Freshly Milled Sourdough Carrot Cake

I do my best to use every bit of the groceries we buy—which means that giant Costco bag of organic carrots always gets some extra attention when we’re nearing the end of a grocery haul.

One thing I love about carrots is how long they last. One thing I don’t love? Sometimes I completely forget they’re hiding in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator.

The other night we were running low on groceries. If you’ve read my post about how we meal plan, you know our philosophy is simple: use what we have and make it work. Thankfully, those carrots came to the rescue. For dinner I made honey-glazed carrots, opened a jar of our home-canned baked beans, and pulled some frozen pork chops from the freezer. It wasn’t fancy, but it was a delicious meal made almost entirely from what we already had.

After dinner, I realized I still had a pile of carrots that were on their last leg. I figured I’d peel them all and decide what to do with them afterward.

Then my daughter who has a love for baking, and a never ending sweet tooth, had the perfect idea.

She absolutely loves baking, so she suggested we make a carrot cake. Somehow I had completely forgotten that my birthday was the next day, but she certainly hadn’t. She decided we’d celebrate with homemade carrot cake. It was such a sweet little surprise.

We shredded about three large carrots using the shredder attachment on our KitchenAid mixer (I absolutely love that thing!), and got to work.

If you’re wondering what happened to the rest of the carrots, I sliced them into sticks and stored them in a large Mason jar filled with water. They’ll stay crisp all week and make the perfect snack dipped in our homemade ranch.

But back to the cake—because I know that’s why you’re here.

For this recipe, I used freshly milled spelt berries that I ground in my home grain mill. I love using freshly milled spelt because it gives this cake a soft, tender crumb with a subtle nutty flavor that pairs beautifully with the carrots and warm spices. Of course, you can choose your preferred grain as well. 

I chose coconut oil because it creates an incredibly moist cake without adding a noticeable coconut flavor. I wanted an oil I felt good about baking with, and everything I read suggested butter doesn’t produce quite the same texture in carrot cake. If you try it with butter, I’d love to hear how it turns out! I may experiment with that myself someday.

Instead of cinnamon, I reached for pumpkin spice (I love to get it from here). It just felt right, and I don’t regret it one bit.

And of course, we topped it with a classic cream cheese frosting.

If you’ve been around here for a while, you probably know I don’t enjoy frosting that’s overly sweet (or bread that’s overly sweet, for that matter). Don’t get me wrong, I love sugar, but I think so many baked goods today are sweeter than they need to be.

In fact, I think I could probably reduce the sugar in the cake a little more. I’ll keep experimenting and update this recipe if I find a version I love even more. If you try reducing the sugar, let me know how it goes in the comments!

As always, I used panela in place of brown sugar (which we buy here), and it never disappoints. It has become my favorite brown sugar substitute by far—so much so that I even stir it into my morning coffee. I love to stock up on it while it’s on sale at Azure. 

We mixed the batter in our KitchenAid mixer and only dirtied one bowl! We first measured the whole grains into the mixer bowl, then poured them into the grain mill. Using that same bowl, we mixed together all of the wet ingredients. When it was time to add the dry ingredients, we simply milled the fresh flour directly over the wet mixture, added the remaining dry ingredients, and mixed just until everything was incorporated.

I hope your family loves this cozy, freshly milled sourdough carrot cake as much as ours did. 

Why you’ll love this carrot cake:

• Made with freshly milled flour
• Uses sourdough starter (discard or active)
• Perfectly moist
• Lightly spiced with pumpkin spice
• Not overly sweet
• Great way to use up extra carrots
• Option to fully ferment the batter

Can You Ferment This Carrot Cake?

Of course you can ferment this recipe! Simply mix the batter, cover it, and pop it in the refrigerator overnight before baking. You can also let it ferment for a couple of days if you’d like an even longer fermentation. When you’re ready to bake, stir in the baking powder and baking soda, then bake as directed.

If you love baking this way, you’ll love my ebook, Freshly Milled & Fermented. It’s packed with our family’s favorite freshly milled, long-fermented sourdough recipes—from everyday sandwich bread and tortillas to bagels, pizza rolls, and more. My goal is to make baking with fresh-milled flour and sourdough feel simple, approachable, and something you can easily fit into your everyday rhythm.

I hope it inspires you to slow down, enjoy the process, and fill your home with nourishing food made from scratch.

As always, feel free to join my Facebook group, join my newsletter or follow me on instagram! Thanks for reading!