Carrot and almond cake (whole wheat, no eggs)

Its been two weeks now and I have managed to keep up to my resolutions so far, which is no mean achievement. Writing about it here makes feel more accountable in a way !

For Uttarayan / Pongal / Sankranti yesterday, we had a complete South Indian meal at home and then were out for kite flying in the afternoon. The older areas of Ahmedabad are absolute fun during this time. The people are on their terraces the entire afternoon and evening. After all the kite flying and eating, its time for tukkals. The tukkals or paper lanterns with lights are sent up once it starts getting dark and its really a beautiful sight. Then there are the fireworks and of course the garba which I think the locals can't resist after a point, whatever the festival may be !

I have no pictures of the mega meal yesterday, was too famished to take pictures before lunch and then we went out soon after that. Here's a healthy whole wheat eggless carrot cake, that is really soft and almost like a gajar ka halwa in a cake !



My hyper little kid has started learning football now, which is a great way to get all that energy out. It really helps that the football ground is opposite our apartment and I can watch him play from the balcony. Its amazing that my little one is 7 already. Time seems to move really fast and from the tiny little baby that he was, he has suddenly grown so much, so fast. The last couple of years is when he has really grown and I realise it only when his pyjamas are suddenly way above the ankles !



I prefer giving him something healthy and filling when he is back from football and decided on a wheat cake. Now is the season for the sweetish, red carrots, which are a little too sweet to make sabjis with, so I added it in this cake, with a little almond meal and some chopped almonds and raisins.
My cousin who has the most adorable twins who are about a year and half now, was on the lookout for some healthy filling snack for her little ones. I think these would work well even for the little ones.
I was worried the wheat would make it really dense and there's no butter in this either, but the cake turned out really soft. You could even add a banana along with the carrots.



Carrot and almond wheat cake

What you need -

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup almond flour (use ground almonds instead)
(If you don't want to use almonds, just add another 1/4 cup whole wheat flour)
1 1/4 cups grated carrot
3-4 tbsp sugar (the carrots were sweet enough, you can add more if required)
6-7 almonds (blanched and chopped)
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt

What you do with it -

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C
Grease a 8" baking dish (I used a long narrow loaf pan)
Mix the wheat flour, almond meal, baking powder, salt and baking soda and mix well
Mix the sugar into the milk till it dissolves completely
Add the grated carrots to the milk and the add the flour mixture to it
Add the raisins and almond pieces and mix well
Bake at 180 C for about 35-40 mins till it is browned well. Push a toothpick in the centre and it should come out clean if your cake is done
Allow it to cool and then cut into pieces. It should store well in the refrigerator for at least 4-5 days