Blender Carrot Cake

This is DS' and mine's favourite cake at the moment, although he doesn't like walnuts so I only put them in one of the cakes - that way we each have our own!

It used to be such a chore to make carrot cake. I remember having to peel and shred (by hand back then!) lots of carrots, having to beat egg whites very stiff, having to buy expensive ground almonds... as much as I love baking, this was too much of a hassle and I went for years without making carrot cake.

Then I came across a recipe that involved using the blender. I tried it very warily but was delighted to find it worked! Having said that the recipe itself was not to my taste so I adapted that and 2 other recipes to come up with this one.
I've reduced the sugar in the recipe quite a lot and might try reducing the oil amount too but if I do the usual trick of substituting apple sauce for all or even just part of the oil, I find the result is inevitably more pudding-like, too moist for my taste.

It seems like a lot of folk are obsessed about getting their cakes as moist as possible. I strive for a perfect balance: a dry cake is definitely a disappoinment but an overly moist one is too much a reminder of my mother's bread puddings which contained just about anything she could lay her hands on, bread and a huge amount of dried fruit. The result was always slightly different in taste (as there was no basic recipe she used, she said she 'invented cakes') but always the same in texture: soggy pudding with an overload of raisins. Just not my thing. My brothers and my mother would wolf it down though and to this day this is still what my mother calls her 'cakes'. I now can't stand raisins in baking except maybe in Pain aux Raisins - so long as they're not too soggy!

Anyway, now for my recipe for Blender Carrot Cake

8 3/4 oz	Organic carrots, unpeeled
1 1/2 cups	Oil
3/4 cups	Brown sugar
4	Large eggs
2 ts	Vanilla
8 oz	Wholewheat flour
3 oz	Shredded coconut
1 tb	Cinnamon
1/2 ts	Ground nutmeg
2 ts	Baking soda
1 1/2 ts	Baking powder
1 1/2 ts	Salt
3 oz	Walnut halves, roughly chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 375F/160C.

Grease two 4 x 8 pans (I use reusbale non stick liners which I cut to shape).

Cut carrots into large chunks.

Place carrots and oil in blender.

Blend for 2 min.

Add sugar, eggs and vanilla.

Blend for 2 min.

In a large bowl whisk together the remaining ingredients, except the walnuts.

Pour contents of the blender into the bowl.

Stir until just moistened.

Fold in walnuts if using.

Pour batter into the prepared pans.

Bake at 375F/160C for 35-40min.

Cool on a rack.

I find organic carrots so different in taste to non-organic that I wouldn't ever consider using non-organic carrots. I'd rather go without cake (or carrots for that matter!) than have those alien-like orange things that have no taste.

Another thing, I can't believe I never came across this idea before: blenders are SELF-CLEANING! Just fill them 2/3 with hot water, add a drop (nor more though!) of detergent and blend. Thanks to someone called Canadian Gardener for this (and many, many other) tips.