When dieting, I find it a good idea to keep myself supplied with plenty of cake and other goodies. It’s for the protection of those around me, you understand, as when deprived of the great joys of food, I get rather… cranky.

Mercifully, low-fat cakes are far more tasty these days than when I first started on-off attempts at dieting years ago. Bland, rubbery cakes are a thing of the past, as is the need to subsist on bowls of jelly with suspicious chunks of tinned fruit entombed in them. Oh yes, I’ve seen those 70’s Weight Watchers cards.

Somewhat surprisingly, today’s recipe is from Weight Watchers. Usually a WW cake will be dry and lacking good mouth-feel due to the lack of fat. Not so, with this carrot cake. The larger than usual proportion of carrots to batter gives the cake great moisture and flavour. (Unlike other carrot cakes I’ve made, you can really tell that it contains carrots. The bright orange hands of the baker are also a dead give-away.) I should point out that the spices are still easily discernible in the flavour of each mouthful despite the carroty goodness.

Folks who aren’t dieting should feel free to toss in a handful of chopped walnuts and some raisins, as well as increasing the amount of frosting. A maple syrup flavoured cream-cheese frosting would be superb on this cake.

Carrot Cake

Source: Weight Watchers UK, slight changes made.

Serves 10
WW UK points = 3

85g plain flour
75g whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg
2 large egg whites
60ml vegetable oil (I used groundnut)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
165g runny honey (I used clover honey, but eucalyptus would be divine)

350g carrots, peeled and grated

80g Philadelphia Extra-Light
5 teaspoons icing sugar
1 teaspoon maple sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4. Spray a 20cm (8 inch) cake tin with cooking spray and line with a round of baking parchment. Spray once more.

Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl.

In a large bowl beat together the wet ingredients until well combined–when you scrape a spoon or whisk along the bottom of the bowl it shouldn’t get stuck in a layer of honey. Stir in the grated carrots, then add the dry ingredients, mixing thoroughly.

Scrape into the prepared tin, level the top, and bake for 35-40 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool in tin for ten minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack–make sure you remove the parchment–to finish cooling.

When cold, beat together the icing ingredients and spread in a thin layer over the cake.