Eggless carrot cake

I do believe I'm beginning to get rather fond of my eggless baking book! Another ridiculously easy cake that tastes wonderful - can you believe there's no beating or creaming or any such hard work involved? It's a one-step cake. Basically, get all the ingredients together, mix 'em and shove into the oven for about 40 minutes.

As is usually the case, I did make a few changes to the original recipe to make the cake more "Indian" tasting - with an added tip remembered from a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook. Basically, to substitute some of the butter with 2 tbsp ghee for that carrot halwa taste without having to suffer the smell of cooking carrots.

For certain my mother's enjoying my baking efforts. For all that she moans that she'll put on all the weight she lost in India (by being unwell), it doesnt stop her from "sampling" my eggless cakes. I'm going to try and make as many from the book as possible while she's here... and eventually see if I cant adapt other cake recipes to be egg-free. It's going to be a slow journey but who cares!

The next thing I'd like to try is a pressure cooker cake, suggested by Vijayalaxmi Hegde in a comment on my previous post. I know there are some Chinese-style pressure cooker cake recipes around, but those arent what I want to try just yet.

Anyway, for now here's how to make my spicy eggless carrot cake.

Recipe for: Carrot cake



Ingredients:

1 heaped cup AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp soft butter (I used 2 tbsp ghee and 2 tbsp butter)
1-1/2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup yogurt
1/4 cup chopped nuts - I used pistachios and pecans
1/4 cup sultanas
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
a large pinch of cardamom powder

Method:

1. Grease a 6" square pan. Preheat the oven to 180C(350F).

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a big bowl.

3. Add the ghee/butter



yogurt



and sugar



and mix. The batter will be quite thick at this point.



4. Add the grated carrots, ginger, spices, nuts and sultanas.



5. Mix well. The moisture from the carrots should make the batter a little loose, but if it seems still too thick, add a little more yogurt and mix again.



6. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a wet spatula or with your hand.



7. Bake at 180C for 40 minutes or till the cake tests done. Let the cake remain in the pan for 10 minutes.



8. Loosen the cake from the sides of the pan, if required, and turn out onto a wire rack to cool.



9. Cut into squares or rectangles when cool. Store in an airtight tin.