Cinnamon Carrot Cake

Winter mornings...there is a real chill in the air...Ranchi is almost freezing. Well, one does not expect it of Ranchi…unfortunately, nothing is ever moderate.

The pictures have a few buds of sweet peas, shy in front of the sweetness of the cake and the prettiness of the cake too!Specs of red...the carrots...so good for your eyes and your tummy and your heart!

Everywhere you see there are piping hot cauldrons full of gajrellas-gajar ka halwa,moong dal halwas and gulab jamuns-for those unfamiliar with these yummy treats…Halwa is a dish in which an innocent vegetable or grain is slathered with massive quantities of pure desi ghee-clarified butter and sugar and cooked till it loses its identity and is awfully tempting. Let’s face it, who in their right minds will, in this biting cold and eat 2 kilos of carrots, when they can get the same amount of (only) fiber and an exponential rise in calories from a small bowlful of gajrella.

We, the crushed dieters need to refrain from such thoughts too. Even the thought of such fat and sugar laced food will pile on unnecessary calories. No amount counseling and diet plans from the venerable Atkinson or Dukan are going to help. So we turn to you guessed it-cake! At least its healthier…even Marie Antoinette advised her county men “Let them eat cake!”(Sic).

We follow….the queen!

Cinnamon Cake, with carrots.

The original recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine called for an equal amount of sugar –to the flour…hello, I halved it. Healthier, you can use sugar substitute…but the vegetable oil and eggs and the carrots are good. I used 400 gms of carrots, the cake could do with at least 150 gms more. Guilt free way of enjoying carrots, this way you get a lot more than the fiber…all the nutrients are in the cake…All the RDA of Vit A not lost to the gods of fire or mingled with the halwa makers sweat(yuck). I, with a nut hating son have to avoid the walnuts, but this time I really wished I could’ve added them. You don’t get into the could’ve been rut. Add some walnuts and appreciate the layered flavors’ of this cake.

Let’s not dawdle like old women and get to the task.

For the

Cinnamon Carrot Cake…

You need

3 cups/400 Gms shredded carrots

1 cup/125 Gms chopped walnuts

2 ½ cups/400 Gms plain flour

1 ¼ cup granulated sugar (my book said 2 cups-boo! Even this was a little too much. If you eat as much sugar as me then 1 cup will suffice.)

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon powder

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 170C/340F and grease and flour a cake tin. Aluminium, if you please, the silicon does not give any crusts. So no can do!

Simple…don’t need to process the sugar…even if a few granules don’t dissolve, little grains provide that yummy crunch…a sudden burst of sweetness…like a little light behind your eyes.

That’s the sugar into which the eggs have just been cracked.

A little bit of whizzing to fluff up the eggs.

Now pour the oil and vanilla into the egg and sugar mix. 

Next time I am going to substitute half the oil with buttermilk. (Read milk and vinegar mix- make it lower in calories, without removing the moistness.)

Meanwhile all the powders have to be sifted, twice if you feel up to it. Otherwise, once is good. Take it easy…all this is supposed to be stress busting and not wrinkle creating.

Add in the dry ingredients and mix gently.Three batches is good. I once tried to introduce a friend to baking and she would whisk or beat the batter like there was no tomorrow. When her cakes came out like cookies, she blamed me. Tell me, when the cake gives you so much pleasure doe sit deserve that kind of a beating? No! So, moral of the story, be gentle!

Once all the flour has been incorporated fold in the carrots and the walnuts.

As you can see no walnuts in mine. Also I increased the amount of carrots...almost 1 cup extra. I dunked the remainder of a pack of raisins and glace cherries…totally useless.

Into the now hot oven, almost 55 minutes to a hour. Check with a skewer to see if it is done. 

Let it cool in the tin for about half an hour an d then run a knife along the edges and turn it out.

That mes Amis…Is proof the that cake is well baked. See the bottom…couldn’t have been more perfect.

Sliced with my once lost bread knife….now found after languishing in a drawer of my least used cutlery. The aha moment.

Finally the sunshine…an ode to god’s bounty.

PS it was Makar Sankranti…yesterday…the Hindu New Year…so that’s one more reason to celebrate.

Sunshine and spring.

Happiness…without the extra ghee and the halwai’s (the halwa maker) sweat.

So what are you baking today???