Carrot cake. The cookbooks are awash with them. The internet recipe sites are awash with them too. Every baker, chef and home cook seems to either have a recipe for them or have one that has been passed down through the generations. To be honest there’s not much to choose between them, but I have an issue with the majority; oil. Nearly every carrot cake recipe I have ever come across seems to use an inordinate amount of vegetable oil. It makes my toes curl, not because of my eating disorder, just because I actually can’t stand the idea.

I’ve tried some of these recipes and they vary in success. Some of have been an absolute flop, turning out as a mass of oily gunk that’s fit only for a well bagged place at the bottom of the bin. Of those that have fared better they still either have that unmistakable back taste of oil or leave that oily residue on the plate or at the bottom of the fairy cake paper. Again, it makes me uneasy. Yes, my disorder does come into play these days, but it really isn’t all about that. It’s just not right for a cake!

So I set about coming up with a recipe of my own, something that would definitely be a carrot cake, that wasn’t just a carrot sponge and that had something else, something unique about it. I’m not going to lie, this has taken me a lot of time, a lot of failures and a lot of patience. However, I am happy (actually, delighted) to have finally come up with a recipe I’m proud of. It DOES have oil in but only a very small amount!