COLLAGEN PROTEIN CARROT CAKE (PALEO)

February 22, 2019

The carrot cake obsession continues! Carrot Cake is my absolute favorite cake – I get it every year for my birthday and have made so many healthy renditions as well. This scrumptious collagen protein carrot cake has all the sweet spices, moist carrot, and rich cream cheese frosting you could ask for… all dairy-free, gluten-free, and Paleo!

Did you know? While it has many health benefits, collagen is not particularly high in leucine, which is the rate limiting factor for protein synthesis in muscle tissue. So, don’t rely on collagen for your post-workout protein!

Collagen recommendation

Collagen is the main source of protein in this decadent protein carrot cake. I used LIV Body Marine Collagen in this cake. Flavorless is key because you don’t want other flavors messing with your carrot cake bliss! I love LIV Body because they use highly bioavailable wild-caught marine collagen. You can use my code NOEXCUSES for 20% off all LIV Body products!

If you don’t have collagen, you can substitute an additional six tablespoons of gluten-free baking flour or cassava flour (Paleo), or three tablespoons of coconut flour.

Other protein powders

I have not tried whey, casein, or plant-based protein powder in this recipe, so I cannot vouch for the result. Baking with protein powders is very finicky! That said, I have a separate recipe for Protein Carrot Cake Bars using vegan protein powder, and Carrot Cake Protein Slices using whey. I wasn’t kidding when I said the carrot cake obsession continues! 😉

Flour recommendations

I have tested this recipe with both cassava flour and gluten-free baking flour. You should also be able to substitute regular all-purpose flour, fine oat flour, sweet white sorghum flour, or white whole wheat flour. The coconut flour can be substituted for twice as much of any of the aforementioned flours (one-quarter cup).

Sweetener recommendations

For this recipe, I really like a brown sugar sweetener for richer flavor. You can use something like Lakanto Golden, Sukrin Gold, Swerve Brown, Truvia Sweet Complete Brown, or a monk fruit brown sugar alternative. Baking stevia, granulated erythritol, granulated monk fruit, or a granulated sugar like coconut sugar will also work, but won’t taste as rich. If using stevia extract or drops, please refer to the brand-specific conversion chart! You can also use coconut sugar or regular brown sugar if you don’t care about the extra calories and sugar 🙂

Other notes

I’ll admit I like my spices strong in carrot cake, so if that’s not you, feel free to use half as much! You can also swap the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves for two and a half teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice if that’s all you have (it won’t be the exact same, but close).

I just love the creamy almond butter in these! However, feel free to swap it out for cashew butter or sunflower seed butter if you prefer.

Cream cheese frosting

Last but not least, the dairy-free cream cheese frosting! I used Kite Hill, an almond-based cream cheese for this recipe after trying Tofutti and not really liking it. The only drawback is Kite Hill costs twice as much! I also like Simple Truth (from Kroger) and Miyoko’s vegan cream cheese. If you’re not dairy-free or Paleo, feel free to use reduced fat cream cheese or Greek cream cheese for similar macros.

I used Swerve confectioner’s erythritol to sweeten my frosting because it’s all-natural, virtually calorie-free, and is very similar to powdered sugar in taste and texture. Feel free to use half as much Pyure Organic Stevia Blend (or Truvia), or an equal measure of powdered sugar or powdered monk fruit sweetener.

Here’s the printable recipe for this Collagen Protein Carrot Cake! I hope you’ll rate and comment below if you try it 🙂

This post contains affiliate links and is sponsored by LIV Body.

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