There is something really good about a cake, that is made even better when you can get a sneaky vegetable in there as well.
Carrot cake is one that is a crowd favorite, this recipe from Jo Whitton is an absolute cracker. Jo does lots of cooking with a thermomix (which is not essential for this recipe, you could make it in a kitchen aide type machine) you could grate the carrot if you wanted to. However blending it gives a real smoothness to the overall finished cake.
What you'll need:
Wet Ingredients
400g carrots, quartered
300g chunks of fresh pineapple
4 large eggs
80g macadamia oil
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
180g honey* (preferrably raw, unheated)
Dry Ingredients
380g plain gluten free flour
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp bicarb soda (baking soda)
3/4 tsp sea salt
150g walnuts (unchopped)
80g raisins or sultanas
Instructions
Preheat oven to 165C. (Cakes made with honey need to cook at a lower temp, for longer, otherwise they'll be burnt on the outside and gooey on the inside; so don't be tempted to turn the oven higher.) Grease and flour a bundt tin or ring tin, and 12 muffin cups, or two ring tins or 24 muffin cups... you get the idea. If you're going to use cake tins, make sure they're not regular ones or the middle won't cook well - if you don't have a ring tin or a bundt tin, just grease and flour a small glass, and place it upside down in the middle of a round cake tin, and use that.
Weigh carrots, pineapple and wet ingredients into the Thermomix bowl, and mix on speed 5 for 15 seconds.
Add dry ingredients and mix on speed 5 for 5 seconds.
Optional: stir in raisins/sultanas on speed 3 for 5 seconds
Cook for approximately 30-40 minutes for cupcakes, and an hour and a half for cakes, depending on your oven. Check by poking a skewer into the centre - it should come out nearly clean when the cakes are done. If the cake is getting too brown on top, just cover it with foil and keep baking til done. Don't cut it straight away while hot - it will be very moist inside. Let them cool, even in the fridge, before icing and eating, and the texture will be better.
Notes
for a nut free cake, leave walnuts out and add a couple of handfuls of shredded coconut with the sultanas instead.
Note about honey: I buy raw, unheated honey in 2 litre bottles from local beekeepers - it's cheaper than buying honey in little containers from the grocery store, it doesn't have added glucose (which a lot of so called 'pure' honey has), it's unheated so there's more goodness in it, and it supports locals!