A deliciously moist tea time cake with carrots and banana…
As much as I would have loved to get into my mood of typing my thoughts and feelings, somehow these days, it is more stuck in my throat than flowing out. Just when things feel like it may be getting better, life throws a new curveball, and you are left wondering what now. I feel that as I age, I am slowly starting to assure myself that there is nothing much I can do than to go through it with patience and hope. When you realize that you can’t control even a small thing like when you can sneeze or even itch your nose, it makes you understand that we as humans are basically incapable of so many things. We all sit on a lot of ego that we are some superior creature. It is true that Allah has blessed us with a brain to think and a heart to feel, but along with it comes a lot of responsibilities towards our Creator as well as towards our fellow beings. Having said all this, I am training my heart to be patient and breathe deep because what does Allah say to us??
“And whoever is mindful of Allah, He will make a way out for them, and provide for them from sources they could never imagine. And whoever puts their trust in Allah, then He ˹alone˺ is sufficient for them. Certainly Allah achieves His Will. Allah has already set a destiny for everything.” (Surah At-Talaq: part of verse 2-3)
Anyway, let me get on with today’s post. I have always loved a good banana cake and an even good carrot cake. I already have a number of banana cakes on this blog like this one which is my favorite and this brown butter one, which has a beautiful dimension. I am sure there will be even more banana cake recipes that will come up in the future, because I love banana bakes. However, my family doesn’t think in the same way, and hence I have reduced my baking to as minimal as possible. As for carrot cakes, my umma’s cake is my favorite, and I don’t like to divert to too many recipes, but if I do find something interesting, then I do try it out. But I really wanted to combine both my favorites into one cake and hence this experiment.
My first trial was a flop. The cake had a weird texture and it was flat, though the cake didn’t stay much. Banana and carrots both have the tendence of releasing too much fluid, that can make the cake batter feel like mud like if the amount of wet ingredients are not correct. Then I came across this link here and what must I say – this is a keeper of a recipe. The recipe did miss eggs, so I read through the comments nad realised that it did need a couple of eggs. That is the main rule of baking – read and read in between the lines before even you start the process. 😉 When compared to the previous attempt, the texture of this cake was perfect. It had the bite of walnuts and I wish I had added chocolate chips in it. Hehe… So if you like banana and carrots in your cake, then definitely you will love this one… Off to the recipe…
Carrot Banana Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour refer notes
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 120 gm butter softened
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 carrots, large grated
- 3 bananas, meduim mashed
- 3/4 cup walnuts crushed
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat our oven to 180 degrees. Grease a large loaf pan.
- In a bowl, add all the dry ingredients from flour to cinnamon. Whisk together till well combined.
- In another bowl, beat the sugar and butter till creamy.
- Add one egg at a time and beat to combine. Beat in the vanilla.
- Add in the dry ingredients and the remaining ingredients, and using a spatula, fold the mixture till all combined.
- Pour into the prepared loaf pans and bake for 40-50 minutes till the skewers come out clean.
- Cool in the pan for sometime, flip onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Slice and enjoy with your cup of tea or coffee,