Using the last of winter carrots - Easy gajar halwa and halwa flavoured carrot cake

Summer is about to start here but I am still not ready to say good-bye to my favourite season of the year - winter. For me, the best part of winter is the abundance of beautiful vegetables. Sweet, red winter carrots are one such gem of a vegetable. We have been eating it raw every day for the whole season.
I also made our favourite winter dessert - gajar ka halwa on a few occasions. I tried a few tricks and have streamlined the long process of making the halwa into a less time-consuming and less labor-intensive one.

Gajar ka Halwa

gajar ka halwa

Ingredients:

1 kg	carrots
1 ltr	milk*
1 tbsp	cashew pieces
1 tsp	cardamom powder
1/2 cup	sugar

Method

• Heat the milk in a large vessel till it comes to a boil. Let it reduce on low flame stirring once in a while.
• Meanwhile, grate the carrots to a medium thickness. I outsource this to my husband who does it in 10 minutes.
• Add the grated carrots and a cup of the milk which was reducing to a pressure cooker and cook for 3 whistles on medium flame.
• Keep the milk reducing till this time. It will reduce by about a third in quantity.
• Open the pressure cooker once cool and add the reduced milk to it. Cook on high flame till most of the milk evaporates.
• Add 1/2 cup of sugar and keep on cooking till all the moisture evaporates. When you push the halwa away from the pan, you will not see any bubbles or evaporating liquid. This will take about half an hour.
• Add the cardamom powder and let the halwa cool before storing in the fridge.

Notes:

• I remove a cup of milk from the boiled milk because I like a less milky halwa.
• I also do not add any ghee because for me the fats from the milk and cashews are enough. I think ghee makes the halwa greasy.
• There is some time saved in letting the milk reduce on its own while the carrots cook quickly in the pressure cooker. This is a hands-off process for most part and needs your attention only for the last 10 minutes.
• This can be thought of as being similar to using condensed milk but the advantage here is that you get milk granules which are essential for the texture of the halwa.

My father-in-law's birthday was last weekend. This cake was on my list to make this season. I had made it once a couple of years ago and it is the type of cake that you will remember fondly for years. I loved my carrot and pumpkin cakes when I was in the US, so vegetable cakes are one of my weakness.
I followed this recipe with just a few changes to focus on the gajar halwa flavour. It does have a couple of additional steps but the cake is worth it.

Gajar halwa flavoured cake

gajar halwa cake

Adapted from : carrot halwa cake

Ingredients:

measurement	ingredient
1 cups	maida
1.5 tsp	baking powder
1/2 tsp	salt
1/2 tsp	baking soda
1/4 cup	condensed milk
1/2 cup	milk
1	egg
1/2 cup	powdered sugar
1 tsp	cardamom powder
6 tbsp	ghee
1 large	carrots*

Method

• Heat milk and condensed milk together and bring it to a boil. Reduce it for about 3-4 minutes.
• Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and whisk it together well.
• Beat the egg, sugar and cardamom powder together till light and fluffy.
• Add the ghee and beat well.
• Add the dry ingredients and milk mixture to the egg mixture; starting with dry ingredients and alternating with the milk mixture.
• Fold in the grated carrot.
• Bake in a greased and floured cake pan at 170C for 20-25 minutes.
• Check for doneness with a toothpick inserted at the centre of the cake.
• Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.
• I spread some leftover condensed milk on the cooled cake, which provided the stickiness to hold the chopped almonds and pistachios on top.

Notes:

• Use one large or 2 small carrots.
• My oven has the heating element on top and runs a little hot so I bake at a slightly lower temperature than 180C. I also cover the cake with a foil if the top starts browing too quickly.

I had doubled the recipe to make 2 cakes but the second cake did not come out of the pan in one piece. So I made an Indian version of the cake pop; "Cake ladoo". I made half a recipe of the boiled milk frosting, again substituting the butter with ghee. I added 2 teaspoons of the frosting and some of the chopped almonds and pistachios to the cake crumbs and rolled them into small ladoos.

carrot cake ladoos