#recipe: Purple carrot cake

I owe this recipe to my sister-in-law, Victoria. Thank you!

The cake was delicious as Victoria first baked it, but I think my small changes have made it a fraction healthier. But then, who cares about healthy?

Where I have strayed slightly from the ingredients or quantities, I have given the original ingredients or quantities in brackets afterwards.

Let’s do it!

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup raw or caster sugar
• ½ cup oil* — peanut or olive is fine [1 cup]
• 1 cup self raising flour plus 1/3 cup almond meal [1/3 cup wholemeal flour]
• 1/2 teaspoon Bi-carbonate of soda [1 1/3 teaspoons]
• 1 tablespoon plain yoghurt [optional in the original recipe]
• 1 1/3 teaspoons cinnamon — i.e. LOTS!
• 2 cups peeled and grated purple carrots — about 3 big ones [approx. 2 big orange carrots]
• [optional] ½ cup sultanas tossed in flour
• [optional] 1 cup chopped walnuts

* 1/2 a cup of oil will result in a lighter, drier, fluffier carrot cake. If you like yours more traditional, experiment with the amount of oil you add, bearing in mind that 1 cup is probably the maximum, while 1/2 a cup is the minimum.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150 C [Fanbake] or 300–325 F
2. Lightly grease and flour a 19 cm ringform cake tin
3. Break whole eggs into the mixing bowl and beat until frothy
4. Continue beating as you add 1 cup of sugar to the eggs, a bit at a time. Beat well between each addition. The egg mixture should become light in colour, thick and fluffy.
5. Continue beating as you add the oil.
6. Remove the bowl from the mixer and sift the flour, bi-carb and cinnamon onto the egg mix.
7. Fold in.
8. Peel and grate the carrots just before adding them to the cake to stop them from going ‘greenish’ during cooking.
9. Fold in the grated carrots
10. Fold in the yoghurt
11. Pour the cake mix into the prepared tin and sprinkle with almond flakes.
12. Place in the centre of the preheated oven and bake for approx.. 1 hour.
13. At the end of the hour [and not before!] test the cake with a skewer. The skewer should be a little greasy but not wet or sticky.
14. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to stand in the tin for about 5 minutes.
15. Turn the cake out onto a wire cooling rack.

Serve at room temperature with cream, ice cream or just plain. Or if you’re like us, eat as soon as it comes out of the pan to enjoy the sweet, slightly toffee-like crunch of the outer ‘skin’. Once the cake cools, the skin loses it’s crunch.

The Offspring and I found no difference in taste using purple vs orange carrots, and as you can see from the photo, the purple carrots do not turn the whole cake purple so you can serve it without your guests ever knowing it’s a ‘healthy’ option. ;)

Bon appetit!

Meeks