For me, carrot cake is where it all began. If you have read the about me section you will know that I had previously set up Sweet Inspirations. This is where my passion for baking began to flourish. Carrot cake was a staple and a cake that was regularly on high demand, it was filled with spices, sugars and indulgent cream cheese frosting, who wouldn't be able to resist. But with people becoming more health conscious these days, and with buzz words like paleo, vegan and gluten free being thrown about every day, the need to reinvent this cake became apparent. 
So I have transformed this cake into a much healthier and(personally I didn't think this was possible) tastier version. This cake is moist, dense and packed with flavor. It can be eaten with or without the 'cream cheese frosting', either way it is just as delicious! 

1 1/2 cups of nut flour
(I used a combination of walnut, hazelnut & almond)
1 tps cinnamon 
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups of grated carrot
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1/2 cup of honey
1/2 cup of chopped pecans

For the 'cream cheese' frosting

1 cup of coconut milk
2/3 cup of honey/agave syrup
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 tsp of arrowroot powder
(this is a thickening agent, if you dont have it corn flour would work although this is not paleo/gluten free)
1 tbs of water
1/2 cup of coconut oil

First of all preheat the oven to 150 degrees celsius. 
Grate 2 large carrots so that they are ready to be used at a later stage. 
If you don't have nut flour you can simply just grind up the nuts in your food processor. I left mine a little more coarse than normal flour texture as I love the extra bite that it gives to this cake.

So add the nut flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt & baking powder to a bowl.
In a separate bowl add the coconut oil, honey and eggs. Beat together until everything is well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and stir it all together. Lastly add the chopped pecans and grated carrot, give the mixture one last stir to incorporate all the ingredients together.

If you don't have baking paper(which I didn't) you can simply brush the baking tin with melted coconut oil and then line it with a sprinkle of the almond flour. Tap out any excess flour that is in the tin. I made my cake in a rectangle tin but what ever you want to use is entirely up to you.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and pop in the oven for 50 minutes. Allow to cool completely before taking it out of the tin and applying the icing.

To make the icing.
Add the coconut milk, honey, salt and vanilla extract into a saucepan over medium heat. Stirring consistently, bring to the boil.
Allow to boil for 2 minutes. While the coconut milk mixture is boiling prepare the thickening agent. In a small bowl, mix together the arrowroot powder and the water(this prevents any lumps from forming). Take the coconut milk off the heat and mix in the thickening agent. Melt the coconut oil and slowly whisk it in to the coconut milk mixture.

Allow this to cool in the fridge until it is completely chilled. Whisk it up again before icing the carrot cake.

Et voila! 

Thats it.

Enjoy! 

Yes, I know another tart, but with spring in the air there are few things i enjoy more then sitting out in the sunshine with a cooling drink and a slice of summer, that being this beyond delicious apple tart. The base is bursting with flavor and the aromas from the toasted pecans fill your house with warm nutty smells.
This dessert is also great if your having a dinner party and want to have something ready before hand, as it is just as nice eating it room temperature as it is enjoying it hot out of the oven. With all these positives its nearly impossible not to give this a go, AND its made with whole foods that are super good for you! 

For the pecan crust you will need
2 cups of pecans
2 tbs coconut flour
4 tbs coconut oil
8 dates(soaked)
generous pinch of salt

For the maple filling
1 tbs of the pecan crust mixture
1 tbs coconut flour
1 tbs maple syrup
1 tbs prune syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbs of water(to loosen)

Apples
4 small apples(cored and sliced)

Firstly, preheat the oven to 120 degrees celsius. Soak the dates in boiling water for about 5 minutes.
Start by making the crust. Add the pecans, coconut flour, salt to the blender. Blitz until you have a fine crumby mixture. Melt the coconut oil and add it to the crumby mix. Drain the soaking water from the dates and add them to the blender. Blitz again until everything comes together, it should hold when pressed against the side.
Reserve one heaped tablespoon of the crust for the maple filling and pour the rest into your tart tin. Press it firmly into the base and up the sides, leave this to the side while you prepare the filling.

For the maple filling, add the the reserved crust mixture to a blender along with the coconut flour, maple syrup, prune syrup, vanilla extract, salt & cinnamon. Blitz everything so that it is well combined. You want a slightly runny consistency, but not too runny so that it will saturated the base. Add a tablespoon at a time to loosen, I only used about a tablespoon and a half. 

I love leaving the skins on the apples as I think it adds extra flavor and colour, so just simply core and slice the apples. Pour the filling into the base of the tart tin and lay the apples on top in a decorative pattern, or just throw them all in, its completely up to you! 
For this one, I just lay the apples down first and then spooned the filling over, but as I said it is whatever you fancy!
Pop it in the oven for 20 minutes, until the apples are soft and golden brown, the base is cooked and aromatic and the filling has hardened up a little.
Leave in the tart tin to cool. When it has completely cooled, cut and serve with some coconut ice-cream.
Enjoy!  

I honestly don't think an ice-cream sundae can get any healthier than this, seriously there is nothing but goodness(& a bit of dark chocolate) in my creation. There are so many different variations of ice-cream that you can make by just adding ingredients to the base(frozen banana). I have tried almond butter, cinnamon, passion fruit, mango and they are all delicious. The possibilities are endless!
And yes, you can have this any day of the week even have it for breakfast, because it is scrumptious!

The three flavors I chose for this ice-cream sundae are: Creamy Vanilla Bean, Mixed Berry & Chocolate with Nutty Toasted Pecan 

For one ice-cream sundae
You will need
2 bananas
2 tsp coconut oil
1/2 cup of frozen berries
3 strawberries
1/4 cup of pecans
2 squares of 85% dark chocolate
1 tbs cocoa powder
1 tsp honey
1 vanilla pod

Having the bananas frozen solid is an important point to remember when making this ice-cream. If you don't give the banana enough time to solidify your ice-cream will turn into a runny mess.
So 2 hours before make the different flavor ice-creams, finely slice the bananas and place in the the freezer to harden.
After two hours blitz the frozen banana in a blender with the coconut oil until smooth. Pour the creamy banana mixture back into the freezer to harden for an hour.

Next prepare the ingredients for the different flavors. In a pan, on a medium heat toast the pecans in the honey with about 2 tablespoons of water. Use the water to loosen the honey and to coat the pecans. Let the water evaporate off, you will be left with a sticky honey covering on the toasted pecans. 

After an hour get the ice-cream from the freezer and divide it into 3 equal portions. Each portion will be a different flavor.

To make the the toasted pecan and chocolate ice-cream, add one portion of the creamed frozen banana to the blender along with 4 or 5 of the sticky toasted pecans, the cocoa powder and 1 square of chocolate. Blitz until everything is creamed together. I actually like to leave mine a little chunky, one of my favourite parts is coming across chunks of chocolate and honey coated pecans. Place the chocolate ice-cream back in the freezer while you prepare the other two flavors. 

Rinse off the blender and add the 2nd portion of the banana ice-cream. To this add 2 fresh strawberries and the frozen berries. Blitz until everything is smooth. Again feel free to leave bits of strawberry to be found along the way!
Place this bowl in the freezer also.

Rinse the blender for a final time and add the last portion of banana ice cream. Scrape the vanilla seeds out of the pod and add them to the blender. Blitz until smooth.
I find to speed up the hardening process its best to smear the ice-cream around the sides of the bowl so that there is more surface area for the cold freezer air to get to.
Put this bowl with the other two in the freezer for a final 30 minutes just to ensure the ice-cream is set.

After the 30 minutes. Get a pretty little serving bowl and an ice-cream scoop. Melt the last square of dark chocolate so that it is ready to be drizzled on top. 
Add one scoop of each flavor to your ice-cream cup crumble over the remaining toasted pecans, add a few slices of strawberry & drizzle over the melted chocolate. 
Put your feet up, relax and enjoy! 

GOING...

GOING...

GONE.

GLUTEN FREE, DAIRY FREE & PALEO

These moist, ooey, gooey shredded apple & pecan squares are so unbelievably moorish. They are not 100% clean but they are well worth the indulgence. I always try and add some sort of fruit or vegetable to my cakes. I feel that it produces a bigger quantity of a healthier cake. I have experimented with sweet potato and found the results to be absolutely delicious. You can see the recipe for me sweet potato cupcakes and sweet potato brownies here. This recipe is straight forward and so easy to follow, so get baking! 

This recipe yields 12-15 blondies
What you will need:

• 2 cups spelt flour or gluten free flour
• 2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/2 coconut butter
• 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 cups finely chopped apples

Line a deep baking tin with waxed paper or parchment paper. 
In a large mixing bowl, combine spelt flour, brown sugar and coconut butter. 
Blend with an electric hand-held mixer at low speed until crumbly. 
Stir in nuts. 

Add cinnamon, baking soda, almond milk, vanilla and egg to a separate bowl. 
Mix until all the wet ingredients are well combined. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in 3 parts. 
Beating well in between each addition.
Stir in apples.
Spread evenly into the prepare tin. 
Bake at 170°C for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

If you like your blondies gooey in the centre take them out after 35 minutes. Do not remove them from the tin as they will continue cooking as they cool.

Leave to cool to room temperature before slicing into squares.
Sprinkle over icing sugar, and enjoy!