Carrot Cake, Paleo/Primal Style

You may remember I mentioned my being surrounded by friends and  family eating different ways. Here is one, highlighted.   My son and daughter-in-law have gone Paleo since January 1st. Meat and plants, no grain is the basic plan. A radical change.  They are taking it pretty seriously and I don’t believe it’s a diet I could adhere to totally.   But when I arrived Friday night the dinner was diced and sautéed rutabaga, shrimps on a skewer that were delicious,salad,  and  a cauliflower, broccoli, carrot medley (my name for it, not what it is really called) This cake was the dessert pictured below.

Mark never really baked anything I can ever remember. But he was proud of this carrot cake. After dinner he went out to the garage (where it is cool) and brought in in on a cakestand with a dome!  I asked him how he made it since the diet doesn’t have any wheat flour or refined sugar.  I mean, it looked like a carrot cake. He said he’d soaked 5 grated carrots in maple syrup and then drained the liquid off.   He used coconut flour, an item I don’t have in my pantry. There were some  dates in it.  And if I heard him correctly, TEN eggs.   The icing was whole fat cream cheese and grated ginger.

Whoa, no worries… I just searched found a link with the recipe for the Paleo/Primal Carrot Cake  which sounds just like the ingredients he listed. I’m at Laura and James’ tonight so can’t check Mark and Erika’s cookbook and it is too late to call or text to ask.

It was sweet but not too sweet. Incredibly moist. Satisfying. It reminded me of eating a baked good in Europe that was unfamiliar yet delicious.  The ginger flavor was more pronounced on the second day which was okay by me but if you don’t like the pungent zing of fresh ginger you might want the vanilla in the frosting. I have no plans to go Paleo but enjoyed perusing their new cookbooks and finding Italian Pot Roast that sounded great for winter .  I see they’re enjoying cooking and planning meals together, shopping for new ingredients. Real converts!  Tonight for dinner there was spaghetti sauce on zucchini that had been cut on the mandolin and was used instead of pasta.  They are feeling good and looking good and pleased with their change of eating habits.

In 1977 and my parents lived in Philadelphia and I lived there for a year with Mark when he was one, I remember there was a restaurant  that specialized in a rich carrot cake if you want to compare recipes.  What I remember about that carrot cake was how you didn’t want to eat a whole piece. It was too much.

My mom used to bake an occasional sourdough carrot cake in a Danish green enameled lasagna type pan and I found a recipe for that online.

I would feel comfortable serving the Paleo/Primal carrot cake to dinner guests. Thinking about carrot cakes. Diets. Nutrition. Ingredients.  Eating together with family is the best, no matter what is on the plate!