Black Sesame Carrot Cake Loaf

Enamored by the food at Sqirl, the California eatery in Silverlake, I bought their cookbook and have cooked my way through it. While I won’t be visiting it anymore since their molded jam scandal (I cringe even typing it), the book is solid and I’ve cooked my way through it. This carrot cake loaf with ginger and loaded with black sesame seeds is really perfect to start the day if you cut out a lot of the sugar, which I’ve done in this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

• 2/3 cup coconut sugar

• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

• 1/3 cup unsweetened oat milk

• 2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 3/4 tsp sea salt

• 2 large carrots (200 g total), grated

• 3 T black sesame seeds

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the inside of a loaf pan and lightly dust with flour.

Mix the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon.

In another bowl mix the coconut sugar, applesauce, oat milk, ginger, vanilla, and salt.

Fold in the flour mixture to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Then add the carrots followed by the oil.

Scrape the batter into a pan and covered the top completely with the sesame seeds.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until fully baked. Test by sticking a toothpick into the center of the cake and make sure it comes out clean.

Let it cool (if you can wait) before cutting into so it holds its shape.