Carrot Cake

In Europe, carrots have been added to sweet cakes since the Middle Ages. This is because other sweeteners were difficult to find or too expensive. And carrots, like beets, contain enough sugar to make baked goods sweet. It is believed that the popularity of the carrot cake was revived in England due to food rationing during World War II. Many carrot cake recipes include additional ingredients like nuts, raisins, pineapple, or coconut. And to make the taste of carrots less noticeable, spices are added to the dough - vanilla, citrus zest, nutmeg and ground cinnamon.