There is an Indian dessert called gajar halvah that’s typically a toothachingly sweet, bright orange pudding of cardamom-infused carrots. I’ve always loved the idea of it, but I’ve never been able to re-create it with sugar levels that I could actually consume and enjoy. This gorgeous special-occasion cake a recipe gifted to me for this book by my friend Carla Blades takes all the best parts of that dessert and transforms them into a carrot cake that may look like your average carrot cake, but is anything but. The combination of pureed cooked carrots and grated raw carrots creates an incredibly tender and moist cake. It’s not too sweet, and the cardamom and ginger perfume the whole thing. The fat here is ghee, which is similar to clarified butter, and it leads to a light and clean taste that is a total surprise if you’re used to traditional heavy carrot cake. You can easily make ghee at home (see this page), or you can buy it prepared at a grocery store. Or, if you would like to use a substitute, try it with melted butter or coconut oil.
Ingredients
- 1½ pounds carrots (about 6 large), peeled
- Unsalted butter, for greasing the pans
- 1 cup golden raisins or currants
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1¼ teaspoons ground cardamom
- 1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 1 cup ghee, melted
- 1½ cups unsweetened grated coconut
- ⅔ cup roughly chopped walnuts
- 1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
- ¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
- ½ to 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- Edible marigolds, pansies, nasturtiums, or violets, for garnish
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Make the Cake
- Grate ½ pound of the carrots through the grating disk of a food processor or the large holes of a box grater; you should end up with 2 packed cups of grated carrots. Slice the remaining carrots into ½-inch rounds and transfer them to a saucepan. Cover the sliced carrots with water, bring to a boil, and cook until the carrots are tender, 6 to 7 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and use a slotted spoon to transfer the carrots to a food processor fitted with the chopping blade or to a blender, leaving the hot carrot-cooking water in the pan. Blend the cooked carrots into a rough puree. If they don’t break down, add a few spoonfuls of carrot water and blend again.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease two 9-inch cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment, and grease the parchment.
- Add the golden raisins to the hot carrot water. Let soak for at least 10 minutes, then drain through a strainer.
- Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom in a medium bowl.
- Whisk together the brown sugar and eggs in a separate large bowl. Whisk in the vanilla, ginger, ghee, and pureed carrots. Add the flour mixture to the sugar-egg mixture and stir with a few swift strokes to combine. Fold in the coconut, grated carrots, golden raisins, and walnuts, if using. Divide the batter between the prepared pans.
- Bake in the middle of the oven until the cakes puff and pull away from the sides of the pans, and a cake tester comes out clean when inserted in the center, 20 to 25 minutes. Let the cakes cool for about 20 minutes in the pan before turning them out on a wire rack to cool completely. Make the Frosting
- While the cakes cool, Combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment until fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in the salt, vanilla, lemon, and ginger. Add the confectioners’ sugar in ¼-cup increments, scraping down the bowl and tasting after each addition to bring the frosting to your desired sweetness. Continue to beat until the frosting fluffs up a bit more, 1 more minute.
- Place one cooled cake layer upside down on a plate or cake stand. Use a silicone or offset spatula to spread a generous layer of frosting over the top of the cake layer, spreading it all the way to the edges. Put the second layer right-side up (so the two flat sides meet in the middle). Pile the remaining frosting on top of the cake, smoothing it out over the top and leaving the sides naked. Leave unadorned, or decorate with the edible flowers, if desired.
