Pardon me for the mistake in the headline – most people do not spell “pumpkin” c-a-r-r-o-t. We do in this house, though, especially when Mom’s craving carrot cake and she needs a way to convince a vegetable-phobic 6-year-old that she’s not trying to poison him.

The cake, an adaptation of a recipe from eatbetteramerica.com, does at least have pumpkin in it so I wasn’t totally lying. I added a bit more than the original recipe called for, in part because I was converting the recipe to egg-free and in part because I was trying to obscure the carrots.

Which, of course, didn’t work. Big Guy still saw them and still tried to pick them out at first. “Just go ahead and take a bite,” I said. “I bet you don’t even taste the carrots.”

He didn’t, and all was happy in our world.

I was very happy with this recipe, too. It’s just as moist as an eggy cake despite the changes. The original called for whole-wheat flour, but I instead used graham, which seems to result in a better texture in cakes. I also cut the amount of sugar, from 1 1/4 cups to a cup. By the time you add frosting, you never notice the difference.

I also skipped the cream-cheese frosting – no room in the fridge – and frosted the cake with buttercream with about a teaspoon of cinnamon added. Lemon buttercream frosting also tastes great on carrot cakes.

Egg-free carrot cake

• 4 tbl. Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer beaten into 1/4 c. warm water
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. graham flour
• 1 c. granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 c. shredded carrots (about 4 medium)
• 1/4 tsp. lecithin – you can easily leave this out, but it does improve the texture of egg-free cakes, making them less crumbly. Thanks to a reader who suggested this tip!

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray two 8-inch round cake pans with Baker’s Joy. In large bowl, mix egg replacer, oil, pumpkin, milk and vanilla with electric mixer on low until well blended.

Add remaining ingredients except carrots. Beat on low speed 30 seconds or until well blended. Stir in carrots. Pour batter evenly into pans. Do not freak out because you have such a thin layer of batter that you’re convinced you’re going to wind up with a carrot pancake. Believe it or not, it will rise to two respectably tall layers.

Bake 28 to 33 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Carefully run knife around sides of pans to loosen; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

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Copyright 2008 Debra Legg. All rights reserved.

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