Light and Fluffy Wholewheat Carrot Cake

Carrot cake has surfaced as being THE dessert featuring vegetables that the general public seems to be ok with. Although recent years have seen a growth in popularity of zucchini loaves, pumpkin and squash muffins and all sorts of other veggie based desserts, carrot cake will always be the one that led the charge to the delightful world of veggies in sweets. Now, this recipe is loosely based of some recipe that my brother Matt and I found years ago online. The original recipe called for white flour, pecans and vegetable oil and we discovered that a healthier version could be spun-off from it after pulling a few changes. So we switched those out for healthier components, played with spice and vanilla quantities and in essence pretty much wrote up a whole new recipe. The taste of the healthier version was surprisingly not only good, but better than the original as the wholewheat flour blends so well with the carrots! Needless, to say, for carrot cake lovers everywhere, this is a recipe you need to try.

 
Ingredients:
-4 eggs
-1 c. light olive oil
-1 1/2 c. white sugar
-2 tsp. vanilla extract
-2 c. wholewheat flour
-2 tsp. baking soda
-2 tsp. baking powder
-1/2 tsp. salt
-2 tsp. ground cinnamon
-2/3 tsp. ginger powder
-1/3 tsp. ground cloves
-3 cups. grated carrots
-1 1/4 c. chopped walnuts
-1/4-1/2 c. icing sugar as topping

Instructions:
1) Preheat oven at  350, grease a 9x13 inch pan
1) Oil and sugar, once mixed add vanilla and eggs, continue mixing
2) In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.
3) Process the carrots and nuts separately in a food processor. You want a finer chopping of the carrots so that you don't have hard bits but more coarsely chopped walnuts to add some crunch.
4) Combine the wet and dry ingredients, mix until homogenous and add the carrots and nuts, pour into the prepared ban
5)Bake for 40 to 50 minutes.
6) Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
7) When completely cooled, sprinkle with icing sugar or coat with cream cheese icing.