Picture it, my living room, three or so years ago. I was at the tail end of an elimination diet (no sugar, dairy, or gluten), which I’d undertaken in desperation after having been told by my doctor that nothing was wrong with me. Yeah, right.

My carb-loving self was having a mean craving for anything cakey, and I didn’t know how long I’d be able to last if I didn’t get a cupcake or muffin in the very immediate future. Apprehensively, but hungrily, I made my way to the kitchen cupboard that contained my then tiny supply of gluten free baking ingredients. Having never baked gluten free before, I wasn’t sure what to make, but after flipping through my only gluten free cookbook at the time, Gluten Free Baking Classics by Annalise Roberts (still a favorite!), I decided on the carrot spice muffins. It’s amazing how easily I can justify eating several muffins or cupcakes in one sitting when they have something healthy like carrots in them.

I mixed up the batter, using these strange new ingredients and agave nectar as the sweetener, popped the muffins into the oven, and hoped for the best. Looking back, I think I can say that I was extremely lucky to have tried such a great recipe for my first gluten free baking adventure, because I knew after taking my first bite of that slightly spiced, moist muffin that it was completely possible to make something that tasted just as good (or better) than what I was used to in my pre-gluten free days.

As a result of my first experience baking gluten free, carrot-y baked goods still hold a yummy place in my heart, and this time around I tried the prize carrot cake recipe from Bette Hagman’s The Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods, which has become another of my cookbook favorites. Though I was intrigued by the fact that the original recipe called for a healthy amount of pureed green tomatoes, they’re not exactly easy to find in a city, so I replaced them with applesauce, which provided the same moistness, as well as a little bit of sweetness. I do wonder how different the flavor would’ve been if I would’ve used the tomatoes, because I can tell you that this cake was absolutely delicious even without them. Seriously, I think that this may rank in my top three favorite gluten free recipes. The texture was amazing, and boy was this cake ever moist, even after three days (that’s how long the cupcakes lasted) and even though I used the sugar free sweetener xylitol, which tends to suck the moisture out of baked goods.

I halved the recipe because I didn’t want to make a full cake, but you can double it if you want to make a three layer cake, which is what the original recipe made.