Carrot Dates And Orange Cake

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.

Carrot Dates Cake
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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…

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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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.
    Step 1 Carrot Dates Cake
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  • Using an electric beater, mix the powdered sugar and oil, till it's combined well. 
    Step 2 Carrot Dates Cake
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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. 
    Step 3 Carrot Dates Cake
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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.
    Step 4 Carrot Dates Cake
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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.
    Step 5 Carrot Dates Cake
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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. 
    Step 6 Carrot Dates Cake
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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. 
    Step 7 Carrot And Dates Cake
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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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29 thoughts on “Carrot Dates And Orange Cake”

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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 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
      Maria

      Reply
  4. 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
  5. 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

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