Name: Healthier Low Fat Carrot Cake
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cup flour (I use half whole wheat); 1 cup sugar; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/4 cup flaked sweetened coconut (Optional); 1/2 cup walnuts (divided chopped ); 2 teaspoons cinnamon; 2 eggs (large ); 2 tablespoons oil; 2 teaspoons vanilla; 3-4 carrots (about 2 cups shredded); 20 oz crushed pineapple (drained); 8 oz lower fat cream cheese (not fat free); 1 teaspoon vanilla; 1 tablespoon milk (and a little more ); 2 cups powdered sugar

Recipe Table of Contents

4.34 from 78 votes

Wonderfully moist and almost good for you. At about 270 calories and 7 grams of fat, you get one of the best carrot cakes, plus it won't leave a pool of oil on the plate.

Table of Contents

📋Ingredients
❄️Storage
📖Low-Fat Recipes
🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
📖Recipe
Pro Tips
💬 Comments

Blue ribbon divider used for visual effect

Introduction

I away thought carrot cake would be hard to make. Nope, it was relatively easy with a 3/10 skill level and just a little more work than a coffee cake. You can make this cake with these easy to follow step by step instructions.

A normal recipe for carrot cake starts with a cup of oil. Read that as almost 2000 calories, and you have not added even a carrot yet. You can't do that very often.

So I looked around a lot for just the right recipe. Many had "odd" ingredients. While I'm not an all-natural guy, it still needs to be reasonably natural ingredients.

Many seemed to have roots in an old Weight Watchers cookbook that used pineapple and coconut. The best of those recipes was Super Moist Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting by Gina at Skinnytaste.com. But I can never keep my fingers off a recipe but made only a few adjustments.

I want two layers. Carrot cake "needs" to be two layers, so a bit of a change in baking. A few changes and options in ingredients, and since I was doing layers, I needed more frosting, so I changed that around a little.

My Rating

An easy 5. Much better than a lot of full-fat carrot cake. I like a carrot cake that has what I would term "good crumb" along with great taste.

📋Ingredients

The Flour

It almost uses what you have. Some recipes used cake flour. Many use 100% all-purpose flour, and some a substituted some whole wheat flour. I like the nutty taste that the whole wheat adds, but adding more than 50% may get too much to the "pound cake" texture.

The Pineapple

Many recipes will use applesauce to help replace oil in recipes. The pineapple does the same thing here. It needs to be drained and in small pieces, so crushed is perfect here.

There is minimal impact on the taste, but you can detect it. I like it.

If you object to pineapple, some recipes use applesauce and you can Google those. I have removed applesauce as a suggested substitute. So use the pineapple for this recipe which I prefer.

❄️Storage

Due to the frosting, this cake should be stored refrigerated for up to 3 days. Or frozen for 2-3 months.

📖Low-Fat Recipes

Healthier Chicken Enchilada Casserole in 60 Minutes

Low-Fat Blueberry Scones

Healthier Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

Lower Fat Spicy Chicken Alfredo

Low Fat Brownies

This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.

101's Best Recipes, Dessert Recipes, Healthy Recipes, Low Fat Recipes

🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°, not convection. Look at all that good stuff.

Spray two 9" round baking pans with a good coat of PAM.

Peel and shred 3-4 medium carrots to get about 2 cups of carrots. A little more or less should be okay.

Chop ½ cup of walnuts.

Drain one 20 oz can of crushed pineapple.

mixing shredded carrots into wet ingredients

In a medium bowl, combine 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons oil, and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix well, then add in the carrots, pineapple, and ¼ cup of the walnuts.

mixing wet ingredient with carrots into dry ingredients

In a large bowl, mix 1 ½ cup flour (I suggest ¾ cups each of AP flour and whole wheat flour) 1 cup sugar, ¼ cup flaked sweetened coconut, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix well. Now fold the wet into the dry and keep folding until all is incorporated.

adding the batter into the prepared pans

Divide into the two baking pans and spread reasonably smooth. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. About 30-35 minutes. Remove and allow to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. Then invert pans on a cooling rack and remove them from pans and allow them to cool completely (at least 30 minutes).

While the cake is cooling, it is cream cheese frosting time.

mixing cream cheese frosting in a white bowl with electric mixer

Mix 8 oz of reduced-fat cream cheese (not fat-free), 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 tablespoon milk. Beat on well. Slowly add 2 cups of powdered sugar while continuing to beat. You may need 1-2 more teaspoons of milk to get the texture you want.

Place the first layer on a plate. Cover with about ⅓ of the frosting and spread evenly. Add the second layer and use about ⅓ on top and ⅓ on the sides.