carrot pulp cake

I recently bought, and with some help, consumed a 25 pound bag of carrots.

I had never bought that many carrots at one time. The bag was heavy, I had to carry it myself and it barely, and I mean barely, fit in my refrigerator.

I really, really like carrot juice, so I spent a few days testing new recipes:

Carrot, apple, ginger (4 or 5 carrots, 1 apple, 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, lemon or lime can also be added for a little extra pep);

Carrot, celery, kale, pear (handful of carrots, 2 sticks of celery, handful of bunched up kale, 1 pear;

and most ambitious, beet, carrot, apple (1 beet, handful of carrots, 1 apple).*

*I love carrot juice. However, after downing a 12-ounce glass of beet juice during one drive into work, I learned that beets make me incredibly nauseous. I have yet to try the recipe again, but next time, in order to avoid running to the bathroom to vomit, then having to spend the first hour at work recovering from being so incredibly ill, I think I will 1) drink slowly, 2) add ginger. Ginger adds serious zing to juice and also helps to decrease the nausea. Also, I learned which, in retrospect should have been common sense, that you should gradually increase the amount of juice that you drink a day. For instance, one should not, and I mean, should not, down a huge glass of nutrient rich juice on the first day if your body isn’t used to consuming so many nutrients all at once. Some can do it, I suppose, but if you’re a little sensitive like I am, it’s not the best idea.

Next, the inevitable question arises: what do I do with all of the pulp?

Of course, I always think, “cake!!!”

Carrot cake is my favorite type of cake, hands down. I believe it is even better with cream cheese frosting. The recipe for frosting will have to be shared next time, since I didn’t try it (and haven’t developed a healthy recipe yet). Some say that frosting is unnecessary and is too much work, but I’m on the other end of the spectrum and say, “pile it on!” But that’s another story.

Yummy Carrot Pulp Cake

2 c flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tbsp ginger (wasn’t used this round, but I will definitely shred some ginger next time)

½ cup white sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 ¼ cup oil (any kind will do, I used canola, but will experiment in the future)

4 eggs

4 c carrot pulp

Here’s the recipe:

Preheat the oven to 350. Sift the dry ingredients into an appropriate bowl. Beat the eggs and oil in a separate bowl (I don’t always do this, though, so if you don’t want to wash as many dishes, just mix together, but make sure it’s done well!). Next, add the egg mixture to the dry mixture. Fold the carrot pulp into the concoction. Pour into a 12×8 baking pan and bake 40 minutes.

Voila!

Some notes: the cake was very light, moist and delicious. It could have only been made better with frosting. Also, I didn’t have any pure carrot pulp on hand; I believe we made carrot, apple, ginger, parsley, kale juice, so there were some bits of green in the cake. It didn’t make any difference to me, though, and I’m sure my body appreciated the extra nutrients. I always feel very powerful after eating kale, so I especially enjoyed the same feeling after eating cake.