So, it was my sisters birthday last week. I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, and here I was thinking I'd make her a chocolatey nutella cake... but she came out with Carrot Cake.... you learn something new everyday! Carrot Cake, it was! I went online to look for some recipes... then I decided to check out my trusty Martha Stewart Wedding cake book. I remembered there was a carrot cake recipe in there. So, I took a gander and there it was, along with a yummy cream cheese frosting to go with it.
I was set, Martha, it was! So, I halved her recipe.. it was really pretty simple to prepare. Aside from grating 1lbs of carrots by hand (I MUST GET A FOOD PROCESSOR...STAT!), it was easy peasy! As an aside, I had a date that night, and mid-date I noticed my right hand was kind of orangey... I tried to hide it as best as I could... but in the end I guess it didn't really matter because I wasn't into the dude..... sigh... I digress.
Halving the recipe made good for a 10in cake! Also, I was going to layer the cake with the frosting, but I decided against it because I wasn't quite sure if halving the frosting would've been enough to coat and layer the cake... in the end I totally could've layered it.. notes for next time!
Oh, and also, the original recipe called for 1 cup of raisins.... I hate raisins.... i HATE raisins... like, why ruin perfectly good desserts and such with them.... challah with raisins... what? sticky buns with raisins? who? carrot cake with raisins... can I please get those raisins on the side.... same with oatmeal cookies.... I'll feel the raisins to the birds... as long as nothing bad happens to them.... So i substituted 1 cup of raisins with 1 cup of chopped walnuts! (My sister isn't a big fan of the whole raisin thing too, so it worked out well :) )
As another note, I changed the recipe up a bit.... below it shows 1.5 cups of veg oil.. I ran out so I used like 3/4 cup of veg oil and the rest with olive oil.... afterwards I should've tried it with apple sauce... I tasted the oil, I'm not sure if anyone else did. Also, I used my vanilla bean paste, the original recipe calls for 1 vanilla bean. I also changed up some of the spices... the original called for ginger and ground cloves.
Cake
3 c AP Flour
1 # carrots
3 eggs
1/3 c buttermilk
2 c sugar
1.5 c veg oil
1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
2 tsp bpowder
1 tsp b soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cardamom
1 cup chopped walnuts
Frosting
2 pkg Cream cheese
1/2 tspn vanilla
4 tblspn butter
1# 10X
Directions:
Cake
1. preheat oven to 325, grease up the pan, dust with flour
2. Whisk together: carrots, eggs, buttermilk, sugar, oil, vanilla
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinn, nutmeg, cardamom in separate bowl
4. Stir them together! Add nuts!
5. Put in pans, bake until done, BAM!
Frosting
1. Cream cream cheese and vanilla until creamy and light
2. Add butta... mix until well combined
3. Slowly add SIFTED 10x... BAM! DONE!
In conclusion: It was delicious. Next time I'll definitely use more spices because I couldn't really taste it... also maybe I'd use pecans instead of walnuts. I'd also definitely layer that sucker... I've still got that cream cheese frosting sitting in my fridge.
Below is a picture, please do not judge.... well, go ahead and judge, in fact, just put this up on cake wrecks, it deserves to be there. I had a lumpy lump of either butter or 10X in the piping bag, thus resulting in splooge. Also, the orange came out a bit too red and I should've put more of that ground up walnuts higher up on the sides. Also, I should've cared a bit more... I was in a rush :) I'd also like to note, that the frosting doesn't get super nice and stiff, so it wasn't the easiest to use for decorating.
Enjoy!
