Altering cake recipes

Looby_Lou

My son does not like nuts or dried fruit, a lot of the recipes we like seem to contain nuts for example date cake, carrot cake etc. Would it make a big difference to the cake if I left the nuts out?

thriftlady_2

Absolutely none unless the recipe calls for ground nuts (almonds for example) in which case replace the ground nuts with flour.

The fruit/nuts/seeds are just a flavouring and not part of the structure of the cake. Vary at will;)

zippychick

Hi Looby, I made a carrot cake recently and omitted the raisins and it was no problem at all. I have also added ingredients in to muffin and fairy cake mix and it's made no difference I'm sure an expert will be along soon, but I would say as long as you don't mess with the liquid dry ratio then it shouldn't be a problem. Edit - Thriftlady explained it much better! So groundnuts would be part of the dry mix? I see! (lightning bulb moment)

Rachel Allens carrot cake is to die for by the way! Gorgeously moist. I've made it several times. recipe here

thriftlady_2

zippychick wrote: »

Hi Looby, I made a carrot cake recently and omitted the raisins and it was no problem at all.

But why would leaving raisins out make any difference (apart from not being raisiny)? It is just the same as sprinkling them on your porridge or not sprinkling them on your porridge. They make no difference to the porridge.

Some cake and muffin recipes include very wet fruits, bananas notably, that form part of the cake batter. Follow the recipe properly for this sort of cake, although of course if you are making a banana cake you are unlikely to want to leave the bananas out:D