Carrot cake is, without a doubt, the best cake in the world. (Objective, moi?)

Carrots were first used in desserts in the Middle Ages for inexpensively adding a natural sweetness - but traditional carrot cake is where true food alchemy happens, with spices and walnuts folded into the batter to give it an unmistakable richness, and lemony cream cheese icing to lift the flavour even higher. It's moist without being sticky, and it's dense without being stodgy. It's a luxury cake that demands a dessert fork.

Carrot cake is fun to make and very, very hard to get wrong (i.e. to end up with something truly inedible). It's also a decadent treat that is fairly easy to make healthy.

Talk about a mission statement: The World's Best Carrot Cake from Asheville, North Carolina, produces handmade 3-layer carrot cakes using organic ingredients. There's even a vegan option - that is, made without using butter, eggs or cream cheese.

Unfortunately for me, they only deliver in the U.S. But I like to whip up my own healthy carrot cake from time to time, so if you're in the mood for a treat this weekend, here's the healthy recipe I fancy.

Image: bloggyboulga