Lisa’s Carrot Cake

I have been experimenting with non-wheat cakes and breads, since my cousin Kathy has a wheat allergy and some of my friends are avoiding gluten. Yesterday, I baked an old favorite carrot cake, using the non-wheat flour blend I got from the New York Times last fall, for Kathy's birthday. I made only half the recipe, since I wasn't sure how it would turn out, and there were only three cake eaters. It was terrific--as good as the original, I think. For the frosting, since Kathy also is allergic to dairy, I changed the frosting as well. Here's the basic recipe:

1¼ cups oil
1½ cups sugar or 1 cup honey (I used sugar)
3 eggs (for half the recipe, I used 2 eggs)
2 cups flour (if substituting non-wheat flour, add about 1/2 tsp. of Xanthum gum)
2 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. vanilla
2—2½ cups grated carrots
½ cup finely chopped walnuts
½ cup currants or raisins
(Optional: ½ cups dates, instead of raisins; 1 mashed banana; ½ cup coconut)

Combine sugar, oil and eggs. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon and then add to sugar mixture. Stir in vanilla, carrots, walnuts and raisins. Bake in two (three?) greased cake pans for 45-50 minutes at 325

Icing: Combine 1 stick of butter and 8 oz. cream cheese (both softened) and add one package of powdered sugar and 2 tsp. vanilla. Frost cake when cool.

I made my frosting recipe with about 1 cup of powdered sugar, 4 Tb. Nucoa margarine, about 2 Tb. soy yoghurt, and 1/2 tsp. of vanilla. A bit of lemon juice would have been good, too.