Here is the video recipe:

Carrot and Dates cake is highly irresistible . Believe me….you would finish of it in one sitting if you have a chance to taste a bit. The cake is slightly chewy because of the carrots, almost blackish because of the caramel and dates and a perfect celebration cake. It is ideally a Christmas cake.

Bake  Carrot & Dates Cake in 3 steps:

Step 1. Prepare caramel syrup.
Step 2. Grate the carrots and chop the dates. I have cooked the dates by adding little water to make it soft. Cook the dates before you start measuring so that it will cool completely. If you need you can skip this step and add the chopped dates directly into the batter.
Step 3. Measure the ingredients and prepare the batter.

Make sure that you bring all the ingredients to room temperature before staring the baking process.

How to prepare caramel syrup?

The dark colour of the cake depends on the colour of the caramel syrup you prepare. The darker the colour of the syrup the darker will be the cake. I used to play it safe with caramel and always ended up with golden brown color caramel. But this time i decided to make it a dark caramel. When I tasted the caramel, it had a slight bitter taste and I was worried whether it’ll spoil the cake, but nothing like that happened & in fact I’m very happy with the color, texture & almost everything :)Make the caramel when you start measuring the ingredients because the caramel syrup has to cool completely before adding to the batter.

Place 1/2 cup of sugar in a heavy bottom pan on medium heat. Keep swirling the pan and once the sugar melts, turn the heat to low. Do not get tempted to increase the heat.

Let the color turn into a light amber color. Keep 1 cup hot water next to you.

After that, you will start seeing bubbles. Immediately add the hot water and mix with a spoon. When you add water it might splatter so be very careful.

Transfer into a shallow bottom heatproof bowl and cool completely before using it.

Method

1.Preheat the oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes.

2.Grease and line a 8 inch cake tin with parchment paper.

3.Sieve together the dry ingredients and mix them well. Keep this aside.

4.Take another bowl and beat the eggs. Add Powdered sugar and beat well.

5.Add Vanilla Essence, Vegetable oil and cooled caramel syrup and mix well.

6.Add the dry ingredients little at a time and mix only until incorporated.

7.Add Grated carrot and cooled dates and fold in to the batter.

8.Finally add the cashews and fold once again.

9.Pour the cake batter in the prepared cake tin.

10.Bake the cake in preheated oven at 180 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

11. Remove the cake tin from oven and let it cool down on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes.

12.Demold the cake by running a knife around the sides of the cake tin and invert the cake tin to a plate or wire rack.

13.Let the cake cool down completely before slicing it.

Carrot and Dates Cake Recipe

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour 5 mins

 

Author: Neena

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• Ingredients
• Flour – 1 Cup
• Baking Soda – ¾ Teaspoon
• Salt – 1 Pinch
• Caramel Syrup – ¼ Cup
• Refined Oil – ¼ Cup
• Cinnamon Powder – ½ Teaspoon
• Egg – 2
• Vanilla Essence – ½ Teaspoon
• Powdered Sugar – ¾ Cup
• Grated Carrot – 1 Cup
• Chopped Dates -1 Cup
• Cashews – ¼ Cup

Instructions

1. Prepare a 8-inch cake pan and line it with butter/oil and line a butter paper. Preheat the oven for 10 minutes at 180 degrees C.
2. Prepare caramel syrup: Take a pan and add ½ cup sugar and heat, when the color changes add 1 cup boiling water and stir. When it attains the texture similar to honey remove from fire. Allow it to cool
3. Add the chopped dates in a pan .Add ¼ cup water and cook the dates till it becomes soft and all water dries up.
4. Sieve the dry ingredients, flour, baking soda, cinnamon powder, and salt.
5. Beat egg and sugar until creamy. Add refined oil, cooled caramel syrup, and vanilla essence and beat until it is incorporated thoroughly.
6. Add grated carrot,cooked dates into this and mix
7. Now fold in the flour mix into the wet mix by two times.
8. Pour the batter in the prepared tin and tap the baking tin to release air bubbles if any. Spread the cashews on top and bake in a preheated oven for 30-45 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow it to cool for 5minutes before demoulding it.

Notes

To Bake Cake in stove top:
Preheat a kadai on medium flame for 10 minutes. Place a stand in the kadai and place the cake tin on top of the stand close the kadai and cook on medium to low flame for 30 -45 minutes or until tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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