Ashwatham: Carrot Cake

This rich and moist cake, full of grated carrot and toasted nuts, has great flavour. You just can’t stop with one bite. The interesting part is that while those pretty orange flecks of grated carrot give the cake colour and texture, along with sweetness and moisture, its flavour is almost indistinguishable. This is a healthy cake as it is made up of carrots, almonds and dates which are rich in nutrients and also natural sweeteners and require less sugar. Note that you may need to bake the carrot cake a few minutes longer than the plain cake.

Carrot cake with dates and almonds

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

Plain Flour – 150 gms
Sugar – 100 gms ground into fine powder.
Spreadable Butter – 150 gms (Room temperature)
Grated carrot - 3/4th cup
Almond flakes - 3 tbsp
Pitted dates chopped - 3 tbsp
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Butter, sugar,grated carrot,plain flour,eggs,pitted dates,Almond flakes

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F / 180 degrees C/ Gas Mark 4 and place rack in centre of oven. Butter or spray two 7 - 9 inch cake pans or line the bottoms of the pans with a circle of parchment paper.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour and baking powder and set aside.

In another bowl, beat the eggs until frothy (about 1 minute with electric mixer or about 4-5 minutes with hand mixer). Gradually add the sugar and beat until the batter is thick and light colored (about 3 - 4 minutes). Add butter bit by bit and then beat in the vanilla extract.

Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. With a large spatula or flat spoon fold in the grated carrots, dates and almond flakes.

Folding the grated carrot,almonds and dates into cake mixture

I have used the below cake pan. Cake tins or pans come in a variety of depths, sizes and shapes for baking the perfect cake. A spring form pan is a cake tin with an expanding sidewall, which is clipped shut during baking and unclipped afterwards to remove the cake. It's also useful for making cheesecakes.