Today, I will share one of my mother’s latest cake experiments. She got very much caught in her fruit cake series that she wanted to bake this triple layer cake. I call it the cake extravaganza and it very much reminded me of Tian-Tian’s birthday cake with the many ingredients put into it and the time taken. It did taste good, though personally I would have preferred each of the three layers as a separate cake.

Triple layer veggie and fruit cake

Time taken: 1 ¾ hours

Serves 15 to 20

Ingredients:

• Layer 1 (bottom layer): Beetroot – ½ cup, steamed
• Layer 2 (middle layer): Apple – ½ and Guava – ½ , Mint leaves – 3 or 4
• Layer 3 (top layer): Carrot – 1 large, steamed
• All-purpose flour – 1 ½ cups ( ½ cup for each of the layers)
• Sugar – ¾ cup ( ¼ cup for each of the layers)
• Oats – ¾ cup ( ¼ cup for each of the layers)
• Vegetable oil margarine – ¾ cup ( ¼ cup for each of the layers) + 1 tbsp (for icing)
• Banana – 3 tbsp, mashed (1 tbsp for each of the layers)
• Water – ¾ cup ( ¼ cup for each of the layers)
• Baking soda – ¾ tsp ( ¼ tsp for each of the layers)
• Baking powder –  1 ½ tsp ( ½ tsp for each of the layers)
• Vanilla essence – 3 tsp (1 tsp for each of the layers)
• Lime juice – 5 tbsp + 1 tsp (for icing)
• Green food colour – 1 tsp (for second layer)
• Orange food colour – 1 tsp (for third layer)
• Icing sugar – 4 tbsp (for icing)

Method:

1. Steam the beetroot and carrot for about 10 mins.
2. Separately blend the steamed beetroot and carrot in a processor.
3. Next, finely chop up the apple and guava. Grind a few mint leaves.
4. Cream ¼ cup margarine and ¼ cup sugar each in three mixing bowls.
5. To the first bowl, add the pureed beetroot to the mix and to the third bowl, add the pureed carrot to the mix. To the second bowl, add the finely chopped apple and guava together with the ground mint leaves.
6. Add ¼ cup of oats and 1 tbsp of mashed banana to each of the three bowls and mix well.
7. Stir in the lime juice (2 tbsp each for the first and third bowl and 1 tbsp for the second bowl) and 1 tsp vanilla essence each, together with ¼ cup of water, to each of the three bowls and beat the respective mixture well.
8. Add a tsp of green food colour to the second bowl (apple and guava mix) and a tsp of orange food colour to the third bowl (carrot mix)
9. Divide the flour into three ½ cup flour piles. Sift each with ¼ tsp baking soda and ½ tsp baking powder. Add a sifted ½ cup flour mix to the mixture in each of the three bowls.
10. Whisk the cake batter until smooth.
11. Transfer the beetroot cake batter to the baking tray and spread the batter evenly.
12. Then, transfer the apple, guava and mint cake batter to the baking tray and spread the batter evenly over the beetroot mix to form the middle layer.
13. Transfer the carrot cake batter on top of the apple batter and spread it evenly.
14. Bake the cake at 170⁰C/ 338⁰F and bake for 45 mins – 1 hour.
15. Whisk together 4 tbsp icing sugar, 1 tbsp vegetable margarine and 1 tsp lime to make a light icing and spread it thinly over the cake, after it has cooled.
16. Slice the cake into 15 or 20 pieces and serve with a cup of plain or fruit tea.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.