If you're looking for a carrot cake that's a little different or just want something gluten-free, here's a new buckwheat carrot cake recipe. Made with a wholesome combination of buckwheat and almond flour, it's rich, moist, and crumbly. The naturally sweet carrots, orange juice soaked raisins, and caramel notes from brown sugar create a perfect balance of flavors. And to top it all off it has a cream cheese frosting with a hint of maple.
Buckwheat and Almond Flour Combo
Before making this cake I was experimenting with different almond flour carrot cake recipes. They were fine with just almond flour and better with an almond and coconut flour combo, but the buckwheat flour was transformative! The buckwheat adds a rich, earthy flavor and a soft but hearty crumb that partners well with almond flour. Together, they create a gluten-free carrot cake that’s just as satisfying as the traditional version. For the buckwheat flour, you can use light or dark or a combination of the two. Dark buckwheat has a very pronounced flavor, so if you love it you can use it. If you are new to buckwheat you might want to go with a light buckwheat like Anthony's brand.
Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
This is is just a basic cream cheese frosting with a little maple syrup added for flavor. It's slick and smooth and a little loose, but not so loose you can't spread it. If you feel it's not sweet enough you can bump up the amount of powdered sugar a bit. I used 300 grams which came in at around 3 cups. And feel free to skip the maple syrup altogether. It goes well with the buckwheat theme, but the frosting would also be good with a little orange or lemon zest.
Round Cake Pan Sizes and Depth
This recipe was adapted from one from Helen Goh for Sainsbury that was designed for a 7-inch round pan. The 7-inch round cake pans are not very common here in the USA, so I used 8-inch round cake pans. Sets of 8x2 inch pans are common. Mine are actually 8x3 inch deep pans. I haven't found the extra depth to be a problem, but the deeper-pan cakes sometimes take a few minutes longer to bake.
Storing the Cake
If you plan on making it ahead of time it's best to freeze the layers before frosting. You can freeze the frosted cake, it just gets a little messy because the maple syrup in the frosting prevents it from getting hard in the freezer. It's why maple syrup is such a great ice cream ingredient! That being said, I did freeze mine with the frosting and touched up the frozen slices before serving
I also gifted a few slices. These individual cake and pie slice containers are great because they can old a slice of pie but are tall enough for cake as well. Here's the recipe!
Recipe
Buckwheat Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
CAKE:
- ½ cup raisins (80 grams)
- ¼ cup orange juice (50 ml)
- 1 ½ cups light buckwheat flour or a mix of light and dark (220 grams)
- ¾ cup almond flour (70 grams)
- 1 cup light brown sugar (200 grams)
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 large eggs
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (200 grams)
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups coarsely grated carrots (285 grams)
- ½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans plus a few more for garnish
Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
- 12 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 6 tablespoons unsalted or salted butter, softened
- 2 ¾ cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup or leave out use a little more sugar
Instructions
- About an hour before you begin, put the orange juice in a bowl and soak the raisins.
- Preheat oven to 350°. Grease two 8x2 inch round cake pans. If you want, you can line the bottoms with rounds of parchment and grease parchment. I do this just for extra insurance in case the cakes are sticky.
- Whisk the buckwheat flour, almond flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder salt and spices together and set aside.
- In another bowl, beat the eggs with an electric mixer or whisk, and stream in the oil gradually so that it will emulsify. Add the vanilla. Mix together the egg mixture and the flour mixture, then stir in the carrots and the undrained raisins (which most likely have absorbed all of the juice). Add the nuts if using.
- Divide the batter between the two pans and bake in the pan and bake at 350° for about 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool, then frost with cream cheese frosting.
Frosting
- Beat the softened cream cheese and butter in a stand mixer bowl until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and beat at low speed until well blended. Beat in vanilla and maple syrup, scraping the bowl often. If your icing is runny from the syrup you can chill it for 30 minutes, but it should be spreadable right away.
- Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread with about a cup of the frosting Top with second layer. Spread remaining icing over entire cake. Arrange pecan halves or walnuts pieces on top. Cover the cake with a cake dome and keep the whole covered cake in the refrigerator or leave it out for a few hours depending on the temperature in your kitchen.
Anna says
Darlene, I'm glad you're getting some helpful info 🙂 I've been putting maple syrup and/or honey in a lot of my ice cream recipes and it really helps keep it soft, so it seems to do the same thing in icing. This one would probably be good with just a dash of maple extract in place of the syrup too.
Darlene says
Even if I don't plan on making one of your recipes, I always enjoy reading your posts and learning something new. I didn't know the addition of maple syrup would keep an item from freezing, and using a deeper cake pan would increase the baking time. Thanks for the education, Anna!