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Every year for Christmas, I try to post a cake recipe that is an alternate for traditional Christmas Fruit Cake. I've come across many people (including Jose) who aren't a big fan of raisins. So this cake recipe is for all those people :)
Dates is something I love and have on a regular basis. I love it's caramel toffee kinda flavor. Adding dates to the cake makes it moist and rich. I've already posted some other dates cake recipes, but this one is different.
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This is almost like a fruit cake but without raisins. It has dates, carrots, orange, nuts and some spices. It's very apt for the season. The dates and carrots make the cake moist and rich with a subtle orange flavor laced with a hint of cardamom and cinnamon.
I do hope you'll enjoy this wonderful cake. Btw, if you're looking recipes for holiday baking, here are some of my fav ones…
Orange Pound Cake
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Christmas / Xmas Fruit Cake/ Kerala Plum Cake
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Eggless Kerala Christmas Fruit Cake
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Dates And Butterscotch Self Saucing Pudding
This classic self saucing pudding is very simple and easy to make. The dates and butterscotch flavours work really well.
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Sticky Toffee Date Cake
JUMP TO RECIPE Print Recipe
Mocha Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake
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Carrot Dates And Orange Cake
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Author: Maria Jose Martin
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups Plain Flour (maida)
- 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 1 inch piece Cinnamon
- 6 Cloves
- 6 Cardamom
- 1/2 tsp Grated nutmeg
- 1/2 cup Semolina (rava)
- 2 cups Chopped dates (measured after chopping)
- 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 1/4 cup Water
- 2 cups Grated carrot (measured after grating)
- 100 gms Chopped cashews and walnuts (refer notes)
- 2 tsp Vanilla essence
- Juice of 1 orange
- Zest of 1 orange
- 1.5 cups Powdered sugar (you need 1 cup regular sugar to get 1.5 cups powdered sugar)
- 1/2 cup Vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
- 3 Eggs (@ room temp)
Instructions
Preheat oven at 180 C, 10 mins before baking. Grease and line(with parchment paper) two 7 inch cake tins.
Soak dates in 1/4 cup water and 1/2 tsp baking soda for 1 hour.
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Using an electric beater, mix the powdered sugar and oil, till it's combined well.
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Separate the egg yolk and whites. Add the yolk, one by one, to the sugar and oil mixture. Beat well after each addition.
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Add soaked dates, chopped nuts and grated carrots to the above mixture. Mix well using a wooden spatula or manual whisk.Add vanilla essence, orange juice and zest to the above mix and combine well.
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Powder cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Add grated nutmeg to this and mix well. Combine together plain flour, baking soda and the spice mixture. Sift this and add to the batter along with semolina.
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Beat the egg whites till a stiff peak forms. Add this to the cake batter and fold in gently, till no white traces are visible.
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Transfer this to the prepared cake tins and bake in the preheated oven for 35 – 40 mins or till the tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
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Notes
I used a combination of cashew and walnuts, however you can use any nuts of your choice like almonds, pecans etc;
You can bake this in a single cake tin, if you've a 10 inch deep baking tin. The baking time may vary depending on the size of your tin.
Tried this recipe? Let others know by…mentioning @mariasmenu or tagging #mariasmenu
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SOME OF THE BEST RECIPES FOR YOU TO TRY:
Have you tried these today?
- Happy Easter / Christmas!
- Kerala Beef Fry
- Kerala Christmas Fruit Cake / Kerala Plum Cake
- Orange Pound Cake
29 thoughts on “Carrot Dates And Orange Cake”
Hi Maria, The addition of semolina is interesting. How does it affect the texture?
Reply
Hi Aney,
It adds a slightly nutty and coarse texture to the cake.
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Hi Maria,
I’m planning to use this recipe but substitute maida with gluten free flour. Can we use the same measurement of maida for gluten free flour. The gf flour has xantham gum that gives good binding.
I had slight doubt about the measurement to be used.Reply
Hi Deren
I havent baked with gluten free flour yet, so am not familiar with how it works. If you usually substitute plain flour with GF, you can follow the same qty here also.
Reply
Hi Maria, Christmas Greetings! Hope you can help me with this, I’d like to halve this recipe, while most ingredients seem straight forward, what about baking soda? (you’ve listed it twice, so 1 tsp in total?) Thanks.
Reply
Hi Elza,
Yes, it’s given twice – one is used while soaking dates and the other is used along with the flour. So, halve the qty given in the measurements :)
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Hi Maria
No baking powder in recipe right? Also can we use “Musambi” (1 full for zest and juice)Reply
No, if it’s there I’d have mentioned in the recipe :) Also, I haven’t used Musambi, so I am not sure about the taste.
Cheers
MariaReply
Hi Maria
One more to go. For Cardamom, did you use only the seeds to powder or both the green part and seeds as well?
Reply
hhmm sometimes I use both, sometimes just the seeds. It’s ok either way but if you are using skin, make sure you powder it really nice.
Cheers
MariaReply
Hi Maria
Your recipes are really nice and well explained. Would like to try the above cake. But for dates, what type did you use -is it the “dry ripe” ones (I meant non-sticky type)? Or maybe you are aware here in gulf we also get slightly sticky/ moist packed dates packets.Reply
Thanks, Shiji :) I used the dried dates, non-sticky ones. Happy baking :)
Cheers
MariaReply
Thanku Maria. Can we use the big orange (Musambi) 1 no. full as juice and zest?
Reply
Can’t wait to try this recipe. Can I use unsalted butter in place of oil?
Reply
Thanks Anna :) I havent tried it with Butter yet, but I guess you can use same qty of melted butter instead of oil. Hope it comes out well and you like it.
Cheers
MariaReply
Hi Maria,
Looks really good !
How do you get this finishing in sides?Reply
Hi Bigi,
I grease the cake tin generously with butter :)
Reply
For orange and carrot cake….I want to try with half measure…..but how to go with half if 3 eggs
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Hi Indu,
Crack open the eggs and whisk them. Weigh them and take half of it. Hope you enjoy the cake. Happy baking :)
Cheers
MariaReply
Hi Maria,
Tried this recipe.turned out great…
Thank U so much…Reply
You are welcome Elizabeth :) Great to know that you liked the cake. Thanks for leaving a comment here.
Cheers
MariaReply
The cake looks really moist and I am excited to try it as the recipe doesn’t call for any dairy. I am always in the lookout for such recipes as my son is allergic to dairy. Thank you for this recipe!
Reply
Thank you so much Deepthi :) I do hope you got a chance to bake this for your son.
Cheers
MariaReply
Can I make this with wheat flour? What are the changes I need to do? Also would prefer eggless
Reply
Hi Brinda,
I havent tried it with wheat flour, I guess you can, but the texture may be different. I’m sorry I dont know how you can make it eggless.
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Much awaited recipe. Thank you so much Maria. Happy Christmas to u.
Reply
You are welcome Manju :) Thank you so much for the wishes and wish you too a Merry Christmas!
Cheers
MariaReply
Beautiful looking cake Maria. Please be kind to also give the ingredient measures in grams. Would really appreciate it.
Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to u all.Reply
Thanks Gracy :) Please check out the below link to see cups to grams conversion.
http://dish.allrecipes.com/cup-to-gram-conversions/
Thanks for the wishes and wish you the same :)
Cheers
MariaReply
