For last week’s Fondbite’s Bake Along, Subhashini chose a very healthy cake recipe using ragi flour. As you all know ragi or finger millet with so many health benefits. I read somewhere that it is rich in calcium, has a high fibre content, makes a great baby food, good for diabetics, helps in weight reduction and so on. It is also gluten free and is used in many south Indian dishes. But using it in cake which needs gluten to bind? And the recipe had so many eggs and I was not very sure of the result. But still I tried. The original recipe uses sweet potato and as I have read in an article earlier, while baking with gluten free flours, they add something to bin such as an edible gum or sweet potatoes. As there were no sweet potatoes available near my house, I used potatoes instead. And I used thick curd instead of eggs and to give some volume, I added extra flour. And yes, it worked. The cake didn’t rise too much as it is very heavy with nuts and carrots, but it came out so soft and it sort of stuck together rather than going crumbly. So the potato worked. The cake is loaded with nuts and carrots and so this cake comes under heavy cake category. I baked it in loaf tins and took one loaf to my aunt. She just loved it.
And also our 11th wedding anniversary was yesterday. My hubby took me to Munnar to celebrate our wedding anniversary in advance. The climate was so great and we had a fantastic time together with Sruti for two days. Away from baking and blogging. I really enjoyed the two days of complete rest. There was so much of mist in the cardamom estate wher we took a long walk through both the cardamom and tea estates. Even Sruti walked without any complaints for nearly two hours. Here is a picture collage from a flower garden we visited on Saturday.
And here is Sruti enjoying the place..
After all these outings finally, yesterday I was so busy with an order, I even forgot to make a sweet for my anniversary. But why not blog about a delicious cake to compensate for that?
Recipe Source: Fondbites
Makes 2 Loves
Ingredients:
Ragi / Finger Millet Flour – 2 1/4 cups
Thick Jaggery Syrup – 1 cup
Grated Carrots-2 cups
Peeled and Grated Potatoes-2 cups
Baking Powder-1 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda- 1 tsp
Pistachios -1 cup
Cashewnuts – 1 cup
Salt-1/2 tsp
Cardamom Powder-1 tsp
Thick Curd-1 cup
Ghee-3/4 cup
Procedure:
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Grease and dust two loaf pans.
- In a bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom powder.
- Boil grated jaggery and water to make a thick syrup. For 1 cup of syrup you will need 1 1/2 cups of grated jaggery. Let it cool down.
- In another bowl cream together ghee and jaggery syrup.
- Add in the curd and whisk.
- Now add the flour mixture and mix until the batter is lump free.
- Add in the grated carrots and potatoes and mix.
- Finally add the nuts and mix well to incorporate.
- Divide batter between two loaf tins and bake for 1 hour.
- When you insert a tooth pick after 1 hour, it may feel slightly sticky but remove it and allow it to cool completely on wire rack.
- Slice only when cool. Enjoy with a cup of coffee.

Servings |
- Ragi / Finger Millet Flour - 2 1/4 cups
- Thick Jaggery Syrup - 1 cup
- Grated Carrots-2 cups
- Peeled and Grated Potatoes-2 cups
- Baking Powder-1 1/2 tsp
- Baking Soda- 1 tsp
- Pistachios -1 cup
- Cashewnuts - 1 cup
- Salt-1/2 tsp
- Cardamom Powder-1 tsp
- Thick Curd-1 cup
- Ghee-3/4 cup
Ingredients
Ingredients
| ![]() |
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Grease and dust two loaf pans.
- In a bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom powder.
- Boil grated jaggery and water to make a thick syrup. For 1 cup of syrup you will need 1 1/2 cups of grated jaggery. Let it cool down.
- In another bowl cream together ghee and jaggery syrup.
- Add in the curd and whisk.
- Now add the flour mixture and mix until the batter is lump free.
- Add in the grated carrots and potatoes and mix.
- Finally add the nuts and mix well to incorporate.
- Divide batter between two loaf tins and bake for 1 hour.
- When you insert a tooth pick after 1 hour, it may feel slightly sticky but remove it and allow it to cool completely on wire rack.
- Slice only when cool. Enjoy with a cup of coffee.
cute sruti:)rich healthy option to usual cake
Iniya Thirumana Naal Vaalthukkal…..really healthy and yummy cake…
Belated Wedding Anniversary wishes sis…:) Hope you enjoyed Munnar trip, one of my favorite place to visit once… Super delicious and healthy ragi carrot cake… love the texture too…
Wow gayathri so well prepared.. cake looks so moist and tasty u know it is looking like our Multani SOhan HAlwa.. very well prepared..
The cake looks amazing Gayathri…your kid looks so cute..Happy anniversary ..
Can this cake be cooked in pressure cooker ,whether adding potato is a must
I haven’t baked cakes in pressure cooker personally but many of them have got good results. So I think it would turn out nice. And for potatoes, they are the binding ingredient in the recipe instead of eggs. As ragi is gluten free it would be an important ingredient to get better result..
Hello
Thanks for this wonderful and unusual recipes.
I am always in search of eggless recipes to try and this seems to be a perfect one to carry over to someone’s house and offcourse eat at your own.
I want to give this a try so can I halve this recipe will it give me good results
THANKS AGAIN
Yes, you can halve the recipe. Halve each ingredient and use a smaller tin. The result will be good.
Hi Gayathri. just wanted to know why do we add potatoes in the batter. Should the potatoes be boiled and then grated. Your guidance please. Thanks
As ragi is gluten free, there must be some ingredient to hold every thing together in the cake. Potato acts as a great binding agent. So I have added. It is raw potato. Just peel and grate and add..
Hi Gayathri, can I avoid the nuts? If so, i would be missing 2 cups in total for the ingredients. Can you please suggest alternatives if i want to skip that?
Thanks very much!!
You can just skip adding them. They just give the crunch in the final cake. That wouldn’t affect the texture of the cake.
It’s very nice and healthy recipes. Instead of ghee is it OK to use flavourless vegetable oil or butter.
Yes, you can do that Mythili..
Can u please share the original recipe with eggs.
I don’t have the recipe with me. Looks like the link I have shared is also not working..
Hii gayathri…mice n very innovative.I want to try it with regular flour. So can I use Normal sugar instead of jaggery !! Plz help
Thank you. This recipe was developed because the flour was gluten free. If all purpose flour is to be used, the recipe needs so much change. You can use white sugar instead of jaggery.