ cup coconut oil, melted
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour (pastry or white whole wheat are also great)
1 cup AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
1½ tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
¼ tsp fine sea salt
12 oz carrots; trimmed, peeled, and shredded (about 3 cups, lightly packed shredded carrots)
1 cup walnuts, toasted (optional)

 

Preheat the oven to 375.

Grease two 9-inch cake pans, or a 12-cup muffin tin liberally with melted coconut oil or cupcake liners. Set aside.

In a small bowl, chop the apricots and toss with 1 Tbsp of flour (either AP or whole wheat). Set aside.

Toast your walnuts in the preheating oven, keeping an eye to ensure that they don’t burn while you continue prepping your other ingredients. Set aside.

Trim, peel, and shred your carrots. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk together the eggs and sugar for about 3 minutes on a medium high setting (or on high if your hand mixer isn’t very strong). The eggs won’t get lighter in color because the coconut sugar is quite dark, but you will see lots of little air bubbles formed and the volume of the liquid should increase.

Reduce the speed of your mixer to low (medium-low for a hand mixer) and slowly add the oil, applesauce, and vanilla extract.

Sift the dry ingredients together into the wet ingredients. Fold until just combined and no lumps remain.

Fold in the carrots, apricots, and toasted walnuts (if using).

Pour half of the mixture into each cake pan (or, fill each muffin cup until about 2/3 full).

Bake, rotating halfway through, for 20-23 minutes for the cakes or 15-18 minutes for the muffins. You want the cakes to be springy when touched and for a tester to come out with a few crumbs or clean.

Let the cake cool entirely before icing.


Cream cheese frosting
2 blocks cream cheese, softened
2 sticks butter (1 cup), softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus more to taste

Combine the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment on your mixer or your hand mixer, combine and whip the butter and cream cheese on high for 3-4 minutes. Add the vanilla and salt and whip on medium to combine.

Add the powdered sugar a few Tbsp at a time and SLOWLY whip the sugar into the rest of the mixture on low (otherwise you’ll have powdered sugar all over your kitchen). Once the initial amount of powdered sugar is incorporated, add more, a few Tbsp at a time, to taste. When all of the sugar you want is incorporated, turn the mixer back to high and whip for 3-4 more minutes.

Healthier apricot carrot cake | Me & The Moose. This healthier carrot cake uses no refined sugar, reduces the fat, and increases the veggies to make a cake that is equally light and delicious. #meandthemoose #carrotcakerecipes #carrotcake #healt…
Healthier apricot carrot cake | Me & The Moose. This healthier carrot cake uses no refined sugar, reduces the fat, and increases the veggies to make a cake that is equally light and delicious. #meandthemoose #carrotcakerecipes #carrotcake #healt…



Spinach and artichoke spread

Spinach and artichoke spread | Me & The Moose. This veggie-heavy spread is quick, easy, and versatile for bus weeknights or any night, really. #meandthemoose #spinachartichokedip #spinachandartichoke #diprecipes #healthydips #healthydiprecipes

Throw some spinach, artichokes, garlic, and cheese in a blender and you have a versatile spread that you can eat all week.

Take me to the recipe!

Spinach and artichoke spread | Me & The Moose. This veggie-heavy spread is quick, easy, and versatile for bus weeknights or any night, really. #meandthemoose #spinachartichokedip #spinachandartichoke #diprecipes #healthydips #healthydiprecipes

Who has time to cook before Christmas? Between prepping Christmas and Hannukah dinners, cookie swaps, last-minute gifts, wrapping, school parties, work parties, and the million other things going on, dinner is probably low on the priority list. Another challenge is that, at least in our house, all of this holiday hoopla has thrown us off schedule, which makes feeding a toddler even more difficult. After all, an overstimulated and tired kid is a cranky, fussy mess.

So, this weekend I whipped up some spinach and artichoke spread and we've been eating it in a million different ways: As a dip with carrots and crackers, thinned out and made into a pasta sauce, and with bread and tomato as a grilled cheese. I reduced the amount of cream cheese and cheese in most spinach and artichoke dips and increased the amount of spinach. It's been really convenient having something so versatile at our disposal and the variety keeps it interesting for M. And did I mention that this is a no-cook recipe that comes together in the time it takes to blend the ingredients? VERY helpful when time is limited.

Spinach and artichoke spread | Me & The Moose. This veggie-heavy spread is quick, easy, and versatile for bus weeknights or any night, really. #meandthemoose #spinachartichokedip #spinachandartichoke #diprecipes #healthydips #healthydiprecipes

Spinach and artichoke spread

Time: 5 minutes
Yield: 2 cups dip

2 oz cream cheese
1 cup Parmesan or Romano
1 can of artichoke hearts (or a heaping cup, 9 hearts, 8.5 oz)
4 medium garlic cloves
2 cups raw baby spinach, packed very tightly
1/2 tsp kosher salt
pepper to taste (I like to use Aleppo pepper for little kick, but feel free to use black pepper)

Put everything (raw spinach and garlic included!) in the food processor and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.