" Carrot saapidu! Kannukku nallathu!"
This is something we have grown up listening to. Right through my childhood, ( and a good part of my adult life), I have tasted carrots mostly in sambar ,avial, kootu or poriyal - As a standalone dish or to add colour or volume to the beans or cabbage poriyal.
Generally I have found South Indians preferring the taste of the orange Ooty carrots, and the North Indians swearing by their red winter carrots.
But orange or red, I really love eating carrots, and do love cooking them as well. Guests at my home would have surely tasted my pale orange Carrot Kheer for dessert, or the occasional carrot halwa.
Ever since I travelled to the North in the Winter of 2009 I have been captivated by the vivid images of roadside markets full of sarson , long tender radishes , and deep red sweet carrots. This winter, the day carrots hit markets in Gurgaon, I had decided to try my hand at a carrot cake.
Thanks to Google, and many nameless generous home-cooks across the world, I found numerous recipes with fab pics for this cake. Many called for almonds, Most mandated eggs. Finally, after spending a good two hours searching and thinking, I decided to take the plunge with my own recipe. The cake turned out pretty much ok.
1 1/2 cup grated Carrots,
1 cup powdered Sugar
1 cup Oil
1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder
(guess i should hv added a pinch of nutmeg too - but didnt have any)
1 tsp Orgran egg replacer powder
21/2 tbsp milk
1 1/3 cup Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
to Decorate: 1 tbsp almond slivers; a bit of butter
Preheat the oven to 400F (200 C).
Grease and flour/line an 6-inch cake tin.
In a bowl, the sugar and oil and beat well. mix up the egg replacer with milk and pour into the sugar / oil mix. Add the carrots.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and the cinnamon and nutmeg powders. Sift this little by little into the wet mix gently until it is completely incorporated. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove the tin from oven and quickly brush over the top of the cake with a bit of butter in room temperature - arrange almond slivers , push it back into the oven for another 6-7 mins.
Your cake is done when a knife or toothpick, inserted into the centre of the cake, comes out clean.
With this version you should get a cake that is soft inside with a mild crunch on the top.
Quite scrummy - perfect for a year end wintery cold night.
One question atleast 4 people have asked me is why my cake did not look orange?
Hey ! I used the red winter carrots here.
Also, most recipes had asked for 2-3 cups of carrots - I had added less, thinking it would be too much or make the cake dry. On hindsight maybe I was wrong!
There's always a next time. Though I think next time round, i'd replace carrots with beets, and catch a better camera for the pictures ;-)
This is something we have grown up listening to. Right through my childhood, ( and a good part of my adult life), I have tasted carrots mostly in sambar ,avial, kootu or poriyal - As a standalone dish or to add colour or volume to the beans or cabbage poriyal.
Generally I have found South Indians preferring the taste of the orange Ooty carrots, and the North Indians swearing by their red winter carrots.
But orange or red, I really love eating carrots, and do love cooking them as well. Guests at my home would have surely tasted my pale orange Carrot Kheer for dessert, or the occasional carrot halwa.
Ever since I travelled to the North in the Winter of 2009 I have been captivated by the vivid images of roadside markets full of sarson , long tender radishes , and deep red sweet carrots. This winter, the day carrots hit markets in Gurgaon, I had decided to try my hand at a carrot cake.
Thanks to Google, and many nameless generous home-cooks across the world, I found numerous recipes with fab pics for this cake. Many called for almonds, Most mandated eggs. Finally, after spending a good two hours searching and thinking, I decided to take the plunge with my own recipe. The cake turned out pretty much ok.
1 1/2 cup grated Carrots,
1 cup powdered Sugar
1 cup Oil
1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder
(guess i should hv added a pinch of nutmeg too - but didnt have any)
1 tsp Orgran egg replacer powder
21/2 tbsp milk
1 1/3 cup Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
to Decorate: 1 tbsp almond slivers; a bit of butter
Preheat the oven to 400F (200 C).
Grease and flour/line an 6-inch cake tin.
In a bowl, the sugar and oil and beat well. mix up the egg replacer with milk and pour into the sugar / oil mix. Add the carrots.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and the cinnamon and nutmeg powders. Sift this little by little into the wet mix gently until it is completely incorporated. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove the tin from oven and quickly brush over the top of the cake with a bit of butter in room temperature - arrange almond slivers , push it back into the oven for another 6-7 mins.
Your cake is done when a knife or toothpick, inserted into the centre of the cake, comes out clean.
With this version you should get a cake that is soft inside with a mild crunch on the top.
Quite scrummy - perfect for a year end wintery cold night.
One question atleast 4 people have asked me is why my cake did not look orange?
Hey ! I used the red winter carrots here.
Also, most recipes had asked for 2-3 cups of carrots - I had added less, thinking it would be too much or make the cake dry. On hindsight maybe I was wrong!
There's always a next time. Though I think next time round, i'd replace carrots with beets, and catch a better camera for the pictures ;-)
