Carrot Cake

It's been a bit since my last post, but I promise I'm still baking away! I've just been on a baking kick with some more American style desserts rather than GBBO desserts of late. But you know I'll always find my way back - especially with news that the newest season of GBBO has finished filming! 

This week on Bake the GBBO is dedicated to CARROT CAKE. ​

I have never been a particularly huge fan of carrot cake. Miranda, you may wonder, why the hell did you bake one then? 

Because I received a carrot the size of my forearm through the grocery delivery service I like to use: Imperfect Foods. The link is my referral link - and I will get the standard "refer-a-friend" bonuses if you use it to sign up for the service. I'm not affiliated with Imperfect in any way - I just really enjoy the service they provide and the products. 

Anyway. Back to the cake. I had a giant carrot. I needed to make use of it. I had no good ideas for incorporating that much carrot into dinner - so carrot cake seemed the best option. And it's probably for the best I chose to make carrot cake. This carrot was so big that I was able to make two full size carrot cakes with it. 

I also wound up making two types of frosting, so lots of adventures!

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Carrot cake is one of those cakes that has come up on GBBO not because it's a specific feature for episodes, but because it wound up working with a baker's Showstopper Theme.

When I was making this recipe I realized that it fit somewhat with the "Fresh Fruit" cake signature challenge from series 8 (Netflix 5), episode 1. It also fit well for series 6 (Netflix 3), episode 10's showstopper challenge - Classic British Cake. Carrot cake was also part of some other showstoppers throughout the series - but I didn't really follow the theme for those bakes...sooo we're going to stick with these two episodes. 

I started with a base recipe for carrot cake - and then I tweaked it a little bit after noticing that Paul Hollywood included orange in his carrot cake recipe. That sounded good, but I wanted to do something different from a Hollywood recipe...so I wound up experimenting and going off on my own flavor adventure. 

I think it came out well. So did some of my taste testers. ;) 

My base recipe started with this recipe from Inspired Taste. Because carrots are a sweeter vegetable, I cut the sugar down in the recipe. Then I added some extra spices and the orange that I mentioned reading about in Paul Hollywood's carrot cake recipe. Below is my modified recipe. 

Ingredients
For the Cake

• 250 grams (2 c) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 290 ml canola oil
• 150 grams (3/4 c) granulated sugar
• 150 grams (3/4 c) lightly packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• zest of 1 orange
• juice of half an orange
• 4 large eggs
• 300 grams grated carrots
• 100 grams coarsely chopped walnuts/pecans
• For the second cake I made, I omitted the nuts to provide better variety for friends and family getting some of the cake. 
• The original recipe called for raisins. I hate raisins, so I left them out entirely. You do you, though. 

For the Creamy Frosting

• This is different from cream cheese frosting - it's a little wetter and not as thick and heavy, so it doesn't coat the entire cake. It's less sweet, which I liked. 
• 225 grams (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 140 grams (1 1/4 c) powdered sugar
• 80 ml heavy whipping cream
• 50 grams coarsely chopped walnuts/pecans

For Traditional Cream Cheese Frosting

• 450 grams (16 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 120-ish grams (1 stick)  butter, softened
• 224-253 grams (2 to 2.5 c) powdered sugar
  • The original recipe called for 4 to 4.5 cups of sugar. I wound up cutting this down because I wanted more tang from the cream cheese and less sweet. The cake itself is also fairly sweet, so this was a good balance. You can definitely add more sugar to suit your tastes, but this wound up being perfect for my household. 
• 1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch of salt
• milk to thin if needed, 1 tbsp at a time

Method
This is pretty much the method from Inspired Taste, with minor adjustments on my part. I also had to grate my own carrot, which was...a hell of an arm workout, to be quite honest. 
 
1) Pre-heat the oven to 350F (176C). Grease two 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper then grease the top of the paper. Or, grease and flour the bottom and sides of both pans.

2) In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and spices until well blended.

3) In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, sugars, vanilla, orange zest, and orange juice. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, until combined. 

4) Switch to a rubber spatula or metal spoon. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl then fold the dry ingredients into the batter in 3 parts. Stir in the carrots and nuts. And raisins if you must. 

5) Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans. Bake until the tops of the cake layers are springy when touched and when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes.

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6) Cool cakes in pans for 15 minutes then turn out onto cooling racks. 

7) In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with a handheld mixer on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute.

8) For creamy frosting:

• Beat in the powdered sugar, a 1/4 cup at a time until fluffy. Pour in cream and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Chill covered until ready to frost cake.

For traditional frosting:

• Beat the butter and cream cheese together for a couple of minutes until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt and continue to beat the mixture for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add a tablespoon of milk if it's too thick. I didn't have an issue with this, but I also added half the sugar the original recipe called for. 

9) When the cake layers are completely cool, frost the top of one cake layer, place the other cake layer on top. Decoratively swirl the top of the cake with remaining frosting if using the creamy frosting, leaving the sides unfrosted. Scatter nuts on top. If using the traditional cream cheese frosting, fully frost the cake like you would a regular layer cake. Decorate with nuts or without, as you prefer. ​

Final Thoughts
Carrot cake is a pretty easy cake, honestly. And this recipe is very straightforward. With or without my modifications to it. The Inspired Taste recipe came out nice and moist, and I enjoyed it a lot. 

I routinely struggle with decoration, so my decorations are generally pretty simple - or I don't do them at all - but this cake is pretty easy if you just do a decorative swirl and a sprinkling of nuts. 

I really don't think you can go wrong with this recipe as long as you follow the instructions! 

I am planning to bake some bread soon. And attempt number 3 at English muffins. I'm not sure when my next post will go up, but it is in the works! ;)