Pamz Low Fat Carrot Cake

I often get inspiration from my husband who casually mentions if I had ever cooked a particular dish. Oh course that always tweaks my competitive nature:  not only to prepare the dish, but to find a healthy alternative to what he grew up with.  This week's suggestion was carrot cake. 

I recall making carrot cake  when I was a child under my mom's direction.   Everyone seems to think that carrot cake is healthy because it has carrots in it, and it didn't seem to bother me that you added a cup or so of oil to make it moist. 

When I became more health conscious in my 20s the thought of carrot cake was so repulsive because of all the oil.  When my husband mentioned carrot cake the other day I thought that by now there should have been many cooks who have experimented with my favorite baking ingredient, applesauce.  Sure enough, there are plenty, and I have adopted a few recipes to come up with this version which satisfied my husband's "blue blood" taste buds.  If you don't want to go out and buy crushed pineapple this is a great recipe to try.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons apple butter
• 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup sucralose
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (or sucralose blend)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup unbleached flour*
• 1 cup whole wheat flour*
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3 cups of grated carrots
• 1 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Coat a 9" x 9" baking pan with non-fat cooking spray.  I like silicon pans.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the apple butter, applesauce, eggs, sugar and vanilla until smooth.
4. Next, slowly add flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon to the mixture.
5. Blend until all of the ingredients are moistened.
6. Lightly mix in the grated carrots and raisins
7. Pour into baking pan.
8. Bake in oven for 35-40 minutes.

To keep calories down, go without a topping, or go light.  Use your imagination:  powdered sugared, light icing made of powered sugar and milk, or a low fat cream cheese icing.

*to increase your fiber intake in this recipe, use all whole wheat flour but add a little more applesauce if the batter looks a little dry.