This recipe for Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Tahini Glaze was sent to me by a favourite foodie and fellow recipe hoarder. It was a screenshot of the recipe with the words, “my sister made this for tea and it is delicious”. I looked at the font of the recipe and knew I had seen it before and that I have the cookbook it’s from. It is Sabrina Ghayour’s Spiced Carrot, Pistachio & Almond Cake with Rosewater Cream from her book Persiana.
I have to confess that carrots are not my favourite vegetable by a mile, unless they are these Tandoori Roasted Carrots or as a carrot cake. With a cream cheese frosting (of course), sprinkled with chopped pecan nuts.
I tweaked the recipe to what I had in the cupboard. I did not have ready ground almonds so blitzed raw almonds myself, slightly coarser than what you get in the shops and I really like the rougher texture it yielded in the cake. I had 100g unshelled pistachios and that only yields about 60g once shelled, so made up the difference with almonds. And added a teaspoon of orange blossom water for floral note. Sabrina’s recipe calls for 200g caster sugar. I do think you can reduce the sugar to about 150g if you make the tahini glaze. For extra pretty, I sprinkled the top of the cake with dried rose petals.
The cake is delicious served as is with a dollop of whipped cream, the tahini glaze is purely optional but adds another layer of texture and flavour. It is a reasonably thin glaze so add more icing sugar if you want more of a frosting type of topping.
The images in this post have been shot on two of the backgrounds from my newly launched Heinstirred Collection, available for sale online at shop.heinstirred.com. Do you have a look around, your favourite new surface may be just a click away.
I hope you enjoy this recipe for Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Tahini Glaze and that it will become a firm favourite. If you’ve made the recipe share it with me by tagging @heinstirred on Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag #heinstirred. It is always a treat to see the recipes made and enjoyed.
Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Tahini Glaze
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 3 large eggs
- 200 g caster sugar (reduce by about 50g) if you make the glaze
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 200 g ground almonds
- 100 g medium dessicated coconut
- 2 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 150 g butter, melted
- 1 tsp orange blossom water (optional)
- 2 large carrots, coarsley grated
- 100 g pistachios, roughly chopped
Tahini Glaze
- 100 g cream cheese, at room temperature
- 50 g tahini
- good pinch sea salt flakes
- squeeze lemon juice
- 150 g icing sugar (more for thicker glaze)
- dried rose petals to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 160 degrees C
- Line a 23cm cake tin with baking paper
- Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together in a large bowl
- Add the almonds, coconut, cinnamon and salt and give it a stir
- Add the melted butter and give a thorough mix
- Add the blossom water, carrots and pistachios and mix until evenly blended
- Spoon the batter into the cake tin and bake for an hour or until firm to the touch and a skewer inserted comes out clean
- Cool in the tin, preferably overnight
- Make the glaze by beating the cream cheese, tahini, salt and lemon juice
- Add the icing sugar until you have the desired consistency
- Garnish with the dried rose petals
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