Carrot Bundt Cake

Did I ever admit that my first cake was baked in a pressure cooker? Yeah, you heard this right. Not steamed, but baked in a pressure cooker. That was when I was without any oven and it seemed like a long intense urge to bake a cake out of sheer desperation. I must have seen or heard it somewhere that one could convert the cooker to an oven and I set out to recreate the same in my kitchen that day.

For the ones who heard or secretly saw me fiddling in the kitchen with sand and pressure cooker, would surely quote me to be insane to have baked this way! Just imagine, collecting sieved fine sand from a construction site, preparing the cooker for baking, spreading sand in the base of the cooker (to provide proper circulation of heat around the vessel), covering the cake vessel (oh yeah, didn't have a proper cake tin at hand and used the vessel that came with my cooker!) neatly with foil, made a paper cone, filled it with sand, tipped the cone edge, covered the sides of the cake vessel with sand evenly using the cone, murmured a short prayer, put everything together, baked for close to 45 mins on low heat without pressure whistle... with restlessness in me while it was being baked, prayers on my lips, in trepidation, anxiety on my face while bringing that cake out, that was one hell of a job.

Equipped with basic ingredients for my first cake, that too a chocolate one, I went ahead to bake it daringly this way. It wasn't an easy task, that too risking with a pressure cooker was too daring of me, if I am to think about it today. I still wonder what made my thoughts go so whammy that day! And if you were curious to know if the cake was a disaster, I would say it wasn't disappointing for my first attempt! Though the edges were over baked and I had to scale them, the centers were otherwise good!

That was my last attempt at something as weird as this one. I have an oven now and have come a long way since then. It's been fun making cakes with varieties, though I haven't had much luck with frosting except in this one, owing to the low fat cream which we get here that never holds shape even if I were to whip it to eternity! Any help from you guys would be welcome ;)

I made this carrot cake recently and it was absolutely adorable. I was loaded with compliments on this. The recipe has been adapted from here with no changes.

Carrot Bundt Cake

INGREDIENTS

3 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins
2 eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, combine grated carrots and brown sugar. Set aside for 60 minutes, then stir in raisins. You will notice that during the standing time, the carrots would leave out water. Don't discard this.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour the bundt pan.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs until it's light and fluffy. Gradually introduce the white sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir in the pineapple. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, stir into the wet mixture until absorbed. Finally stir in the carrot mixture and the walnuts. Pour evenly into the prepared pans.

Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, until cake is done when tested with a toothpick. Cool before removing from pan. When completely cooled, you can choose to frost or leave it.

This was the first time I baked a cake in a bundt pan. I had a little trouble removing the cake from the pan despite greasing and dusting it well. Do share a few tips on removing the cake the right way from a bundt pan as I had to juggle with removing it.

I had carrot cake recently on one of our adventure trips. It was indeed so good that I could hardly wait to try them myself. I haven't tasted any other carrot cakes, except for the one on this trip. So, when I came across making the cake myself, I can only agree that it can be termed as the 'best ever carrot cake' and that's exactly what the original recipe was titled.

The cake was moist and perfectly balanced with fruits, nuts and spices. We loved the cake when served warm. I just loved that hinted sweetness from carrots and brown sugar. I left it unfrosted as most carrot cakes say that cream cheese is the best frosting and that option was just not viable. A dollop of ice cream may add that extra icing on the top!