Super moist carrot and apple cake studded with nuts and made with whole wheat flour (totally egg free)!
This cake is so rich and moist; you will love enjoying these fluffy and soft slices all day long! They are perfect as an evening snack, with ice cream for a decadent dessert or even as an indulgent healthy breakfast!
I am a die-hard baking enthusiast and am always looking for excuses to bake something; either sweet or savory! This was one of those days. I had just got a bag full of fresh carrots from the grocery store. It had been a long time since I had made carrot cake (you must try my moist carrot cupcakes).
Now, that I am mostly on a health trip, I decided to use whole wheat flour for the batter. When I was rummaging through the refrigerator to get my carrots, my eye fell on a lonely apple on one of the shelves. I am not a big fan of cooking apples (love them fresh and crunchy) but this apple begged to be used soon!
So carrot and apple cake it was! As long as I can remember, I have been using this recipe for carrot cake and it has never failed me.
After years of baking, I have come to a stage in my life, where I can take the courage to innovate and change standard recipes to suit availability of ingredients.
So, I decided to tweak this tried and tested recipe; halved the ingredients (no kids around to finish a large cake), used whole wheat flour for a healthy element, substituted some of the carrots with grated apple and reduced the oil considerably (hoping it would work in the cake).
Well, apple has plenty of natural sugars, so I reduced the sugar drastically too (fingers crossed) and of course, to make it eggless, used sour milk (vinegar in milk; I find it gives a unique fluffiness to a cake); you can use yogurt too.
I detest oily cakes, so oil was reduced too to just ¼ cup for a 9 inch cake!
Whew!!! That is a lot of changes, but now the test begins!!
Once I had adjusted all the elements of the cake, it was time to bake. A quick mix of the ingredients (no beaters!)and the batter was in the oven.
In between household chores, I was dashing to the oven door to see how my experiment was turning out.
After about 30 minutes and a toothpick test, the cake was fully baked and the whole house was engulfed in a divine warm aroma of earthy cinnamon!
Yayyy!!! All the effort was worth it and one lonely apple had found its way into my carrot cake!
The tough part was waiting for it to cool. As soon as it was cool enough to cut, my Mom and I had a slice each. The cake had come out amazingly soft and moist; addition of apples had given it a very moist texture.
Please do try this decadent, moist and scrumptious carrot and apple cake and I am sure you will love it too. Just make sure to store leftovers (if any) in an airtight container in the refrigerator, especially during hot weather.
I still have a couple of slices in the refrigerator which I am going to enjoy with a scoop of ice cream for dessert!
For more similar cakes, try some super scrumptious eggless cakes from my blog:
Eggless Chocolate Beetroot Cake
Eggless Date and Cashew Cake etc.
Let's fill our kitchen with the amazing smell of this super soft, super moist, eggless cake!
How to make Super Moist Carrot and Apple Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Centigrade.
- Grease and flour a 9-inch or 8-inch pan (you can line with foil as I did and then grease and flour); keep aside.
- To make sour milk, add ½ tablespoon vinegar to ½ cup of cool (room temperature, not hot or warm) milk and mix; keep aside for a few minutes. Add vanilla essence and mix again.
- In a medium sized bowl, sift or better yet, whisk whole wheat flour, cinnamon powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt until totally and evenly mixed. Stir in mixed nuts. Keep aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar with oil till well mixed; about 2 minutes.
- Stir in sour milk or yogurt; give it a quick stir.
- Add the flour mixture in batches until fully incorporated and until just mixed; do not over mix.
- Fold in grated carrots and apples. If you feel the mixture is too dry, stir in a teaspoon or two of milk; totally optional.
- Immediately, pour the batter into the prepared pan and smoothen with a spatula.
- Gently tap the pan on the counter to remove any air bubbles.
- Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes (maximum 40) or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. You may see bits of cake (as long as it is not cake batter) sticking to the toothpick, but do not be tempted to bake any longer!
- Place on cooling rack to cool for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove from pan, peel off foil and leave on cooling rack to cool completely.
- Enjoy scrumptious, decadent and super moist carrot and apple cake made with whole wheat flour with your evening cup of chai/coffee, with vanilla ice cream as a dessert or even as a mid morning snack. It is so healthy; you can have it for breakfast too!
- Enjoy!!
Utterly delicious and moist cake with bursts of carrot and apple in every bite! Made with whole wheat and totally egg free, what is not to love about it!
Ingredients
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup oil
- ½ cup yogurt or sour milk (½ cup milk plus ½ tablespoon vinegar)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla essence/extract
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- ½ teaspoon to ¾ teaspoon cinnamon powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cups shredded carrots
- 1 medium sized apple, peeled and grated (about ½ cup)
- ¼ cup chopped cashew nuts or walnuts
- ¼ cup chopped pistachios
- Few nuts for garnishing
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Centigrade.
- Grease and flour a 9-inch or 8-inch pan (you can line with foil as I did and then grease and flour; guaranteed not to stick to pan); keep aside.
- To make sour milk, add ½ tablespoon vinegar to ½ cup of cool milk and mix; keep aside for a few minutes. Add vanilla essence and mix again.
- In a medium sized bowl, sift or better yet, whisk whole wheat flour, cinnamon, baking powder,baking soda and salt until totally and evenly mixed. Stir in mixed nuts. Keep aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar with oil till well mixed; about 2 minutes.
- Stir in sour milk or yogurt; give it a quick stir.
- Add the flour mixture in batches until fully incorporated and mixed.
- Fold in grated carrots and apples. If you feel the mixture is too dry, stir in a teaspoon or two of milk; totally optional.
- Immediately, pour the batter into the prepared pan and smoothen with a spatula.
- Gently tap the pan on the counter to remove any air bubbles.
- Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Place on cooling rack to cool for about 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, remove from pan, peel off foil and leave on cooling rack to cool completely.
- Enjoy scrumptious, decadent and moist carrot and apple cake made with whole wheat flour with your evening cup of chai/coffee, with vanilla ice cream as a dessert or even as a mid morning snack. It is so healthy; you can even have it for breakfast!
- Enjoy and Happy Baking!
Notes
You can substitute all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour.
If you want to omit apple, use 1 ½ cups of carrot for a moist carrot cake. Double the recipe and bake in a 13x9x2 inch pan.
Instead of cashew nuts or pistachios, you can use walnuts which go perfect with carrot cakes. I did not have any, so I used a mixture of cashew and pistachios.
This cake is super moist because of the added grated apples, so to avoid spoilage, please store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator, especially in the summers.
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Have fun cooking, eating and sharing!!!!
Cake was so moist.. yummy and healthy .. we all love it.. we have made it for Father’s Day today
That's amazing!
Thank you so much for stopping by to share your appreciation and for your lovely feedback.
This happens to be our favorite too for special occasions!
This carrot apple cake that too eggless looks so divine. Though I am curious to know the flavors. carrot and apple combination, how does it taste?
It tastes so moist, delicious and just like carrot cake with a whiff of sweetness from apples. Bonus is, you can reduce the amount of sugar in it 🙂 Thanks so much dear!!!!
loved it dear. I sent you msg on FB.
This carrot cake is trending a lot these days. This looks perfect and yummy.
Thanks so much dear 🙂 🙂 It tastes so moist and super delicious!
That slice looks so so moist and perfectly cooked. Delicious and a good combination of carrot and cakes.
Thank you Renu 🙂 🙂 It is absolutely moist and super delicious!
The cake looks super delicious.. I have tried with carrots but not a combo with apples.
Thanks a bunch Shobha 🙂 Addition of apples was an experiment that was super successful! I could reduce the amount of sugar added 🙂 🙂 And it tasted awesome too!
Apple and carrots both in a cake sounds so scruptious! Love the detailed recipe and beautiful presentation! Will make it for sure !
Thanks so much Prajakta 🙂 Do try; you will love the moist and naturally sweet hue of the cake!
Hi,
I tried and it was super delicious.
How can we make out that the cake is cooked as it’s so moist and gooey. As , when I pricked after 30 min. Of baking , it was sticking to the knife, though didn’t taste like uncooked:
If I am baking in the microwave on the convection mode , shall I extend the time of baking ?
Thanks for trying out the cake and glad you loved it! This cake is more moist than other cakes as it has fresh apple in them. Although it does look a bit sticky, it is fully baked. As long as there is no uncooked batter sticking to the tester, it is fine.
Just make sure you store leftovers in the refrigerator as because of the moistness, it may not last too long outside. Again, thanks so much for the feedback 🙂 🙂
Excellent recipe! Healthy and delicious. Thanks for this!
You are so welcome dear 🙂 Thanks so much for the sweet words!
I have just made the cake, its delicious and I'll be making it again. Can you tell me could you use any of the gluten free flours and I have some friends who are gluten intolerant.
Thanks so much Mary 🙂 🙂 I am so glad you loved it!!! I am not sure about substituting with gluten free flours as I have not tried that yet..please do let me know if you have success with that as I would love to try too 🙂 🙂
This cake turned out to be simply delicious and super moist. It's my new favorite and the best among all the cake recipes I've tried so far. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Thank you so much dear for the lovely feedback <3 So happy you loved it 🙂
I have heard of apple cake and carrot cake, but not both of them in one recipe. This sounds really delicious. I am glad you made it at this week's Fiesta Friday party. 🙂
Thank you so much Jhuls 🙂 Just needed to use up one lonely apple; so I incorporated it in my carrot cake 😀 Happy FF!!
Hi, I don't want to use the sugar. Is there a substitute or can I leave it out altogether?
Hi!
You can probably leave out the sugar and increase the amount of grated apples; accordingly, reduce the carrots. Cake will be very, very moist but the sugar in the apples will give a natural sweetness to it. You could add a few raisins which will add to the natural sweetness of the cake.
Please do try and let me know how they turned out 🙂
Hi, i tried the recipe it wasn't right. Can you tell me the
measurements in grams you used for 1 cup?
Hi, Can you please tell me what exactly went wrong with the cake? I have used 1 cup measurement which is 250 ml. I have not calculated in grams so I will be unable to help you with this.