Happy Sunshine Pumpkin & Carrot Cake, low sugar

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It’s definitely pumpkin season and I wanted to incorporate this lovely Fall/Winter ingredient in a sweet treat that was not too sugary nor heavy or loaded with cream. That’s how the Happy Morning Sunshine cake came to life. Moist, light, fluffy and deeply orange! My kids like carrot cake, naturally sweet, smooth. Why not adding pumpkin too? I used raw pumpkin and raw carrots to have only few easy steps in the procedure and make this recipe a good “bake together one” with little kids.

The cake has a very low amount of added sugars (1/2 cup) as both pumpkin and carrots provide a nice amount of natural sugars. To keep the sugar level low I also substituted traditional powdered sugar for the topping with unsweetened coconut flakes blended into powder.

Let’s start preheating the oven to 350F/175C. In a food processor add the carrots, pumpkin and coconut oil. I peeled and chopped the carrots in pieces; peeled, removed the seeds and chopped the pumpkin in pieces too.

Blend for 1 minute to obtain a smooth and creamy paste.

In a medium bowl mix the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together eggs with sugar to obtain a pale yellow foamy mix.

Add the pumpkin and carrot mix and whisk together.

Slowly pour in the milk and the vanilla extract.

Add in the dry ingredients, few tablespoons at the time. Mix well.

Transfer the batter in a cake pan greased with 1 tsp coconut oil. Bake in preheated oven to 350F/175C for 50 minutes. Check if the cake is ready inserting a toothpick in the center of the cake. If it comes out dry, the cake is ready. Let the cake cool down for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile blend the unsweetened coconut flakes in a blender in order to obtain a powder texture. Dust the surface of the cake with the coconut powder. Enjoy!

How to store the cake?

You can store the cake on the countertop in an air tight container or cake dome to keep it nicely moist. The cake will last up to 1 week.