Orange carrot cake

Time really does fly by, I almost feel like I closed my eyes for a second in August and when I opened them again I found myself wearing a coat and a scarf and trying to find the best gift for my sister’s birthday which is next week and obviously I still have no clue what to get her..

Meanwhile, I also decided to give up something for lent this year, I’ve never done it, so I see it as a challenge to myself. What I decided to give up are the king and queen of carbohydrates: Mr. Bread and Mrs. Pasta. As an Italian girl living in Italy, it is a serious mission to give up these two main parts of a meal in my home country. In other countries a burger or fries are the first fast food meal choices that come to mind, but here in Italy no, pizza is THE choice and since it’s also bread I’ll have to say bye bye pizza for a while as well.

So I have now been able to go seven days without them and I have to tell you that it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. In fact I’ve been keeping myself busy working, studying and also cultivating a new passion I recently discovered: baking.

These days my home is filled with oranges, for some reason we are all needing some extra vitamin C in our systems, and since I feel like working in front of a screen for countless hours everyday is starting to weigh on my sight, I’ve decided to make a carrot cake. It’s an easy and light Italian style cake perfect as a breakfast treat or even an afternoon pick-me-up snack and paired with a coffee or a tea makes it even better!

Lucky for us we invented desserts. Sweets have this amazing capacity to put a smile on any face and make the world a better place.

Orange Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups flour          5 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch          1 1/2 cups grated carrots

3 eggs                     1 cup sugar                                          1/3 cup milk

1 orange                 1/3 cup vegetable oil                         1 1/4 almond flour

lemon zest             1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder      icing sugar

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 340° (170° Celsius)

Grate carrots enough to have 1 1/2 cups.

In a large bowl beat together the sugar and eggs until it becomes dense and creamy. Sift the flour, cornstarch and baking powder and add them gradually to the batter. Add the milk and the oil.

Add the grated carrots and the almond flour to the mixture then squeeze the juice of the orange in the batter and add the lemon zest.

Transfer the mixture into a 9″ lightly greased and floured cake pan (I used a 9″ spring form pan) and bake approximately 35-40 minutes.

Let the cake cool completely before sprinkling with icing sugar.  Now you are ready to enjoy a nice piece of cake!