We had some friends over the other night for dinner and they brought with them their juicer. We had the most amazing fresh squeezed apple, carrot, ginger and orange juice combination. Even the kids thought it was delicious. We decided that is the next kitchen gadget we will acquire. But along with all that great tasting juice, comes an awful lot of pulp. The question is, what to do with it all. Throwing it out just seems wasteful, but fruit pulp sprinkled with granola was not a tasty option (I know, because I tried it this morning…yucky!). After a little searching through the internet, I came up with this recipe for carrot cake using all that leftover pulp. I decided to leave out the eggs (make it vegan) and switch out the flour (make it gluten-free) for a new twist on a traditional recipe. Would it work or would it taste, as my kids like to pronounce by way of the famous Pink Panther Inspector Clouseau, “Dez,guuz,ting”. I am happy to report that the cake tasted amazing! A nice crunchy top with a super moist inside. Perfect! Give it a try!

Ingredients:
2 cups of gluten free flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
4 egg equivalent replacements
1 1/4 cup grape seed oil
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup of plain sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. ginger
1 cup finely chopped nuts (anything you like)
3 cups of carrot, apple and/or orange pulp (you can also use grated fruits/veggies here if you don’t have a juicer)

Directions:
(Preheat the oven to 450 F then turn it down to 325 F when the cake goes in the oven)
– Mix sugar, egg replacement, oil and vanilla till smooth.
– In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices together.
– Mix the pulp and nuts into the dry ingredients.
– Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix till just blended together.
– Pour batter into one large 10” pan or two smaller 8” pans or into muffin tins
– Bake for 1 hour (less time if using 2 smaller pans or muffin pans) till firm to the touch, then turn off the oven and leave it for 20 minutes or so.

Turn the cake out onto a cake plate and give it a light dusting of powdered sugar. Cool, slice, eat and enjoy!!!