I know i have been missing from action for a couple of days now. The past few days has been hectic, exciting, tiring and fun filled. The past few days has been so exciting, simply because it is that time of the year. The time for Christmas, The time to end 2013 and welcome 2014 and the time for our annual trip to India. Oh yes!!! I am all set for Bangalore and I can't tell you how happy and excited I am. The mere thought is seeing my mom, grand mom, baby sis, my niece and my in laws fills me with joy!!
The past few days were spent in fever of anticipation . There was a lot planning, a lot of shopping and a lot more baking done. It seemed like my oven never went cold. I baked ginger biscuits and the Italian Panforte to be given away as edible gifts (the recipe will be posted soon). Apart from these, I also baked this carrot cake.
To me, this cake is one of the best cakes I have baked so far. For an eggless version, this cake is incredibly moist and light. I have made this cake quite a few times now and each time, I have got rave reviews. This dessert gets it sweetness from the carrots and condensed milk and lightly spiced with the flavor of cinnamon. I feel that the use of cinnamon lifts the flavor quotient of the cake to a large extent.
I know that some carrot cake enthusiasts swear by the cream cheese frosting to go with the cake. But I some how prefer the whipped cream. I feel that the whipped cream frosting does not overshadow the taste of the cake and allows the flavors of the cake to shine through. But honestly speaking, this baked goodie does not need any frosting. The can be savored whilst warm by sprinkling some icing sugar on top.
So if you are looking for a delicious, eggless and relatively healthy cake this holiday season, then this cake is the one!!
Carrot cake recipe:
Preparation time- 30min
Baking time: 35min
Makes- 1, 8" cake
Ingredients:
All purpose flour- 2 cups or 480ml
Baking powder- 1 tsp
Powdered cinnamon- 1 tsp
Baking soda- 1/2tsp
Salt- a pinch
Butter- 6tbsp, melted
Sweetened condensed milk- 1 tin or 14 Oz
Finely grated carrot- 1 cup
Ground almonds- 1/2cup
Thick butter milk- 1/2 cup
vinegar- 1tsp
Toasted and slivered almonds to decorate (optional)
For the whipped cream frosting:
whipping cream- 1/2 cup, chilled
Castor sugar- 3tbsp
A dash of vanilla essence.
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180 C. Grease an 8"cake pan with butter and line with baking sheet.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Toss the grated carrot and ground almonds and keep aside.
- In another bowl, combine the melted butter, condensed milk, butter milk and vinegar and mix till the mixture is light
- Fold in the flour mixture into the butter milk mixture and mix till well combined.
- Add two tbsp of water if you feel the mixture is dry.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake in the preheated oven for 30-35min or till an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan for five min before transferring the cake to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the whipped cream frosting:
- Combine the whipping cream, sugar and vanilla in a chilled bowl and beat till soft peaks form.
- Spread the frosting over the cake and serve immediately.
Notes:
- I sifted the flour first and then measured.
- You can omit the frosting completely and serve the cake warm with icing sugar on top.
looks so soft and moist
ReplyDeleteLooks delicious
ReplyDeletewow they sure look the best carrot cake :) fantastic clicks :) and super delicious carrot cake !!
ReplyDeleteamazing photos!!! the cake looks yummy
ReplyDeleteCake looks super fluffy! !! Bookmarked to try this festive season! !!
ReplyDeleteHi tried this jus now..but my cake is white...how did u get the dark color
ReplyDeleteMy husband loves carrot cake...thank you for the great recipe! I am bookmarking it.
ReplyDeleteHave a safe and fantastic trip to India!
Sounds delish. What is the other option for evaporated milk? The recipe says milk or ?
ReplyDeleteGreat idea. I like this cake. I want this in my next birthday.
ReplyDeleteHi Christina,
ReplyDeleteI used condensed milk in the recipe not evaporated milk. for some reason, I had forgotten to mention the weight. I have updated the post now. Hope this help. Let me know if you have any other queries.
Hi Ranjani,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you tried the cake. The color was from the carrots that was used. I guess the variety of carrots used will makes a huge difference!!
Hey, for how long did you preheat the oven? did you use a convection type oven. i'm relatively new to baking and i have a convection oven.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot of visiting my space Tejaswi. I am glad you liked the recipe. As for preheating the oven is concerned I am assuming that you are using a microwave convection oven. As far as my knowledge about microwave convection oven goes, it's not necessary for the time to be set. Just set the temperature andayou would want to bake the food in and press start. The microwave would start preheating and and beep to a stop when it has reached the required temperature. I hope this information will help you. If you have any questions, then do not hesitate to aske me.
ReplyDeleteHow muchis a cup? Can you please tell me how much quantityin grams. I'm a novice Baker.
ReplyDeleteone cup is 240gms. This measurement makes a 9" cake. You can easily half the measurement if you want a smaller cake. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
DeleteI tried this caje andit came out very well. Thanks for the fantanstic recipe . I am goung to try chocolate cake eggless version today.
ReplyDeleteIs there a substitute for condensed milk?
ReplyDeleteIs there a substitute for condensed milk? I am afraid it will be too sweet with condensed milk.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my space Christina. The use of condensed milk will not make the cake too sweet because I have not used extra sugar. The cake gets the sweet taste from the carrots and the condensed milk. And I assure you that the condensed milk will not make the cake overtly sweet. But if still want a substitute, then you can try mixing 1/2 cup of sugar to a can of evaporated milk and heating it till it is fully dissolved. I have not tried it personally. So I am not sure of the outcome. But you ca try it and give me your feed back. Let me know if you have any queries about the recipe.
DeleteGreat looking recipe. Buttermilk isn't a regular ingredient in the UK. Will thick natural yoghurt work as a substitute?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your feed back Milady. If butter milk is not available, you can combine 3/4 cup of thick yogurt along with 1/4 cup of wear and use half of it in the recipe. Or you can add a tea spoon of vinegar to 1/2 a cup of warm milk and set it aside for 20mins or so. If you are following the vinegar method, then you can omit using the half a tea spoon of vinegar mentioned in the recipe. Do give this recipe a try and let me know about the out come. :)
Deletehow much of carrots do you use???
ReplyDeleteI grated about 3 medium sized carrots to get 1 cup
DeleteCake looks yummy!
ReplyDeletei am vegan can i use a substitute for the butter and condense milk?
ReplyDeleteI have not given vegan version a try but you could try substituting the butter with earth balance and the condensed milk with vegan condensed milk. I have a couple of links that has recipes for making vegan condensed milk.
Deletehttp://www.veganbaking.net/recipes/sauces-syrups-spreads/sauces/condensed-soy-milk
http://arismenu.com/brown-sugar-sweetened-condensed-coconut-milk/
Do give it a try and let me know about the outcome :)
ok thank you,the cake looks so good
ReplyDeleteHi! I tried this recipe and it was superb. Only change that I made was to substitute half of the quantity of butter with olive oil. Next time am planning to replace butter with oil. Truly an awesome recipe! Thanx!
ReplyDeleteHi! I tried this recipe and it was superb. Only change that I made was to substitute half of the quantity of butter with olive oil. Next time am planning to replace butter with oil. Truly an awesome recipe! Thanx!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Nalini! I would love to give your version a try when I bake this cake the next time :)
DeleteThanks alot Nandita... i did bake d cake n it turned out to be extra yummy and delicious.... moreover it ws healthy n egg free...
ReplyDeleteGosh! You just made my day appu. Thank you so much :)
DeleteHiii! Can i use a substitute for butter?
ReplyDeleteHi Risha,
DeleteYou can substitute butter with vegan butter. Or you can try replacing it with olive oil. One of the reader's has left a comment saying that she substituted half the butter with olive oil. You can try doing that and let me know how it turns out.
I substituted half butter with normal refined oil. And the cake turned to be a really lovely and tasty. Everyone in my family just loved it. Thanks a lot.
DeleteI am so glad that the cake turned out well. You just made my day by Risha :)
DeleteI've never made an eggless cake - what an interesting (and tempting) idea! Love carrot cake and this one looks lovely. Thanks for stopping by our Happy Holidays Link Party - be sure to join us again this week (beginning on Saturday at 7 pm ET) and every week through the holidays.
ReplyDeleteI tried the cake and out turned out to be the best ever cake. Thanks for the amazing recipe.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sunshine!!!
DeleteInstead of using buttermilk, can I use low-fat yogurt, and is it possible to not use condensed milk? Thanksv
ReplyDeleteHi There,
DeleteIf buttermilk is not available, you can try using low fat yogurt but dilute the yogurt with a little water. If you do not want to use condensed milk, then try mixing half a cup of sugar to a can of evaporated milk and heating it till it is completely dissolved. I have not given this version a try. But it will be extremely helpful if you can try it out and give me your feedback. Let me know if you have any questions about the same :)
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Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI tried making the cake, the batter was almost like a wet dough, is it alright and the cake also turned out to be quite heavy and dense, is it how its supposed to be?
I am sorry that the cake didn;t turn out as expected for you. The consistency of the batter should be quite loose. When you pour spoonful of batter, it should drop off the spoon in slowly in a gloop. Adding a couple of table spoons of water would have thinned the batter.
DeleteTried this recipe yesterday as a surprise birthday offering for my daughter. The cake came out very well and looked awesome. The moistness could have been better for which I will use more water next time. Quite a fool-proof recipe - thanks for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteYou brought a smile to my face with that comment Sukanya. Thank you so much!! A very happy belated birthday wishes to your daughter :)
DeleteTried this recipe today. Came out pretty good except for the edge which was dry. Please can you tell why this happened. Btw thank you so much for the recipe 😊
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for trying the recipe Priya. It sure is flattering. As for the dry edges, it could be because of the over heating of the oven. I had read somewhere that dark pans also cause the cake to dry out in the edges. If this is the case, then I suggest baking the cake at 180C for the first 10-15mins and then reducing the temperature to 160C. This should tackle the problem of the dry edges. If you bake this cake next time. Let me know how it turns out :)
DeleteYour cake looks superb, definitely going to try
ReplyDeleteThank you Deeksha :)
DeleteDear Nandita, I tried the cake. There is some problem with dry to wet ingredients proportion. I used 480gms flour. I mixed all the dry ingredients seperatly and wet seperatly. While mixing, added dry to wet. Half way through, I felt the dough has got the cake dough consistency. I stopped. Have put the cake for baking. Will update once the cake is out of oven.
ReplyDeleteHey it took 1 hour 20mns to get done. But tastes great. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteHi Nandita, your cake recipe has been copied by Hebbar's Kitchen. They have kept most of the ingredients same but changed some. Key ingredients essential for right baking where their proportions are important have been kept the same, like baking powder, baking soda, sugar, buttermilk, condensed milk, carrots, vinegar and salt. They have used whole wheat flour instead of All purpose flour and Olive oil instead of Butter. The rest of the ingredients have been reduced. Its a shame that these plagiarists lift recipes and change a few things and then make videos. Cleverly copying recipes is their Modus Operandi. Do check and see what you can do.
ReplyDelete