Celebrating the first anniversary of “Cooking with Thas” with this delicious Carrot Cashew Nuts Cake made specially by my dear hubby…
Oh ya, my man can bake!
April 28th, 2009 was the day when I posted the first recipe on my website. That means today is the first anniversary of my blog. I can’t believe it’s been a year already!
Before starting this blog I had made few cooking videos. One day, for no particular reason, I felt like capturing cooking videos and after all the editing I uploaded them on youtube. To my surprise, many of my friends and few strangers loved the videos and encouraged me to do more. Shooting the video and editing took a lot of time and after making few videos I kind of felt exhausted. At that time, it was my husband who suggested me to start a blog so that I could keep track of all the recipes I try in my kitchen. Hence, this blog came into being.
When I started this blog I never thought that I would take blogging seriously nor would this blog change my life. As days passed by, I found amazing things happening in my life through this blog. I got hooked to my kitchen and to the food world. Total strangers from different parts of the world read my blog and became my fans. My real friends started to try my recipes and they constantly appreciated my cooking. I became the featured publisher for Foodbuzz. I won a couple of cooking contests. These were the amazing things that happened to me which helped me to move forward without looking back.
I would like to thank each and everyone who inspire me to blog, who support me with their kind and encouraging comments. Without you guys my blog wouldn’t have survived this long.
Last weekend, I had hosted an Indo-Chinese themed party which turned out to be a super hit. Towards the end of the party, the dessert got more raves than my Indo-Chinese dishes. And the dessert was Carrot cake with cashew nuts made by my hubby. I know Carrot cake doesn’t fit into Indo-Chinese category, but my hubby insisted on making this cake all by himself on that day. I had no other choice but allow him to mess up my kitchen. When I had a bite of this cake I was literally shocked and I screamed: My man can Bake, yayy! I am so proud of him and I’ve hired him as my pastry chef 🙂
My hubby’s Carrot Cake with Cashew Nuts
Ingredients:
For making carrot cake:
- Grated Carrot- 3 cups
- All-Purpose flour- 2 cups
- Baking soda- 2 tsp
- Baking powder- 2 tsp
- Salt- 1/2 tsp
- Ground cinnamon- 2 tsp
- White sugar- 2 cups
- Eggs- 4
- Vegetable oil- 1 1/4 cups
- Vanilla extract- 2 tsp
- Cashew nuts or walnuts, chopped- 1 cup
To make frosting:
- Butter, unsalted- 1/2 cup
- Cream cheese, softened, fat-free- 8 ounces
- Confectioner’s sugar- 3 cups
- Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
Instruction
- Have grated carrots ready, around 3 cups, and keep it aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F or 175 C.
- Grease a 9×13 inch pan with butter and sprinkle 1 tbsp flour evenly on the pan.
- In a bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon.
- To a large bowl, add eggs & using an electric hand mixer beat the eggs till fluffy.
- Add white sugar, oil and vanilla extract, beat for 3 minutes till the mixture turns thick & creamy.
- Add the flour mix & beat at low speed for a minute.
- Add the grated carrots and combine well using a spatula.
- Fold in the cashew nuts or walnuts using a spatula and combine everything well. Don’t over-mix the batter.
- Pour into prepared pan and place in the preheated oven on the center rack.
- Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- After an hour, take the pan out of the oven. Let the cake cool down in the pan for 10 minutes, after then trasnfer to a wire rack, let cool down completely.
Making the frosting:
- In a large bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and vanilla extract.
- Beat until the mixture turns smooth and creamy.
- Spread the frosting evenly on the cake.
- Let rest for 10 minutes.
- Cut into desired shapes & enjoy.
Tips:
- For serving 2 to 4 people, just half the recipe and bake the cake.
- Health freaks: You could avoid frosting.
- For less frosting on the cake: You could half the frosting recipe.
- You could use any kind of nuts like pecans, walnuts, almonds etc
- Leftover cake can be refrigerated in an airtight container for a few days.
- The cake by itself tastes incredible, if you prefer you can skip the frosting.
- Grated Carrot- 3 cups
- All-Purpose flour- 2 cups
- Baking soda- 2tsp
- Baking powder- 2tsp
- Salt- ½ tsp
- Ground cinnamon- 2 tsp
- White sugar- 2 cups
- Eggs- 4
- Vegetable oil- 1¼ cups
- Vanilla extract- 2 tsp
- Cashew nuts or walnuts, chopped- 1 cup
- Butter, unsalted- ½ cup
- Cream cheese, softened, fat-free- 8 ounces
- Confectioner's sugar- 3 cups
- Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
- Have grated carrot ready, 3 cups of carrot.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F or 175 C.
- Grease a 9x13 inch pan with butter and sprinkle 1 tbsp flour evenly on the pan.
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon.
- To another large bowl, add eggs & using an electric hand mixer beat the eggs till fluffy.
- Add white sugar, oil and vanilla extract, beat for 3 minutes till the mixture turns thick & creamy.
- Add the flour mix & beat at low speed for a minute.
- Add the grated carrots and combine well using a spatula.
- Fold in the cashew nuts or walnuts using a spatula and combine everything well. Don't over-mix the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and place in the preheated oven on the center rack.
- Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- After an hour, take the pan out of the oven. Let the cake cool down in the pan for 10 minutes, after that transfer to a wire rack and let it cool down completely.
- In a large bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar and vanilla extract.
- Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
- Spread the frosting evenly on the cake after it has cooled down.
- Let rest for 10 minutes.
- Cut into desired shapes & enjoy.
Health freaks: You could avoid the frosting.
For less frosting on the cake: You could half the frosting recipe.
You could use any kind of nuts like pecans, walnuts, almonds etc
Leftover cake can be refrigerated in an air-tight container for a few days.
The cake by itself tastes incredible, if you don't want the frosting you can totally skip that.
