Carrot Coconut Cake

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We were invited to a New Year get together. It was a potluck and I picked to make a cake. Party was at 7.30 PM and at 3 PM, I still didn't know what I am going to make (it is very not like me. I plan ahead for the week completely a week before). I started looking through my never ending collection of cook books and I chose a recipe called 'Carrot Loaf Cake' from 'Southern Living Cakes Cook Book'. It had so much of oil in it, I started making a note of my modifications. When I gathered the ingredients, I came short on some, so added something else. The  original recipe had no coconut in it. It had drained crushed pineapple and I used sweetened coconut in its place. Result was a completely different low fat cake that looks so good that we are trying hard not to slice it and start eating. The recipe calls for egg, but can be easily substituted with flax seed meal. I usually don't try to convert a recipe into egg less unless I have already made it with eggs and have liked the way it bakes up. So, next time I'll make it egg less so that I can eat it too. Here goes the recipe..

Ingredients:

1. Sugar - 2 cups
2. All purpose flour - 3 cups
3. Baking soda - 1 tsp
4. Salt - 1/2 tsp
5. Ground cinnamon - 1 tsp
6. Coarsely grated carrots - 1 1/2 cups
7. Peeled grated apple - 1/2 cup (Optional. Increase the grated carrots to 2 cups if omitting this)
8. Sweetened shredded coconut - 1 cup
   
9. Vegetable oil - 2/3 cups
10. Applesauce - 2/3 cups
11. Eggs - 2 beaten
12. Raisins - 1/2 cups
13. Chopped walnuts - 1/2 cups
14. Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
15. Almond extract - 1/2 tsp
16. Lemon extract - 1 tsp
17. Confectioner's sugar - 2 TBSP for dusting (optional)
    

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 9 or 10 inch tube pan or a bundt pan. You can make these into loaves. You'll get two standard loaves or 3 small (not mini) loaf cakes out of this measurement. I used a tube pan. In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix oil, sugar, applesauce. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add the extracts. Fold in the grated carrots, coconut and apple (if using). Slowly fold the flour mixture and at the end fold in raisins and nuts. Batter will be very thick. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 55 minutes to an hour till done (by toothpick test) if using the tube pan. If baking in a larger loaf pan, it might be ready between 45 and 50 minutes. Let stand in baking pan for 15 minutes and then invert to the cooling rack. Cool completely on the wire rack. Dust with confectioner's sugar (if desired) and serve.

Happy Baking!! Pin It