Mexican Carrot Cake

I love a traditional carrot cake with cinnamon and nutmeg and bits of walnut. It is rich and flavorful and probably one of  my all time favorite desserts. However from time to time I like to experiment with other recipes, specially when the list of ingredients lists an ingredient that I would have never imagined or considered otherwise.. Such was the case with this Mexican carrot cake.. The list of ingredients was short. It did not include any kind of flour. However "flour tortillas" were part of it and those were enough to arrest my curiosity. 

A cake with tortillas ?

For a while I wondered if  Mexicans refer to bread puddings as cakes, rampaged the internet for inputs on Mexican cakes, finally decided to try the recipe out and find out things for myself. 

As I said, the recipe did not call for a lot of things. Hence it was fairly easy to put together.  But "the batter"  once made, looked absolutely hopeless. It was just a heap of tiny pieces of tortilla speckled with grated carrot. It looked nothing like a typical cake batter or base for bread pudding, let alone a traditional carrot cake. For a while I debated if I should forget the recipe and add more ingredients to make the batter look like a conventional one.. but then I decided to calm down and follow the recipe to the end. After all the recipe wasn't that of a traditional carrot cake so why should the batter look like one. 

Anyway so I left the batter, rather the tortilla-carrot mixture, as it was, baked it for a full hour, then let it cool completely before easing it off the spring-form pan.. and then what do I see... 

.. a nice cake !

Again, it looked nothing like a traditional carrot cake, but was pretty nevertheless and tasted lovely. The sugar wasn't overpowering . It felt just right with our cups of Mexican coffee... The mellowed flavors of the cake and the spices in the coffee were a perfect combination.


Before going to the recipe I must however mention that for some reason the cake tasted even better the next day. The lemon and lime aroma had intensified and cake as was a whole seemed more flavorful. I really enjoyed it and was glad that I did not tweak the recipe much :)

Mexican Carrot Cake

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Recipe by The "I Do Not Know How To Cook" Book Mexican

Prep time: 15 minutes                                                                              Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Yield: 6 inch cake

Ingredients

• 4 slender carrots, grated (about 2 cups)
• 2 tsps lemon zest (I used 1 tsp each of lemon and lime zest)
• 2 tsps lemon juice
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 3 tbsps sugar
• 2 tbsps vegetable oil
• 2 flour tortillas*, about 10-12" in diameter, torn or cut into ¼ inch pieces 

* Whole wheat chapattis or rotis work just as well.  

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Wrap a 6 inch springform pan with aluminium foil.
3. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract to the grated carrot.  Mix well.
4. Combine sugar with oil and beat the eggs into the sugar-oil mixture.
5. Add the pieces of tortilla and the carrot mixture into the sugar-egg mixture, mix well.(If using whole wheat tortillas, soak the pieces of tortilla in the sugar-egg mixture for 20-30 minutes, then add the carrot mixture to it and mix well.)
6. Bake the prepared mixture in the 6 inch spring-form pan for 1 hour, or until browned on the surface.
7. Cool completely before easing the cake off the pan.

Ps: photos updated on 18.5.2016