This is my all-time favorite dessert recipe. A truly delicious, moist, carroty cake with cream cheese frosting that has 6g protein but only 9g carbs. This recipe is based on Jamie Eason’s Pumpkin Protein Bars. You can make these with whole carrots (try to get organic, they’re sweeter) if you have a food processor, or you can buy carrot baby food for the purée and shred a few carrots on a box grater for the rest. Additionally, I’ve included substitutions that can be made if you want a heftier calorie count, along with the macro breakdown for the bulky version of the recipe at bottom.

Just an aside: I highly recommend getting a food processor if you can afford one. It doesn’t need to be fancy (I got this one on sale for $50 and it’s great!). You can use it for baking, making salads, salsas, soups, and even for making your own nut butters (mmm…nut butter). It’s also useful if you hate chopping onions. As my mom would say, It’s pretty nifty.

Makes 20 servings.

74 Cals / 6g Protein / 9g Carbs / 1.2g Fat

Ingredients

2 cups/180g oat flour

2 scoops vanilla whey protein powder (I use Dymatize Elite)

1 cup/33g granulated sucralose (aka Splenda for baking, or equivalent zero calorie sweetener of your choice).

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. allspice

4 large peeled carrots (or 3 4oz/28g cans of carrot baby food + 2 whole carrots).

1/2 cup/15g unsweetend almond milk

4 egg whites (3/4 cup or 160g); Sub: 4 whole eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup/30g chopped walnuts

For the frosting

1 8oz/231g package fat-free cream cheese; Sub: 8oz full fat cream cheese

1/4 cup/90g fat-free greek yogurt

1 Tbsp. honey

Directions

If using whole carrots, make the carrot purée. Chop 2 of the carrots (roughly 300g) into coins and boil in plain water until the largest coin is soft at the center. Let cool, then purée in the food processor until smooth. You might want to add a little bit of the almond milk to help get it smooth. Preheat the oven to 350F Spray a 9×12 pyrex baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Combine all of the dry ingredients from oat flour to allspice in a medium bowl. Mix well. Combine the carrot purée (or baby food) with the rest of the wet ingredients in a large bowl, mixing well. Fold the dry mix into the wet mix in 2 parts. The batter should be slightly soupy. Using either a box grater or the shredding disc on your food processor, shred the remaining carrots (roughly 300g). Fold the shredded carrots and the walnuts into the batter. Pour batter into the pyrex dish and cook for 20-30 min or until a knife dipped into the center of the cake comes out slightly wet. Let cool. Meanwhile, make the frosting. In either a large bowl with an electric mixer or in a food processor, whip the cream cheese, yogurt and honey together until smooth. The honey here lends flavor to frosting, so don’t skimp. If you like a sweeter frosting, add more honey or sweetener. Once the cake is completely cool, spread the frosting on top and cut into 20 squares. Try not to eat it all at once!

This keeps for about a week in the refrigerator. You must cover it, however, or the frosting will dry out.

Bulky version (Get HUUUGE)

95 Cals / 5.6g Protein / 9g Carbs / 4.5g Fat