Thursday, December 31, 2009

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

15 comments:

  1. What a lovely and healthy cake, looks so good :) Wish You a Very Happy New Year!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very beautifully baked. Happy New Year to you and your family.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yummy cake..Happy new year to uuuuu.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cake chennagide ri. Happy New Year to you and family :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Awesome & healthy cake!!looks so good..Wish u & ur family a Happy & Prosperous New Year!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wish you and your family a very Happy New Year!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Happy new year!! I loved the post on frosting... Me a fan of whipped cream frosting..

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wishing a very Happy and Peaceful New Year to you and your Family!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have never tried putting coconut in my cake... should try. Looks great.

    Happy new year.

    Are you also Kannada/Konkani?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Beautifully baked cake... I shalltry with flaxseed meal substitute.

    Happy New Year.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lovely cake. Can I make this in a regular rectangular cake pan? Am doubtful if 3 cups of flour plus other ingredients will fit into the rectangular pan. Can you please confirm... I want to make this tomorrow morning :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Swapna,
    Yes. You may make it in 13 X 9 pan. This cake doesn't rise much so you should get a full pan. Good luck.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I made this yesterday and it turned out awesome. Thank you Champa :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. looks healthy, can we make it eggless and avoid using coconut, my son does not like the coconut taste.

    mamta

    ReplyDelete
  15. Mamta,
    Yes. Leave out the coconut and use flax eggs in place of eggs. 1 TBSP of ground flax seeds mixed with 3 TBSP of warm water and set aside for 5 minutes in place of one egg.

    ReplyDelete

If you have a question and you leave it as a comment, I'll surely answer the question to the best of my knowledge. Thanks for visiting.