Carrot Cake: Perfect for Parties

Carrot Cake with cream-cheese frosting sprinked with orange zest

Our eldest boy turns 12 tomorrow, and has requested a carrot cake. He discovered this carrot cake from my Lebanese friend, Maya. Now Maya hails from the mountains in Lebanon, where she tells us that lunches take hours and the main topic of conversation is often what they will all now eat for dinner. She has a noble face, one that my mum said would not look out of place on a Roman coin. Whenever you visited her, despite having four children in quick succession, she was always remarkably placid and calm, unflappable really, and would prepare fresh, healthy food for all, with many raw vegetables present: cucumbers and carrots in particular.




Of course, she sent through this recipe immediately, taken from her 'Bible', America's Test Kitchen recipe book.

America’s Test Kitchen: Carrot Cake Recipe

Dry Ingredients

313 grams all-purpose or cake flour (2 ½ cups)
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda or baking soda
1 ¼ teaspoon cinnamon *
½ teaspoon nutmeg *
⅛ teaspoon cloves *
½ teaspoon salt

4 large eggs, at room temperature (this is important for beating)
290 grams granulated (ordinary) sugar (1 ½ cups)
100 grams packed light brown sugar (½ cup)
375 ml vegetable oil (1 ½ cups)
455 grams carrots, peeled and grated (1 pound)

Preheat oven to 180 °C 350 °F, a moderate oven, or gas mark 4.

* In many parts of the world you are able to buy "Mixed Spice" (not to be confused with "All Spice"). Since Mixed Spice is a pre-mixed combination of: cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in just the right proportions as those given above, I’d advocate using two teaspoons of mixed spice instead of measuring the three out separately. If you have access to mixed spice, of course.

* Granulated sugar is what those from a British perspective would call ordinary white sugar.

Methodology

This recipe relies on the air beaten into the whole eggs to make the cake rise, and hence you must be particularly careful with your treatment of this stage in particular. Again, these bubbles will be particularly susceptible to gravity, and hence you must work swiftly, deftly and ensure the oven is nicely pre-heated for you to pop the cake into.

Sieve the flour together with the baking powder, bicarb, salt and spices together. In other words, as is usual with most recipes, mix together the dry ingredients and ensure that they are all evenly distributed.



Make sure all dry ingredients are evenly distributed

Beat the whole eggs in a large bowl until frothy. The ways you ensure the eggs are beaten frothy, is to:

Use room temperature eggs
For greater volume, the French may advocate slightly warming the bowl in which the eggs are to be beaten.
Utilise the egg whisk attachment:



Eggs must be beaten with a whisk attachment

If you follow the above, your beaten eggs should look like this:



Although you are beating whole eggs, you must still ensure many bubbles for best effect

Whisk the egg and sugar together until the sugar is almost dissolved.




Although sugar has been added, air bubbles remains, although they are smaller

Add the oil to the above mixture, slowly, until it is fully emulsified.



I find it best to leave the mixture beating and pour in the oil in a thin drizzle

Fold in the flour mixture until it is fully distributed throughout. The best way to add the flour is to sprinkle it on top and then beat in a circular movement with a spatula.

Now it it time to use the carrots. I find it best to employ the children in grating the carrots while the rest of the work is going on:



Use the more coarse setting of your grater

Stir in the carrots until thoroughly distributed. Although the bubbles are now much smaller, they have not entirely disappeared. These bubbles are what will expand under heat and the action of the baking powder, and ensure your carrot cake rises in the oven and is soft in texture and edible.



Final carrot cake mixture, after the carrots are added

I normally advocate lining the cake tin with baking paper. In this instance, I did not, and regretted it - although there is plenty of oil in the cake, if you are wanting a formal effect and for the cake to simply plop out of the paper, then you definitely must line with baking parchment.



Carrot cake

Bake for 35-40 minutes. It will tend to rise in the middle and then may crack a teeny bit across the top. Let cake cool for about 2 hours then invert onto a rack. It can be wrapped tightly and kept at room temp for 3 days.

Obviously, once you have made it, you need to frost it or place icing upon it. May I recommend this cream cheese frosting / icing?

Slice and enjoy!



My daughter thought it would be fun to slice the cake as if the heart was broken

Postcript: All of my baking writing was triggered by memories of my grandmother, who taught me how to bake. I started with a story of her and ended up with recipes! But then I realised that that was because she said little, but did so much.

Two years ago, our festive season was cut through with much sorrow, and, in the same way that Paul Gallico's Jennie advocates that: "When in doubt - wash!"

For me, I figure, "When in doubt, bake!"

It's what I do when I am perturbed and in sorrow - things that keep your hands busy are always to be advocated. We made this carrot cake to welcome my husband home again after he had spent a week with his parents recently, as we missed him so very much - with him gone it's like the heart goes out of our little family.

So -

From the heart of my family, to yours - a recipe worth sharing


Bake, with love ... it may not mend a broken heart, but it sure can assuage some of your sorrows.