Let’s stir up a rustic dessert cake! This lovely and moist Harvest Cake is the perfect dessert for cold-weather gatherings, bringing warmth and nostalgia to the table. Imagine a classically festive loaf cake with a bit of a modern twist on the traditional fruit cake—no candied fruits, just a special old-fashioned homemade cake bursting with flavor. And it is super easy to make with no electric mixer required!

Just stir and bake in one bowl! The Harvest Cake is a super breeze to make, using just a fork, a whisk and a wooden spoon. Yes, it’s one of those a one-bowl wonders! And, you can slash your prep time dramatically by using ready-to-roll ingredients. SO — we’re using pre-shredded carrots, pre-chopped walnuts, super-tender seedless Zante currants, sweetened coconut flakes and crushed pineapple.  Simply stir everything together with some fork-beaten eggs, slide the batter into a prepared loaf pan and bake this cake! Added bonus: You will  fill your kitchen with incredible and comforting aromas.

Moist Factor, Check! This cake’s moist factor comes from eggs and oil, so there’s no need for beating butter and sugar with the electric mixer. Just fork-beat a few eggs, combine the ingredients, and you’re ready to bake this delightful holiday dessert. Heck, just use a wooden spoon and you’re good to go!

Distinguishing this cake from a traditional fruit cake: In a traditional fruitcake, the fruits commonly used include: candied citrus peel, candied red and green cherries, dried apricots, raisins (or currants or sultanas) and candied or dried pineapple Other traditional fruit cake ingredients may include figs, dates, prunes, nuts and liquor. So, although we’re normally by the book (historic cookbook, that is), we’ve nixed most of the traditional options, but keeping the currants and pineapple, then adding carrots, coconut and nuts. You can make your cake dark with brown sugar or lighter with white granulated sugar. The taste testers were split evenly on which one was best…so go with your cake mood.

Zante Currants: Yes, they are raisins, seedless raisins, but shhhh!  Half of my holiday crowd seems shy of raisins, so we had to get this one just right to win them over. It took some prior variations and a good lot of taste testing to perfect (like courtroom staff, neighbors, family and even the Food Bloggers Los Angeles FBLA pros!) but we’ve got our raisin haters covered. You can use “regular” raisins (soak them in warm water or brandy, drain, pat dry, lightly dredge them in flour, then chop them a bit). But I think you’ll find these Zante currants are perfect for this cake just as they are. They are sweetly tangy to sun-dried perfection, hailing from the seedless Black Corinth grape. So I hope you’ll give them a try.

Serving suggestions: You can thick-slice this richly flavored loaf cake, then halve each slice and serve it with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream for an added touch of decadence. This cake doesn’t seem to need frosting, but perhaps frosting lovers might drizzle a simple lemon glaze over top or frost it with cream cheese frosting.  You could also go the extra mile to prepare the ever-popular Heirloom Custard Frosting for a light and smooth, less sugary tasting topping.

Homemade Holiday Food Gifts: You can divide this batter into mini loaves for no-fuss stir-and-bake food gifts. Wrap them in colorful cellophane, as we did for our banana bread, and and your friends will adore them.

Specific tools and foods used: We get so many questions for the tools and products we use in a cake recipe so we’ve tried to include Amazon links to most everything we used in the Harvest Cake. As Amazon Affiliate members, we may receive compensation if you purchase a product using a link provided at no additional cost to you.

Tools needed:

• Fork (for a light egg beating)
• Whisk (for mixing dry ingredients)
• Wooden spoon (no electric mixer needed!)
• Bread loaf pan (we’re using a 9”L x  5” W x 2-1/2” tall, with nearly straight edges, for a 1-1/2 lb loaf, similar to a banana bread loaf pan)
• Cooking spray (or butter smear) for the pan ends not covered by parchment
• Parchment paper, (for lining baking pan for quick release)
• Large coffee mug (for the 3 egg mixing)
• Large mixing bowl
• Temperature probe (highly recommended)
• Aluminum foil for storage
• Unsalted butter for rubbing over top of hot baked cake (optional)

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients:

• 2 cups bread flour (or all-purpose flour)
• 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar or golden brown sugar (medium packed)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons high-quality ground cinnamon
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt

Fruit and nuts ingredients:

• 2 cups shredded carrots, gently packed (about 5 ounces, or 4-5 medium carrots)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup Zante Currants (or finely chopped, pre-soaked and patted dry raisins)
• 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut (lightly packed)
• Zest of 1 medium orange (saving orange to juice in next step)

Wet ingredients:

• 3 large eggs, fork beaten, room temperature
• 1 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil)
• 8-ounce can crushed pineapple in pineapple juice, juice included
• 2 teaspoons high-quality pure vanilla extract
• Juice of 1medium orange (about 1/8 to ¼ cup)

Step-by-step instructions, in order of prep:

1.Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees, setting the oven rack to center position.

2.Prepare the baking loaf pan by cutting parchment paper to cover bottom and sides, leaving overhang of a few inches for easy removal. Spray the open ends of the pan with cooking spray or smear with butter.

3. In a large cup, use a fork to lightly beat, and set aside:

• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• Tip: We placed the eggs in a large cup with warm water for about 5 minutes to remove the chill)

4. Zest, juice and strain seeds as needed from (separating zest from juice), and set aside:

1 medium orange (we used a homegrown mandarin)

5. Use a whisk or fork to thoroughly mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl:

• 2 cups bread flour (or all-purpose flour)
• 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar, or golden brown sugar (medium packed)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons high quality ground cinnamon
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt

6. Use a wooden spoon to stir into the dry ingredients:

• 1 cup rough-chopped walnuts
• 1 cup Zante currants, lightly packed (or finely chopped, pre-soaked raisins, patted dry)
• 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut (lightly packed)
• 2 cups shredded carrots (gently packed)
• The prepared zest of 1 medium orange
• Tip: Use your fingers to check to be sure all fruits and nuts are separated and not clumped together and well incorporated into the dry mixture.

7. Use a wooden spoon to stir into the dry and fruited ingredients (all at once):

• The prepared fork-beaten 3 large eggs
• 1 cup canola oil or vegetable oil
• 8-ounce (small) can crushed pineapple with the juice (we used a food processor to create crushed pineapple from pineapple chunks with juice)
• 2 teaspoons high-quality pure vanilla extract
• The prepared juice from the zested orange (about 1/8 to ¼ cup)
• Tip: Pour all wet ingredients on top of the dry-fruit-nut mixture, then give it about 30 folding stirs to thoroughly incorporate all ingredients.

8. Slide the thick batter into the prepared bread pan (lined with parchment paper and sprayed with cooking spray at the unlined pan ends for easy removal). The batter should reach ¾ of the way to the top of the recommended loaf pan as this batter does not rise much. Smooth the batter to the corners and sides of the pan.

9. Bake This Cake! Place in a pre-heated 350-degree oven on the center rack for about 1-1/2 hours, rotating pan front to back, then side to side, about every 15 to 20 minutes to achieve an even bake to an internal temperature of about 195 to 198 degrees. This cake might take longer (or shorter) to bake depending on your oven and cold ingredients (e.g. if eggs or carrots were cold at the start of baking).

• Baking Tip #1: The center of the cake should rise just a little to a slightly higher level than the height of the pan when done, and should reduce to about level with the top of the pan when cooled.
• Baking tip #2 The cake should be mostly level throughout when fully baked.
• Baking tip #3: The cake should be firm to the touch at the center position when done, with a little sweet crust at the edges.
• Baking tip #4: A toothpick test does not work well for this cake because of all the moist ingredients and heavy batter. A temperature probe is extremely useful for this cake to ensure complete baking at the center of the pan at 195 to 198 internal temperature at center position.
• Final baking tip: While it’s still warm from the oven, I like to rub unsalted butter over top of the cake to soften it a bit then cover it with aluminum foil to store on counter or in fridge or freezer (depending on when you will be serving it).

10.Storage: This cake seems to develop flavors over time, so you can serve it immediately warm or within the next 2 or 3 days, storing it wrapped in foil a cool spot on the counter. For longer storage, wrap it well and chill in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks.  If you freeze it, let it come to room temperature for at least 2 hours before serving.

I think this homemade Harvest Cake just might be the ultimate modern-traditional-style dessert to share with loved ones.

Happy homemade baking to you, my friends!

Leslie