Name: Eric Lanlard's Gluten Free And Sugar Free Carrot And Coconut Cake Recipe
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: Serves: 12

Recipe taken from Eric Lanlard's Afternoon Tea by Eric Lanlard, published by Mitchell Beazley

Ingredients

200g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
125g toasted desiccated coconut
125g pecan nuts, roasted and ground, plus 100g roasted pecan halves, to decorate
50g ground almonds
50g rice flour
90g stevia granules
pinch of salt
1tsp baking powder
1½ tsp ground cinnamon, plus extra for dusting
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
300g grated carrots
splash of milk, if needed

For the frosting:

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C, gas 3. Grease 2 x 20cm sandwich cake tins and line with baking paper.
In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients using a balloon whisk. In a jug, beat the eggs, melted butter and vanilla paste until combined, then fold in the grated carrots.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well, adding a splash of milk if the mixture is too thick.
Divide the mixture between the prepared tins and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a cooling rack to cool completely.
To make the frosting, beat all the ingredients together until creamy and fluffy. Secure one of the cooled cakes on your cake stand with a little of the frosting, then spread a good layer over the top of the cake and sandwich together with the second cake.
Using a palette knife, cover the cake completely with the remaining frosting. Decorate with the pecan halves and a light dusting of cinnamon.