Flax Seed Carrot Cake

My cousins have been on a serious health kick as of late, and mom made this bread for Easter. Listening to the ingredients, I was afraid to taste it. I was pleasantly surprised though! It tastes more like a spice cake than carrot cake, and its not too bad for you. Also, the texture is more of a bread than cake, but the recipe title she gave me was "cake", so I went with it!

• Ready In: 55 mins
• Serves: 8
• Yields: 1 Loaf

Ingredients

• 3  egg whites (or Egg Beaters)
• 2⁄3 cup white sugar
• 1⁄4 cup low-fat milk
• 1⁄3 cup applesauce
• 1  teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1⁄4 teaspoon  almond extract (optional)
• 1 1⁄3 cups whole wheat flour
• 2⁄3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2  tablespoons flax seeds
• 2  teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1  teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄3 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1⁄4 cup raisins
• 0.5 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
• 1  cup carrot, grated

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil 9x5 inch loaf pan with vegetable cooking spray.
2. Whisk together the egg whites, sugar, milk, applesauce, vanilla and almond extract in a small bowl; mix until well blended. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, whole wheat flour, flax seed, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and baking soda. Mix the egg mixture into the flour mixture; stir until well blended. Fold in walnuts, raisins, carrot and drained pineapple. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (but not necessarily dry), about 40 minutes. Remove from oven and cool in pan 15 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.
4. **The flax seed may be omitted. This cake is best served chilled because of the moist quality.
5. **If you don't want to separate the eggs or use Egg Beaters, you could use 2 whole eggs.