As the seasons are changing, my appetite for certain things is adjusting itself as well. I’m longing for spicy food that makes you feel warm inside. Cakes and stews, with the colours of autumn and winter. A colour palette that does more justice to seasonal produce.

In an effort to develop some new recipes for this fall, I have been experimenting a bit over the last few weeks. I’ve tried to optimise a buckwheat cake for example. With this carrot cake, that replaces all wheat with buckwheat and almonds, I think I’ve hit home! That’s why I’m sharing this super easy recipe with you.

Before I move on to the recipe I just want to apologise to all the people that had to try out in between versions. Try-outs that were too heavy, too dry, too boring or whatever else. It was all part of the process and you’ve helped me out a lot! Without you I wouldn’t have stumbled into this beautiful moist and fresh autumn cake. So much for the thank you speech… back to the carrot cake.
buckwheat almond carrot cake

What I love about this carrot cake is that it’s spicy and strong, but at the same time it’s very fresh and juicy. I’ve learned that when you bake a cake with buckwheat as a wheat replacer, you have to add a lot of freshness into the mix to balance things out. With freshness, I mean fruit or veggies. The labneh yoghurt frosting and lemon zest also pick things up in the end.

What I also learned about these kind of cakes is that baking soda and baking powder are really miracle workers. They make the cake all fluffy and light. I know the online ‘health’ society sometimes advises against them because they apparently give you a puffy feeling, which gives you a feeling of discomfort, but that isn’t really my experience. So I just indulge in using them whenever I’m baking.

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Buckwheat carrot cake with yoghurt labneh frosting:

buckwheat almond carrot cakeIngredients
cake: 150g almonds – 150g raw buckwheat – 275g raw carrots – 2 peeled apples – 55g sultana’s – 3 eggs – 20g crushed hazelnuts – 50g cocos fat – 40g maple syrup – 3tsp pumpkin spices  – 5g baking soda – 3g baking powder
frosting: 250g thick greek yoghurt or french yoghurt – 4tsp coconut blossom sugar – lemon zest – handful nuts

How to
cake: Preheat the oven on 160 degrees. Grind (in a blender) the almonds and buckwheat to a flour type consistency. Mix the baking soda, baking powder and the spices with the flour mix. Then grind the carrots and apple separately. Mix them with the eggs, cocos fat, maple syrup, crushed hazelnuts. Then mix the dry and the wet mix all together. Place it in a baking tray in the oven on 160 degrees for at least one hour to 80 minutes. Take the cake out when it’s done, let it cool down and don’t forget to enjoy the autumn smell that comes out of your oven.
frosting: Start in the morning with this step (if you need the cake in the evening). Place 250g of thick yoghurt in a clean tea towel onto a sieve on top of a bowl. Leave it covered to strain for at least 4 hours. Now you have created labneh. Mix the labneh with the coconut blossom sugar (or any other kind of sweetener). Spread it on top of the cake. Sprinkle some coconut blossom sugar, lemon zest and nuts on top of the cake when you serve it up.

In case you don’t want to eat this cake in one go, I would advise you not to place the labneh on top of the cake immediately, but only when you are serving it up. That way both parts of this delicious cake will keep an optimal form until they are served. You can keep them both in a fridgerated area for three days or so. You can also freeze the cake separately for a longer period.

buckwheat cake

ENJOY!