A couple of weeks ago I opened up my e-mail and almost fell off my chair. For real.
Almost flat on to the floor. Now why you ask?
I got an e-mail from Greta Podleski, co-author with her sister Janet, of the cookbooks
‘The Looneyspoons Collection’, ‘Eat, Shrink & Be Merry’, and ‘Crazy Plates’. Say wha?
Greta wanted to know if I would like one of their cookbooks for review…
…let me think about that for 1 second. Um yes. Please.
These sisters are Canadian celebrities! I’ve seen them on their T.V. series Eat, Shrink & Be Merry, and I’ve coveted their cookbooks for years. I don’t know why I haven’t bought one before!
When their newest book ‘The Looneyspoons Collection’ came in the mail, I waited all of 5 minutes to dive into it. Let me tell you, this cookbook is SO fabulous. It’s chock full of healthy, yummy, and inspiring recipes. Not to mention a tonne of great food trivia, and fun wit!
If you are interested in knowing more about them, you can find their website here.
It’s definitely one of my new go-to books!
This week alone, I have 3 recipes I’m making for dinner!
But first up, carrot cake!
I’ve been looking for a healthy recipe for a carrot cake for Easter.
So one of the first recipes I looked for in their Looneyspoons cookbook, was for carrot cake…
and wouldn’t you know it, there was the perfect recipe!
I love the addition of pumpkin puree, and the low amount of oil! Fabulous!
So one of the first recipes I looked for in their Looneyspoons cookbook, was for carrot cake…
and wouldn’t you know it, there was the perfect recipe!
I love the addition of pumpkin puree, and the low amount of oil! Fabulous!
So one afternoon I got together all of my ingredients and made this amazing cake!
It is rich, moist and so full of flavour! This is now my go-to recipe for carrot cake.
Here it is!
It’s so worth making…it would be perfect for Easter!
Layered Carrot Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Icing
- 1½ packages of cream cheese, room temperature
- ¼ cup butter
- 1½ cups icing sugar
- 1 tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate
- 1 tsp grated orange zest
Cake
- 1¾ cups flour
- ¼ cup ground flaxseed or ground chia seeds (I just used 2 tbsp whole chia seeds)
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp nutmeg (I only used ¼ because I don’t love nutmeg)
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup canned pure pumpkin (not pie filling)
- 1 cup brown sugar (not packed)
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups finely grated carrots
- ½ cups walnuts (optional – I didn’t add these)
- ½ cups shredded sweetened coconut
Instructions
Icing
- First make the icing. Beat together the cream cheese and butter until it is smooth.
- Slowly add the icing sugar and mix until smooth.
- Add the orange juice and zest, mix well.
- Refrigerate until you are ready to use it.
Cake
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare 2 round 9-inch baking pans. You can grease & flour them or line the bottoms with wax paper like I did in this post.
- In a bowl combine the flour, chia seeds, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, ginger and salt. Set aside.
- In a mixer, combine the pumpkin, sugar, buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
- Add the dry ingredients slowly to the wet mixture, and using a spoon combine until the dry ingredients are moistened.
- Then gently add the carrots, nuts and coconut. Hand mix.
- Divide the cake batter evenly between the 2 pans, and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cakes come out clean.
- When done baking, cool the cakes in their pans for 10 minutes before turning them out onto a cooling rack.
- When the cakes have cooled completely, you can ice them!
Recipe from The Looneyspoons Collection
Tips!
- I used whole chia seeds for this recipe only because I didn’t feel like grinding them, and the cake turned out great! I buy my chia seeds at Costco, under the brand truRoots. We also use them in oatmeal, cereal and a lot of baking.
- Icing the cake: I didn’t ice my cake the traditional way, instead I only iced the centre and the top. I did it this way because I’ve always wanted to ice a cake like this, and always pictured the perfect cake for this method, a carrot cake.
I like the rustic look of icing it like this. And you get more icing with each bite of cake! Yum!
Delish!
A BIG BIG thank-you to Greta and Janet Podleski for sending me their fabulous cookbook!
I can’t wait to dig in to more recipes! I love a good cookbook!
Have a delicious day!
Yummy Linking:
At the Picket Fence, Home Stories AtoZ, Addicted 2 Decorating, I should be mopping the floor, Chef-in-Training
Hi I'm Jo-Anna! I mom. I blog. I cook. I craft. I like pretty things.
Hello Jo-Anna, a new reader here! I stumbled across your blog and was so happy to see a fellow Canadian, not to mention western Canadian!!
I was first introduced to Greta and Janet Podleski’s cookbooks when I was given “Eat, Shrink and Be Merry” as a gift, and I have been in love ever since! I am a sucker for carrot cake and this one looks delish!
~ Kimberley
My sister and I were just talking about making carrot cake for Easter. This looks so good!
That looks soo good, Jo-Anna! Lucky you, getting cook books sent right to your door. Not to mention the email from Greta. How cool! Can’t wait to see what other recipes you try. We love carrot cake, so I’ll definitely give this a try.
Have a great week! The weather looks like it’s going to be pretty warm. Well, at least the next couple of days. : )
~ Catie
Yay! Congrats on receiving that cookbook! I’m going to have to try that recipe – looks like a great way to avoid the oil!
Fab fotos!
my stomach’s full, but am still drooling over your food post!
this sounds really good…and looks pretty too!
Jo-Anna, thanks for posting a Healthy Carrot Cake alternative. My hubby loves Carrot Cake, so hopefully I will be trying this soon. Lovely photos.
PS Not fond of coconut, so think I will be omitting this.
The cake looks delicious. Yum!
@North…as one who ate 3/4′s of this carrot cake and also not a huge lover of coconut, I can tell you that if anything the coconut adds texture as I didn’t really notice it. Or maybe it was because I inhaled it like a vacuum cleaner…dee-lish!
Yummy!!! My husband’s fave :)
Wow! Congrats! I was going to make carrot cupcakes for Easter- I wonder if this would work!
WooHooo! Loooooooney Spoooons! Way to go Jo! Love these ladies…did you know they have a line of food at Costco? Seriously! Beautiful pics. Love it, making it for the fam this weekend! LMc
What a nice surprise, and just in time for Easter too!:)
Love the look of the carrot cake, especially the sound of it being of a healthy recipe…just awesome!
Can’t wait for Easter to be here…it’s just less than a week away!;)
Hello Joanna,
You seriously crack me up with some of your posts. I love your sense of humor!!! I must try this carrot cake…looks and sounds yummy!
Thanks for your inspiration and the laughs!
More icing with eat bite, I completely agree with you! And carrot cake happens to be one of my favorite,s thanks for the idea of using pumpkin puree (or the Lonelyspoons’ idea), I bet it made the cake extra orange/moist/delicious.
Jessica
stayathomeista.com
Visiting via Addicted 2 Decorating. I absolutely adore carrot cake.
I created several spring projects on my blog this week. Please stop by if you have a moment.
Have a lovely Easter weekend.
I have this in the oven right now! So glad to hear it was a hit for you. Sure smells good!
It’s so good! I hope you liked it too!
Jo-Anna
Great choice from the Loonyspoons Collection, Jo-Anna, with a yummy Carrot Cake. These girls are from the Kitchener-Waterloo area, and I well remember when they first became popular. Did you have a chance to drop by to see my post last Tuesday when I had a telephone interview with Sandi Richard? she is another I admire with her “bringing families back to the Dinner table”.