Saturday, January 21, 2012

Carrot Cake & Frosting & an Update


If you have extra carrots laying around, and a spare full dozen of eggs- then here is the perfect recipe for you. This, of all the SCD carrot cake recipes I found, appealed to me the most because it only uses 1 & 1/8 cup of [coconut] flour and it makes an entire 9x13 pan of cake. Perfect for entertaining even non-SCDers. Here is the original recipe & here is what I did:

1 cup honey
1/2 cup melted butter
12 eggs
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 1/8 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
3 cups shredded carrots (about 6 medium)
handful of walnuts & raisins

I shredded my carrots in about 10 seconds with my Vitamix and chopped my walnuts in my Vitamix in literally 1 second. Mix all the ingredients together, saving the flour, carrots, walnuts, and raisins for folding in last.

Grease a 9x13 baking dish with some olive oil (i use my fingers and about 1/2 tablespoon of oil) and pour in the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees until a toothpick comes out clean or you can touch the top and it bounces back.


To make frosting:

1 cup Greek-dripped yogurt
1 cup honey
1/4 to 1/2 cup butter

Mix well, enjoy. I like this recipe and will be making it again, although my cake didn't have a lot of flavor. Maybe I will try using the entire 1 cup of butter the original recipe calls for next time; but it provides the cake-y texture you tend to crave.




As for me, I have not written anything about my health in a while so if you care to know here it goes: In my most recent updating post I wrote that I started seeing a naturopathic doctor. This has helped more than I thought it would. Staying on SCD was making me better, but at such a slow pace I was concerned. My doctor told me to limit my fruits to only 2 servings a day, and not to eat fruit in conjunction with any other food. I also learned that I am hypoglycemic meaning that my blood sugar  levels spike and drop all of the time. For this I am supposed to eat something every 2 hours (which I have no problem with!). I started taking some Standard Process Whole Food Supplements (okra pepsin, an enzyme, and chlorophyll) which are supposed to help digest foods and clean out the walls of the intestines where the inflammation that is the result/cause of Crohn's hides. It took about a month but after I started taking these supplements in conjunction with my diet I started noticing good changes. My loud noises that I used to get rumbling in the bottom of my stomach, that are as embarrassing as anything, are gone. Once in a while I will hear something but it is like once a week and only for a second compared to everyday for hours on end. I have more energy. The case used to be I could select one or two chores to accomplish each day and that would be all that I could handle, just short of passing out. I would get a few things done and then be stuck on the couch the rest of the day on the edge of falling asleep. Now, for example, I have spent the last couple of days running errands and cleaning my house non-stop. It's wonderful! I did get tired about mid-way through the second day of doing chores but I know I am still sick- this is an improvement though. And most exciting [for me] of all- the bleeding is almost completely gone. Even through my entire 9 month journey of SCD I still had frequent blood loss associated with Crohn's. This is disappearing. Since I have started taking these supplements I can say that I notice this symptom very rarely, if at all. In addition bathroom trips are as they should be, without pain, frequency, urgency, or nastiness. Yay!

Per the advice of my doctor I also had a hair analysis done. If you are not familiar with this then please Google it. Basically I took a sample of my hair and sent it into a lab to get it evaluated for minerals and elements that are essential to our bodies functions. Turns out I have a serious Zinc overload, way too much aluminum, and even some mercury. I wasn't getting nearly enough salt and so the other compounds my body needs like calcium, manganese, etc, are not getting into the cells that need them. To fix this my doctor told me to eat Celtic Sea Salt everyday (other salts are washed and void of any nutritional value), eat 2 Brazil nuts for vitamin E everyday, and added one more supplement (Congaplex) to my regimen. On it's own this supplement contains many non-legal ingredients but I trust the advice of my doctor (after seeing these kind of results) more than a book written for everyone. I hope to continue to see good results and hopefully at my next 3-month visit I will be able to incorporate some raw foods into my diet (?). We will see.

14 comments:

  1. NOTE* The second time I made this cake I pureed the carrots instead of shredding them, it turned out wonderfully! They cake had the consistency and taste of half cake/half pumpkin pie. You really can't go wrong with this recipe!

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  2. This recipe looks like something I'd like to try..I just read your post on how you were feeling, and can understand what you've been going through in a sense, because my husband has gone through pretty much the same thing. Your symptoms are soo familiar. He began the scd diet back in august of 2010.When he started he was very sick, and losing a lot of blood. Within 4 wks. he was beginning to feel slightly better. By November he was feeling great, but around Thanksgiving he ate things that messed him up and he paid for it =( He then stuck to it strict and by January was feeling more normal than he had in yrs. Today he is fairly normal,with no bleeding, and can eat most of what he used to before ever being sick, but he tries to stay on the diet for the most part so that his insides will stay healed. I hope you continue to feel better & hang in there! =)

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  3. This cake is amazing.Thank you!!

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  4. I dont know if you will ever see this comment. But i too have been on SCD for my Crohns for the past 9 months with no cheats!! I had very high hopes of it healing me, but I too still am very up and down with blood loss and diarrhea.. I am off all my meds- which is great, but just wish I would feel better. Should I continue it? Can you advise me on what you did- to make you feel great. I would love to email you if possible.. Let me know the best way to contact you. I am feeling very defeated right now.
    PS. your chewy raisin cookie is my favorite.. i am looking forward to trying this cake this wk.
    Take care :)

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    1. First of all congratulations on making it 9 whole months on this diet without cheating. I do know how you are feeling right now though, still having blood loss and I'm sure occasional other symptoms. I have to disclose that I am far from being a doctor- I can only speak to you from experience. It's a very frustrating situation to be in but I encourage you to keep going with the diet! Think about the alternative options- meds that you know only make things worse or just leaving your Crohn's to get worse is not a good idea. Check out my facebook page :https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eat-With-Your-Eyes-SCDPaleoGAPS and you can send me a message through there. I try to check the page daily so if you would like to speak some more please feel free. I am so glad that you found a recipe that you love on my site- it's encouraging to know we are not alone in this journey to health. Look forward to hearing from you!

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    2. I am new to this site, but wanted to share that a friend of mine was experiencing similar symptoms of rapid blood loss. They could not figure out what was the cause, so they kept giving him transfusions. Upon hearing about his issues (while I am not a doctor) I suggested he try aloe to heal his intestines, within a few days of starting on it, he was feeling much better. It has now been over 6 months and no need for anymore blood transfusions. Here is the link to the aloe he used: http://www.shop.com/cslivingwell/603891601-p+260.xhtml?vid=243396 I'd love to hear if it works for you, send me an email at cslivingwell@gmail.com

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  5. Hi, Made this once already and it tastes great. However I just couldn't believe it was 4 tablespoons of cinnamon and tablespoon of nutmeg and I only used 4 teaspoons and 1 teaspoon. Can you clarify for me please? Thanks so much!!

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    1. Sorry for the confusion Kathy.
      I believe I had written about the cinnamon I used a few posts back- for some reason the flavor of my cinnamon in extremely weak and I have to use a lot. I also love cinnamon so I use more than what's normally called for in any case. I'm glad you caught that and your cake turned out!

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    2. Thanks for clarifying :) I have made this a couple of times now and it is my favorite treat!!! So nice to have something that tastes so good as an option. I made with 2 cups carrots and 1 cup crushed pineapple and pecans instead of walnuts for a variation and was yummy too. Thanks for sharing this recipe!

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    3. That variation sounds great Kathy! Yummm!

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  6. just wondering can you substitute coconut flour with almond flour? (home made !) I used magic bullet to really chopped them till they so fine almost like flour wondering if anyone ever tried

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    1. You would want to use this coconut flour conversion chart:
      http://relishscd.blogspot.com/2013/01/coconut-flour-conversion-chart.html
      But I'm sure it would taste just as good!

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  7. Made this today for my daughter's Birthday party. Substituted coconut oil for butter to make it dairy free and used 1 1/2 cup carrots and 1 1/2 cups apples. I made a dairy free caramel dip for icing. It's was a big hit with all of the kids! Thanks! Here's what I did: http://goodformytummy.blogspot.com/2014/04/apple-carrot-cake.html

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  8. What does SCD stand for? Some of us are not familiar with this abbreviation. When I googled I got this: http://www.acronymfinder.com/SCD.html
    Thanks for putting lots f energy into sharing recipes,

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