Imperfectly Pink Carrot Cake!
Dia dhuit!! (hello!)
So this is my very first post, hopefully of many, on my very first food blog! It also happens to be my birthday so I thought what better day to kick things off aaand it might bring me a bit of luck! This year I fell in love with carrot cake and although it’s not a traditional birthday cake as such, those of you who know me and hopefully those of you who don’t but plan on sticking around will find out, I’m not exactly a traditional person! I like to beat to my own drum, always have, always will so I’m hoping to bring that to this blog and hoping more so that it resonates with all or even some of you. So here it goes, first blog, first recipe, an imperfectly pink birthday carrot cake!
This recipe is super super easy to do and hopefully just as easy for you to follow. I've omitted adding nuts or currants to the cake batter because I absolutely despise currants and I also think a smooth interior is a bigger crowd pleaser. That said, feel free to belt away and load yours up with all the bits, personal preference is a thing of beauty! If you have any questions or difficulties feel free to drop me a line and i'll do my best to help get you sorted or if you try it out let me know how it went!
IMPERFECTLY PERFECT CARROT CAKE!
recipe
⏲ PREP TIME: 35 minutes
⏲ BAKING TIME: 30 minutes
⏲ RESTING TIME: 20 minutes
🍰 SERVINGS: 16 slices
EQUIPMENT
stand/hand mixer
2 9inch cake tins
food weighing scale
grease proof paper
spatula
3 mixing bowls (2 large + 1 medium)
sieve
spinning cake stand (optional)
frosting spatula
INGREDIENTS
250 grams All Purpose Flour
2 tsp/ 10 grams Baking Powder
1 tsp/ 5 grams Baking Soda
300 grams Baby Carrots
200 grams Dark Brown Sugar
200 grams Granulated Sugar
4 large Eggs
300 ml Vegetable Oil
2 tsp/ 10 ml Vanilla Essence
1.5 tsp/ 8 grams Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp/ 2.5 grams Salt
200 grams Chopped Walnuts (Use your favourite nuts, as little or as much as your heart desires!)
Cream Cheese Frosting
225 grams/ 8 oz FULL FAT Cream Cheese(full fat is absolutely essential here or I wouldn't even bother)
8 tbsp/ 112 grams Unsalted Butter (Room temperature)
4 tbsp/ 60 ml Heavy Cream (You can use any % milk as a substitute here but I mean, in for a penny in for a pound, use the heavy cream!)
350g grams Confectioner's (Icing) Sugar
4 drops Pink Food Dye
INSTRUCTIONS
1.
Preheat your oven to 350°F, 180°C. Grease and line your two 9 inch tins, or whatever tins you would prefer, with butter/oil spray and grease proof paper. I like the 9 inch for a show stopper and it feeds the masses easily.
2.
The only annoying and/or time consuming part of this recipe is grating the carrots. I like to do it first and get it out of the way. I always cut my hand doing this but it's always worth it!
I highly recommend using baby carrots for this (not preshredded or big ones) risk the cuts and I gaurantee that the reward will be tenfold! I use the little part of the grater so they're super fine (I like a smooth interior on a cake), full of moisture and super delicious!
3.
Sieve flour, baking powder and soda into a bowl and add cinnamon and salt.
4.
In a second, large bowl, mix eggs with vanilla essence and vegetable oil. Add your brown and white sugar. (You can substitute light brown sugar if you don't have dark. I prefer the stronger molasses taste from the dark brown sugar for carrot cake but the light brown will also yield a delicious cake, you'll get no complaints either way!) With an electric or regular hand whisk give this a good mix until thoroughly combined, 2-3 minutes should do.
5.
Add your shredded carrots and mix through with a spatula. Finally, add your flour mix a bit at a time until completely combined. Very quick and easy!
6.
Pour your batter evenly into both tins. I like to weigh them to get it as even as possible but that's my own issue, a rough guess will suffice here!
Put tins into the oven for 30 minutes or until a cocktail stick or knife comes out clean from the center.
My oven is very tempermental (I just gifted myself an oven thermometer so i'm hoping it treats me right) but 30 minutes seems to be perfect for this cake! Get to know your oven and you'll eventually work in harmony, this takes a while but is worth it!
7.
Leave cakes to cool in tins for about 10 minutes and then turn them out onto a wire tray until they're cooled completely and ready to be frosted.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1.
Add cream cheese, room temperature butter and vanilla to a bowl and beat with an electric whisk on medium until smooth.
2.
Add sugar to mixture and mix with spatula before beating it on med/high.
Alternatively, you can add sugar a spoon at a time and beat, both methods ensure that the electric mixer doesn't throw the sugar out of the bowl.
If you have a stand mixer this shouldn't be an issue. Beat until you get a nice thick and smooth consistency, up to five minutes.
Add food dye two drops at a time and mix again until you get the shade you're looking for.
Cake Assembly
1.
When the cakes rise in the oven chances are the tops will still be slightly rounded once they cool. If they are too rounded to sit snuggly together you should use a sharp knife to cut off the excess, enough until you get an even top.
2.
Put a cake round base on your spinning cake stand (if you have one. I just got mine and I am sadly obsessed with it!)
Put a little bit of frosting in the middle and place one of your cakes down as a base.
Add about 1/3 of your frosting to the middle and smooth out evenly with a frosting spatula, if you prefer a thicker or thinner layer as your middle just do you, again it's a personal preference situation.
Add your top cake layer and repeat with frosting, covering sides until you get an all round smooth or uneven finish, depending on what aesthetic you're looking for here.
3.
This step is completely optional. I like to add chopped walnuts all along the edge of the surface top and along the sides. You can add whatever nut tickles your fancy.
If it's just a carrot cake kind of day, well done your cake is finished!! If it's for a birthday or a special occasion then it's time to decorate your cake even more!
Either or, this is probably my favourite cake recipe so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Bácáil Sona!! (Happy Baking!!)
NOTES
If you’re not in the mood for cake or just want to be a bit more low key then this recipe works amazingly as cupcakes. I make mine in regular cupcake trays and they yield about 24 cupcakes. I use the same cream cheese frosting on top of them and I like to do half with nuts and half just frosting to please everyone. If you want to spruce things up I highly recommend adding colour to your frosting, always an easy crowd pleaser. The cake looks phenomenal and is great for an event but I think the ratio of cake to icing is perfect on the cupcakes and I would highly recommend giving these a go!
