Eric Lanlard's Gluten Free And Sugar Free Carrot And Coconut Cake Recipe

Recipe taken from Eric Lanlard's Afternoon Tea by Eric Lanlard, published by Mitchell Beazley

Ingredients

• 200g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
• 125g toasted desiccated coconut
• 125g pecan nuts, roasted and ground, plus 100g roasted pecan halves, to decorate
• 50g ground almonds
• 50g rice flour
• 90g stevia granules
• pinch of salt
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp ground cinnamon, plus extra for dusting
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 300g grated carrots
• splash of milk, if needed

For the frosting:

• 600g cream cheese
• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 50g stevia granules
• pinch of ground cinnamon
• 2tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1tbsp milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C, gas 3. Grease 2 x 20cm sandwich cake tins and line with baking paper.

2. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients using a balloon whisk. In a jug, beat the eggs, melted butter and vanilla paste until combined, then fold in the grated carrots.

3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well, adding a splash of milk if the mixture is too thick.

4. Divide the mixture between the prepared tins and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a cooling rack to cool completely.

5. To make the frosting, beat all the ingredients together until creamy and fluffy. Secure one of the cooled cakes on your cake stand with a little of the frosting, then spread a good layer over the top of the cake and sandwich together with the second cake.

6. Using a palette knife, cover the cake completely with the remaining frosting. Decorate with the pecan halves and a light dusting of cinnamon.