Rainbow Galaxy Carrot Cakes

Rainbow Galaxy Carrot Cakes!! Buttery, flaky, and crispy pastry that melts in your mouth with a soft gooey and flavorful carrot pudding filling.

I once saw it's recipe in a cookery show and decided to try them out myself but with my own twist. It was made up of red bean paste, but I decided to make them out of yummy melt-in-the-mouth carrot filling because, carrots are easily available all seasons. I think this is one of the most beautiful things that I've ever baked, so I thought of sharing the recipe here.

It is hard to pick up these Rainbow Galaxy Carrot Cakes and not be wow-ed by its beauty and taste. The golden puff pastry, so prettily structured in clean rainbow layers resembles the shape of the Milky Way galaxy and suggests harmony, unity, joy, peace and all things wonderful. It is something you just know will be amazing without actually tasting it.

Here's how you can make the Rainbow Galaxy Carrot Cakes...

COOKING INGREDIENTS FOR RAINBOW GALAXY CARROT CAKES

CARROT FILLING

• Fresh Carrots - 1/2 Kg or 500g
• Milk - 1/2 glass or 150 ml
• Butter - 30g or 3 tbsps.
• Powdered Sugar - 1/2 cup or 100 g
• Cardamoms - 4-5
• Desiccated Shredded Coconut - 2 tbsps.

WATER DOUGH

• All Purpose Flour - 90g or 3/4 cups
• Powdered/Icing Sugar - 10g or 1.5 tbsps.
• Softened Butter (Salted) - 30g or 2 tbsps.
• Water - 32 ml

OIL DOUGH

• All Purpose Flour - 85g or 1/2 cup
• Vegetable Oil - 25g or 27ml
• Gel Food Coloring - Preferably Pink, Blue, Green, Yellow - 1 drop each

UTENSILS AND EQUIPEMENTS REQUIRED

• Weighing Scale -1
• Vegetable Peeler -1
• Knife -1
• Cheese Grater OR Food Processor -1
• Measuring cups - 2-3
• Small Bowls - 2-3
• Mixing Bowls - 2-3
• Mixing Spoon - 1
• Mixing Silicone Flat Spatula -1
• Chopping Board/Tray - 1
• Cling Film
• Rolling Board -1
• Rolling Pin -1
• Oven (OTG)

TOTAL BAKE TIME : 1.5 HOURS

For Carrot Filling: 60 min at 200 degrees Celsius

For Rainbow Galaxy Carrot Cakes : 20-25 min at 160 degrees Celsius

Refrigeration required. Best consumed within 2-3 days if properly stored.

Let's start with the filling of the Rainbow Galaxy Carrot Cakes. We just have to mix all the ingredients together, put them in a baking dish, and bake them in the oven. So first, prep your carrots.

1. Take 1/2 Kg or 500 Kg of Fresh Carrots, wash them thoroughly in running water, and pat dry with a kitchen towel.
2. Peel them using a vegetable peeler/potato peeler.
3. Chop off both ends (1 inch approx.) using a knife, as shown.
4. Grate the carrots using a cheese grater or a food processor.
5. Transfer the grated carrots into a mixing bowl.

I wanted to make my filling buttery and refreshing, so I added cardamom flavor to it, and loads of butter.

1. To the grated carrots add 30 g or 3 tbsps. full of softened salted butter (I used salted butter because it balances out the sweetness of the filling).
2. To this, add 4-5 pods of cardamom (You can use a pinch of cardamom powder too).
3. Now sweeten the filling by adding 1/2 cup or 100 g of icing sugar.
4. Then add 1/2 glass or 100 ml of milk.
5. Give it a good stir (It's okay if the butter is not dissolving with the milk, when we bake it, it will automatically combine together).

1. Transfer the mixture of the mixing bowl to a greased baking dish or a cake tin (I used butter to grease the baking dish).
2. Preheat the oven for 10 min at 180 degrees Celsius.
3. Once done, bake the carrot mix for 60 min at 200 degrees Celsius till it becomes mushy, and till 90% the liquid has evaporated.
4. Remove and let it cool.

1. After the filling has cooled, scoop out 10 g of the carrot mix, and make small plum-sized balls out of it with your hands.
2. Cover with Cling Film and Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

We will now roll the balls on shredded coconut so that they don't get too mushy and break down while baking. You can use biscuit crumbs or crushed wafers if you don't like coconut.

1. Once done with making balls, spread the dry shredded desiccated coconut on a flat plate.
2. Roll the balls over the dry shredded coconut so that the balls evenly get coated with the shredded coconut from all sides.
3. Place the balls on a clean plate, cover them with cling film or foil paper and refrigerate in the fridge for an hour.

And Voila, the Filling of the Rainbow Galaxy Carrot Cakes is ready!

I did this process at the peak sunny afternoon time, hence the lighting :-P

Moving on to the next part of the recipe, it's time to make the Water Dough. Water Dough requires water for kneading and hence the name!

For this,

1. Take 90 g or 3/4 cups of All Purpose Flour in a mixing bowl.
2. To this, add 10 g or 1.5 tbsps. of Powdered/Icing Sugar.
3. Then add 30g or 2 tbsps. of Softened and Salted Butter (If you're using unsalted butter then add a pinch of salt to balance out the sweetness of the cake).
4. Use a silicone flat spatula to combine everything together.
5. Once done, make a small hole in the center of the mix as shown,
6. Pour around 32 ml of water into the hole.
7. Mix the mixture with your hands and knead it into a dough.
8. Make a ball out of this dough and keep it aside.

The next part of the recipe is to make the oil dough. Here we require oil for kneading, hence the name :)

1. Take around 85g or 1/2 cup of All Purpose Flour in a Mixing Bowl.
2. Add 27 ml of any light-flavored oil (I have used vegetable oil).
3. Mix the mixture well.
4. Knead the mix into a soft consistent dough.
5. Keep aside.

1. Place the oil dough on a flat surface (I used a chopping board).
2. Make a small Cylindrical shape as shown with the oil dough.
3. Roughly divide the oil dough into 4 equal portions. Use a sharp knife or a dough scrapper for the same.

Now comes the fun part of adding colors to the oil dough portions. Pick your favorite colors for this (I have used rainbow related colors here blue, green, yellow and pink. I have also used very little color here as I wanted to make them look subtle and snowy). You can use more drops of colors as per your liking.

1. Take 4 toothpicks or a dowel.
2. Dip the toothpicks in the gel food colors one by one and put the colors (1 tiny drop each) on the dough portions as shown.
3. Knead the dough one by one so that all the colors get mixed evenly. Quick tip: Wash your hands each time after dealing with one color otherwise colors might mix together and it would look ugly.
4. Form 4 separate cylindric shapes having 4 different colors as shown.
5. Divide each cylinder into 3 equal portions as shown.
6. Roll each portion into small balls (total 3 balls of each color) and keep aside.

1. Take the water dough ball and place it on a flat surface.
2. Form a cylindric shape out of it as shown.
3. Divide the water dough into 3 equal portions as shown.
4. Roll the cut potions into 3 balls as shown.

1. Take one rolled portion of the water dough and place it on a rolling board.
2. Press it flat with your hands a bit.
3. Take a rolling pin, and roll out the dough as shown with a radius of approx. 5 cm.
4. Place one portion of each of the colored oil dough balls as shown (use different colors) in the center of the flat water dough.
5. Cover the colored oil dough balls with the water dough ends.
6. Seal the ends very well and form a big ball out of this.
7. Repeat for all parts of the dough portions.

Dough Lamination refers to the process of creating multiple, separate layers of dough and fat when making pastry.

Let's start

1. Take the big ball of combined dough that we made earlier and place it on the rolling board.
2. Flatten it out as much as you can horizontally as shown ( I did it vertically first then felt the board to be too small, so made it horizontal).
3. Take one end of the flattened dough and start rolling it in diagonally towards the other end as shown.
4. Make a thin cylindrical shape out of this as shown.

We will flatten and roll the dough one more time to make more layers.

1. Flatten out the cylinder on its length with a rolling pin as much as you can as shown (I switched to a chopping board because the wooden rolling board was too small for it).
2. Start rolling in one end of the flattened dough towards the other end as shown.
3. Make a small cylinder out of this having a spiral shape at the ends.

1. Place the cylinder on the chopping board with its length facing the board.
2. Cut each of the cylinders into 2 equal portions with the help of a sharp knife.

You can see numerous layers towards the ends of the cut-out portions. These will form the covering of our cakes and will give them that unique look.

1. Place one portion of the layered cylinder we cut earlier with the numerous layers facing you.
2. Press them on top of the board gently with your palms.
3. Then start rolling the it out using a rolling pin to form a circular covering with radius approx. 6 cm.
4. Once done, Invert the covering with the layered part facing back now.

1. Remove the Carrot Balls that we made earlier from the refrigerator.
2. Place one Carrot Ball in the center of the flat covering.
3. Cover the ball from all side with the dough covering as shown and seal it well.
4. Invert the ball, and with that, the final ball is ready to bake.
5. Repeat for all portions.

Note: While making the spiral balls, make sure the center of the dough spiral is in the center of the filling.

1. Take a baking tray and lay parchment paper or butter paper on top of it.
2. Place the spiral balls on top of it.
3. Bake the balls at 160 Degrees Celsius for 20-25 min in a preheated oven (180 degrees for 10 minutes).

Tada! The cakes are done!

Aren't these pretty? I bet when you take a bite you would want to make them more often.

You can try these pastries with a number of different fillings. You can use leftover cheesecake, fruits, nut mix, or cookies and cream or make a savory version with meatballs, kebabs, cheese, or vegetable fillings. The options are endless!

Do try them out with your favorite fillings and share a picture in here...

Thank me later ;)