Lighter carrot cake with Greek yogurt icing
Serves: 10
Prep time: 30 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photography by Ant Duncan
Lighter carrot cake with Greek yogurt icing
Apple sauce and yogurt take the place of butter or oil in this lower calorie carrot cake, topped with a creamy but tangy icing
Serves: 10
Prep time: 30 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
226Kcal
Fat
7gr
Saturates
3gr
Carbs
33gr
Sugars
21gr
Fibre
2gr
Protein
7gr
Salt
0.6gr
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Ingredients
- vegetable oil, to grease
- 1 orange
- 3 medium eggs
- 100g light brown sugar
- 200g Greek-style yogurt
- 150g apple sauce
- 150g self-raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- a pinch of ground cloves
- 150g grated carrot
- 35g raisins
- 25g pistachio kernels, roughly chopped
For the icing
- 150g light cream cheese (we used Philadelphia)
- 50g Greek-style natural yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
Step by step
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4 and lightly grease and line 2 x 18cm sponge tins.
- Finely grate the zest from half the orange into a mixing bowl and add the eggs and brown sugar. Whisk on a high speed for 5 minutes until the mixture has roughly tripled in volume; don’t cut this step short as the air that is whipped in here provides much of the lift to the sponge.
- Briefly mix in the yogurt and apple sauce, then sift in the flour, baking powder, spices and a pinch of salt. Fold in with a large metal spoon, adding the grated carrot, raisins and two-thirds of the pistachios
- Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until risen. Turn out to cool on a wire rack.
- For the icing, whisk the ingredients together until smooth; don’t worry that it’s slightly runny as the sponges will absorb excess moisture. Chill until needed. Finely chop the reserved pistachios, then use a zesting tool to remove the remaining zest from the orange.
- Sandwich together the cooled sponges with just under half of the icing, then spread the rest on top and scatter the pistachios and pared orange zest around the edge. The cake keeps in the fridge for up to 4 days, but is best served at room temperature.
