Carrot/Gajar Halwa Cake
Carrot Halwa Cake recipe lives up to the name, it has the most delicious flavor of ghee, cardamom, and creaminess from milk, and it’s frosted with delicious cream cheese. Easy to make and full of fresh carrots. Its soft and perfect teatime snack frosted with cream cheese.
It’s perfect way to use up all the beautiful seasonal carrots you find at farmer’s market. I prefer red carrots when they are in season, as Gajar Halwa with red carrots is so delicious. The regular orange looking carrots are also all good.
This cake is a fusion bake with Indian carrot halwa or gajar ka halwa. Gajar means carrot and halwa is like pudding.
WHAT IS HALWA?
So, halwa is an Indian dessert made with so many variations and different ingredients. Some halwa recipes are made with semolina, or whole wheat flour. Some with carrots or squash. I have shared the zucchini halwa recipe and zucchini halwa cake as well earlier on the blog. Check it out. It’s equally delicious recipe.
You have ever dined at Indian restaurant you have definitely tried Gajar Halwa. This cake is made from gajar halwa as a main ingredient. But if you do not have ready made gajar halwa, you do not need to worry. There are fewer different ingredients that regular carrot cake does not have in them. They are ghee, milk and cardamom. Once you try this recipe you will love it. I have explained everything thoroughly about halwa in the Gajar Halwa post.
HOW TO PREPARE THE CAKE
The cake recipe is just like any other carrot cake. Once you make the halwa, let it cool down completely and then incorporate it in the bread batter. Or use leftover halwa. I haven’t tried it with store bought halwa. But I am sure you can try it. If you do not have halwa, you can still use the ingredients of halwa and make it. You do not need to cook down the mixture of carrots like halwa as it will be baked into a cake. It will work out. Other than the halwa part, overall recipe is one bowl recipe. You don’t need too much of equipment.
Ingredients
The recipe has dry ingredients like flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar. The wet ingredients are oil, egg, and milk as part of the halwa. We have spiced it with cardamom. I have added some nuts inside the cake and garnished it also on top. I love the addition of sultanas and nuts, because halwa also has same garnish.
The cake is soft and delicious as it is, but carrot cake without cream cheese frosting does not taste same. For Zucchini Halwa cake, I used crème fraiche. If you like crème fraiche and do not want to add cream cheese, that’s an option too. You can also use mascarpone cheese, whipped cream, or melt some white chocolate on top, or just do sugar glaze. Whatever floats your boat. I could not stop eating the cake itself, no kidding. Then, I loved it more with the cream cheese.
This cake is so perfect for any occasions, Mother Day is coming up. I wanted to post the recipe before easter as carrot cake is perfect for all Easter celebrations. You can also garnish it ghee roasted nuts to make it extra special by adding the edible silver leaf and sprinkle with some rose petals. There you have an elegant looking easy not so perfect looking cake ready. Plain cake can be served with some vanilla ice cream too. I just want you to have a lot of options.
HOW TO STORE THE LEFTOVER CAKE
Like any other quick breads, this can be stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
You can freeze the loaf as well, tightly wrapped up in plastic wrap or foil. Just add the cream cheese whenever you are ready to serve.
Gajar Halwa Base
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp ghee
- 3-4 tbsp cashews sultanas or raisins, almond, pistachios
- 1 ½ -2 cups carrots grated
- 1 cup Whole milk
- 1/3- 1/2 cup Sugar
- ½ tsp cardamom powder
- ¼ cup milk powder
- Optional – rose petals saffron, edible silver leaf
Instructions
- Wash the carrots very well with water. Grate them using a grater or you can also use food processor. Hand grated is better for texture. Use larger holes of the grater.
- Heat up ghee in a heavy bottom pan on medium temperature. Once the ghee is slightly hot quickly stir the dry fruits and remove them. You just want to get them to brown a little bit. Do not burn them. Leave them aside.
- In same ghee, add grated carrots and keep stirring until all the moisture has evaporated or gone from the carrots. Once the moisture is gone, add the milk and keep cooking until the mix is thickened. Keep stirring in between, do no leave it unattended.
- Once the milk has reduced, add in the sugar, cardamom powder and milk powder again keep stirring. Sugar will release some water, so it needs to be cooked further until the mixture is thickened and starts leaving the sides of the pan. You will also observe the ghee being released on the sides of the pan.
- Once the extra liquid has evaporated. Anyways it will be baked further.
- Mix in the cardamom powder, and ghee roasted nuts. Leave some nuts to garnish if you like. Optionally you can garnish the halwa with some dried rose petals, gold or silver leaf.
- Let the halwa cool down completely before adding it to the cake batter.
Notes
- The amount of sweetness can be adjusted. Taste it once sugar has dissolved, to add more sugar.
• It stays well in the fridge for few days and can easily be frozen few a month.
Carrot Halwa Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar halwa also has sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup neutral oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/4 cup carrots halwa
- 1/4 cup mix nuts and raisins
- 4 oz. cream cheese
- 2-3 tbsp confectioner’s sugar
- ¼ tsp cardamom powder optional
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 350 F. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and grease it well with butter or ghee.
- In a mixing bowl, add oil, sugar and 1 egg, stir it well using a whisk. You can also use kitchen aid mixer with paddle attachment and make the batter. Add in the dry ingredients – flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cardamom powder.
- Add in the prepared halwa and finely chopped nuts. Reserve some nuts for the topping. Pour the prepared batter in the loaf pan and bake it for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean and the top of the cake looks golden.
- Once the cake comes out of the oven, let it cool for few minutes in the pan and then transfer it to a cooling rack. Cool it completely before slicing it.
- If you plan for the light frosting – Whisk ¼ cup of cream cheese with confectioners’ sugar and cardamom until thoroughly mixed in or any other frosting you are using, spread it with the help of a cake spatula and garnish it with ghee roasted nuts, silver leaf, rose petals etc.
- Serve it at room temperature for best texture.
Notes
- The recipe should have only 1 cup sugar, so if you add half of it in the halwa then, only add half in the bread/cake recipe. If you add extra, it would be too sweet in my opinion.
• Make sure the halwa is completely cooled down or at warm temperature when you add it to the batter.
• Substitute egg with yogurt or condensed milk.