Eggless Carrot Dates Pineapple Cake

After eight years of break during which I was pushed away from blogging by the double duties of a mother and a teacher, the lock down induced by COVID-19 pandemic pulled me back to my passion of writing about cooking food that I like to eat and serve. 

Eggless Carrot Dates Pineapple Cake 

Ingredients

• Carrot - 1 (grated)
• Dates - 1 cup (deseeded)
• Warm water - 1 cup
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Jaggery powder - 1/2 cup
• Brown sugar -2 tsp
• Pineapple (chopped) - 1/3 cup
• Water - to cook pineapple
• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
• Oil - 1/4 cup
• Ghee -1 tsp (optional)
• Whole wheat / All purpose flour - 1+ 1/4 cups
• Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• All spice (cinnamon + cloves + caraway seeds, powdered) - 1/2 tsp
• Almond (sliced) - to garnish

Method :

• Add baking soda to warm water and soak dates in it. Keep it aside for an hour.
• Heat a pan, add chopped pineapple and water to it. Cook it on a medium flame until it softens.
• Pre heat the oven at 350 degree Fahrenheit or 180 degree Celsius for 20 mins.
• In a blender add the cooked pineapple and blend it along with the jaggery. Transfer it to a bowl.
• Add the oil, vanilla extract to the bowl.
• Strain the water from dates and give it a pulse in the blender. Add it to the pineapple mixture.
• Add grated carrot to it.
• Use an electric blender, mix all the wet ingredients until well blended.
• Sieve the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, salt, spice powder.
• Add the dry ingredients in batches, to the pineapple dates mixture.
• Fold it gently until all the ingredients are blended.
• Transfer the mixture to a baking pan lined with parchment/ wax paper.
• Garnish it with sliced almond and put it in the preheated oven.
• Bake it for 45 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted, comes out clean.

Notes:

Due to lockdown, I managed to bake this cake with the ingredients available at home.
Since I ran out of almonds, used cashews instead.