Carrot Cake
Carrot cake is the best cake.
Almost universally, pie > cake, objectively and scientifically. I don’t love most cakes, and in general dislike frosting. Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting is one of the few exceptions. Carrot cake eats like a meal; it’s hearty and filling. I like my carrot cake the way a typical American suburban mom would have made it in the 70’s - single layer, with rasins and chopped walnuts, with a totally un-pretentious cream cheese frosting on top.
As a base recipe, I’m using Claire Saffitz’ recipe from her book, “Dessert Person”. She calls for it to fill 3 x 8” cake pans. This is way too much cake. I cut all the ingredients in half, and using a simpler frosting. I may scale it down further, to get it to yield a single 6” cake pan’s worth, but that’s an experiment for another day.
Also note: I’m not much of a baker. I love cooking, but I’m not so fond of baking. But if I don’t bake, I don’t get carrot cake the way I want it. I’m a picky
Ingredients:
Cake:
- Dry ingredients:
- 165g cups all-purpose flour (1¾ cups)
- ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoons baking powder (0.28 oz / 8g)
- 1 teaspoons kosher slt (0.21 oz / 6g)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda (0.21 oz / 6g)
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- Wet ingredients:
- ½ pound (240g) carrots (about 2-3 large), peeled and coarsely grated (about 1.5 cups)
- ½ cup buttermilk (4.25 oz / 120g), at room temperature
- 1½ teapoon finely grated fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoons vanill extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 75g granulated sugar
- 75g packed dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup neutral oil, such as vegetable or grapeseed (8oz/ 226g)
- ¾ cup (80 grams) pecan or walnut pieces, chopped and toasted
- ¾ cup raisins
- Additional neutral oil for greasing the pans
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Lightly brush the bottoms and sides of 2 x 6” cake pans with oil and line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the wet ingredients (carrots, buttermilk, fresh ginger, and vanilla)
- In a seperate bowl, add the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, baking soda, ground ginger, and cloves) and whisk to combine.
- With an electric mixer or stand mixer with whisk attachment, combine the eggs and granulated and brown sugars. Beat first on medium-low to break up the eggs, then increase to medium-high and beat until the mixture falls off the end of the whisk back into the bowl in a slowly dissolving ribbon, about 4 minutes.
- Stream in the oil: With the mixer on medium-high, very slowly stream in the oil until the mixture is smooth and emulsified (it will deflate some).
- Replace the whisk with the paddle attachment. Add about one-third of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until the flour has almost disappeared. Scrape in half of the carrot mixture, mixing just until incorporated, then add the remaining flour in additions, alternating with the remaining carrot mixture. When the last traces of flour disappear, stop the mixer and remove the bowl.
- Use a flexible spatula to fold in the nuts and raisins.
- Divide the batter among the prepared cake pans
- Put pans in the oven. Bake until the cakes are springy to the touch in the center and toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
- Remove the cakes from the oven and let cool completely in the pans.
- Remove cakes from pans, peel parchment from cake.
- Frost Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Original recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou3zj0R0Gus