Ingredients
- This cake is a cross between a traditional American carrot cake and Carrot Halwa, a very popular dessert in India made with roasted carrots, cardamom and Mawa or milk solids. Also called Khoya or Khawa you can buy these milk solids that resemble a soft crumbly cheese, fresh from a Halwai (sweetmeat maker) or frozen in an Indian grocery store.
- The combination of sweet carrots, salty Mawa and cardamom is addictive.
- 1/2 kg red carrots, washed, scraped and shredded on medium fitting
- 1 tbspns melted ghee
- 150 grams Mawa or Khoya solids
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 eggs at room temperature
- 1.25 cups vegetable oil
- 1.5 cups granulated sugar or castor sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground seeds of cardamom powder or cinnamon powder
- 1/5 teaspoon powdered nutmeg
- 2 cups all purpose flour or Maida
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons ground almonds
- 2 tablespoons dark raisins
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Spread carrots on a baking sheet and bake on middle rack about 15 minutes until carrots have lost some of their water content and smell fragrant. Remove from oven and let cool completely.
- .Set baking tray in lower rack.
- Combine Mawa solids with ghee and cook in a non stick skillet on medium heat stirring constantly until mawa is warm and a little bubbly. Cool and reserve.
- Sift flour, powdered spices, dark raisins, almond flour and sugar.
- Add eggs, oil and vanilla and whisk thoroughly.
- Add Mawa and stir. then add carrots and stir again to ensure carrots and Mawa are well distributed.
- Add a tablespoon of boiling hot water to the baking soda and stir it into the batter.
- Pour into a 12 by 9 inch baking tray. Baking 1.5 hours until edges of the cake start pulling away from the pan. Insert a toothpick in the center to check if the cake is baked through.
- Cool completely and cut into squares.
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