Slow-Cooker Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Honey Drizzle

My lands it has been practically a lifetime since I shared something non-baby-centric on this blog.

No longer!

I am finally finding time to cook again, and this particular recipe is an awfully good one for summer. We love carrot cake ’round these parts, but it’s been a bit too warm to turn on the oven, so baked goods have been put on the proverbial back-burner.

The genius of this recipe is that you make it in the crock pot!

It’s also, for those who care about such things, a clean recipe, so you can pretend it’s healthy. I mean, carrot cake? clean? it’s practically a serving of vegetables! This also means it’s not as sweet as carrot cakes you may be accustomed to, and the cream cheese honey drizzle is nice, but it’s no cream cheese icing. But sometimes that’s nice if you’ve been overdosing on over-sweet berries and ice cream all summer.

Slow-Cooker Carrot Cake
(adapted from The Best of Clean Eating)
*note – this recipe is for a 4-6qt slow cooker. If you have one of those gigantic army-sized vessels, use a smaller cake pan inside the crock pot insert.

Ingredients:
Olive oil cooking spray
1 1/4 cups all-purpose whole wheat flour
1/3 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup unsweetened sultana raisins
1 large egg white
1 tsp flasxeed, ground, mixed with 2 tsp water
1/2 cup raw organic honey
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup peeled, shredded carrot, tightly packed

Cut parchment to fit bottom and sides of the sides and bottom of your crock-pot insert. Spray insert with cooking spray and line with the parchment.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, coconut, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in raisins.

In a separate bowl, combine egg while and flax-water mixture and whisk until bubbles form. Add honey, applesauce, yogurt, oil and vanilla and whisk until well blended. Stir in dry ingredients until just mixed. Fold in carrot and pour mixture into prepared stoneware dish.

Cover entire top of slow-cooker with three layers of paper towel and secure with lid (this catches droplets and ensures the cake doesn’t get soggy).

Bake for 2-2.5 hours on low or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool on a rack and serve warm or at room temperature with cream cheese honey drizzle and toasted walnuts if you’re into that.

Cream Cheese Honey Drizzle

Ingredients:
1/4 cup low-fat plain cream cheese
1 tbsp raw organic honey
1 lemon, zested and juiced

in a small bowl, heat cream cheese on high in microwave until slightly warm, about 10-15 seconds. Remove from microwave and use a rubber spatula to stir honey into cream cheese until smooth. Add a pinch of the lemon zest and 2 tsp of the juice and continue to stir. Slowly add two tablespoons water until mixture is consistency of thick cream. Continue to add lemon zest and juice to taste.