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Gluten-free carrot and pineapple cake

This gluten-free carrot and pineapple cake is always a success at birthday parties and afternoon teas. It’s dairy-free and low-sugar too, so fits in almost every diet.  You can make it with fresh pineapple too - you’ll need half of the flesh of a medium pineapple, cleaned well,  and some of its juice for the syrup.  
Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Resting Time 4 hours
Total Time 1 hour
Servings: 6 people
Cuisine: British
Calories: 1234
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 2 medium carrots peeled
  • ¾ cup light muscovado sugar
  • 2 cups self raising gluten-free flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • ½ cup sultanas
  • ½ cup sunflower oil
  • 1 small tin pineapple chunks

Method
 

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease and line the base of a round cake tin. 
  2. Mix the flour, bicarb and spices in a bowl.
  3. Grate the carrot into another bowl.
  4. Drain the pineapples, keeping the juice, then put half of the pineapple chunk in a small food processor and blend until you get a coarse purée.
  5. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl. Add the oil, pineapple purée and vanilla, then combine. Add the grated carrot and combine. Pour this into the flour mixture and mix until well combined. Fold in gently the sultanas.
  6. Tip the batter into the cake pan.
  7. Cut the remaining pineapple chunks in half (to make them thinner) and arrange these on top of the cake in a circular shape, pushing them slightly into the batter. Scatter some sugar on top.
  8. Bake in the middle of the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cover the tin with foil if the top is getting too brown.
  9. Meanwhile, pour the pineapple juice into a small pan, add some sugar and bring to the boil, then reduce it to a thick syrup. Brush the cake with this syrup for the last 5-10 minutes of the baking.
  10. When the cake is cooked through, take it out of the oven and glaze it with the remaining syrup.
  11. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a cooling rack.
  12. Let it cool completely, before slicing it into wedges.