Soft, moist dates and carrot cake

Healthy Carrot and Dates Cake

Let’s make one of my most favourite cakes – a super-tasty Dates and Carrot Cake: This is a healthy carrot and dates cake in which part of the maida (all-purpose flour) is replaced with whole wheat flour. So one more good reason to check it out.

But this is not just a healthier version, but also a tastier one, for it has the right proportions of the star ingredients – carrots and dates, and also includes chopped nuts. You could use either cashew nuts or walnuts as these go well with dates and carrots. The smaller bright orange carrots are best suited for this delicious and moist dates and carrot cake.

This incredibly tasty and healthy carrot and dates cake would make an excellent Easter cake, and even a good choice of Christmas Cake. So do give it a shot. You’ll love it, and so will your family. You might find one more healthy Pat-a-Cake recipe interesting – a healthy Banana Bread that’s soft and packed with flavour.

Ingredients

1 cup + 2 tbsp (140g) maida

¾ cup (90g) wheat flour

1 ¼ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

4 cloves, ground

½ tsp ginger powder (or grated ginger)

¾ tsp grated nutmeg

1 ¼ tsp vanilla extract

⅓ tsp salt

1 cup + 2 tbsp (235g) granulated sugar, ground coarsely

(Or 235g fine castor sugar)

3 eggs

1 cup + 1 tbsp oil

¾ cup (120g) chopped dates

6 tbsp chopped cashew nuts (or walnuts)

1 ½ cup (130g) grated carrot

For the caramel:

½ cup + 2 tbsp (130g) sugar

2 tbsp water

¼ cup warm water

Procedure

1. Prepare the caramel. Mix the sugar and 2 tbsp water in a thick-bottomed vessel or sauce pan. Cook this on medium heat till all the sugar dissolves and the sugar solution just starts changing colour. After that, reduce the heat to low. Some of the sugar may crystallize but it will get caramelised as you continue heating it. At this stage, you need to stop stirring the sugar solution and swirl it around gently instead till the caramel becomes a clear liquid and starts deepening in colour. Now you could resume stirring it. As soon as you have a deep enough caramel, turn off the heat. Then, immediately but carefully stir in the warm water, a little at a time. Be careful. Caramel can be very hot. Let the caramel syrup cool.
2. Whisk the maida, wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda together. Sift this mix. Stir in the salt, ground cloves, ginger powder, and grated nutmeg.
3. Chop the dates finely and mix these with 2 tsp of the flour mix.
4. In a mixing bowl, whisk the sugar and eggs well.
5. Add the oil (any neutral flavoured cooking oil) and vanilla extract, and whisk again.
6. Fold in half the flour mix and half the caramel syrup. Fold in the remaining flour mix and the rest of the caramel syrup.
7. Fold in the chopped dates, chopped cashew nuts, and grated carrot.
8. Adjust the consistency of the batter with a little water, if necessary.
9. Pour it into a greased, parchment paper-lined loaf pan (10″ x 4 ½”) or an 8″ round pan.
10. Bake at 170 C (340 F) for around 60 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
11. After 45 minutes, cover the cake pan with a sheet of parchment paper or aluminium foil to prevent the top from burning and becoming stiff.
12. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for around 30 minutes. Then loosen the sides and take the cake out of the pan.

Enjoy!