When I was a child, I used to go on day trips in the woods with my parents. They would teach me about nature, we would walk a lot with our dog and we would have packed lunch. As it happened on most trips, I ate part of my packed lunch as soon as we started the car. I don’t know what is it about car trips but this happens all the time – it still does now even when I go on trips by train with my husband, if we have a sandwich half of it is going before we get to our destination.
One of the things we often used to carry with us on our autumn-winter trips was pain d’epices – a very spiced sweet bread that tasted like festivities. So since we are in festive mode, why not try and bake my own version? I had never baked it before and I decided to try and make a healthy and light version, so I used carrot puree instead of a fat and water instead of milk and some other healthy tricks.
The doses are for a small-medium bundt tin. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did, it is totally guilt free and super delicious and festive!
For the spiced dough:
220 g flour
2 tbsp date syrup
60 g coconut sugar
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground star anise
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cinnamon
40 g marmalade
20 lime marmalade
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
6g baking powder
Pinch baking soda
Pinch salt
130 g Water
130g carrot puree
1 tbsp coconut oil
10 chopped walnuts
Mix all the dry ingredients, including the spice mix, sifting the flour well. Then add the carrot puree and the marmalades. Finally, add the coconut oil ,the walnuts and the water. Pour it carefully in order not to make the dough too runny.
For the cinnamon cacao dough to swirl in:
20g cocoa powder
20g brown sugar
1 tsp coconut oil
40g flour
40g water
Use the same procedure, mixing powders first and liquids afterwards. Sift the cocoa well because it tends to make lumps in the batter.
Pour the main butter in the bundt tin, after having greased and floured it, and the carefully pour the cocoa butter, swirling lightly with a butter knife.
Bake at 175C for 45/60 min and then check whether it’s ready.
For the pomegranate lemon glaze:
1 tbsp lemon juice
Half a pomegranate juiced
1 tsp beetroot powder
100g icing sugar
2 tbsp coconut milk
Mix the coconut milk with the icing sugar, then add the rest of the liquids bit by bit in order not to have it too runny. Glaze the cake and let it set, then decorate with candied peel and fresh pomegranate seeds.
If you try to make this let me know here or on instagram @cake_files_ !
Enjoy! 🙂
Miri's Cake Files 