My "The Best Carrot Cake I Ever Ate" Recipe

A while back someone requested a carrot cake for her mother's 90th birthday. I found a recipe from  Adora's Box which added some orange peel and an orange brown butter glaze. I usually drench my layers so this was a nice touch that fit right in with my methods. In my digging around I ran across a few recipes that had you macerate the grated carrots to release their juices before adding them to the batter. Brilliant!

It was to have a crown and a quilted pattern. Because of the quilting I needed a firm cream cheese frosting. I wound up with a frosting that worked OK but was still a bit wetter than perfect. 

Just recently another carrot cake request came in and I really wanted a smooth surface. About that time I found what was called a "Not too sweet Cream Cheese Frosting" and it was supposed to be pipable. By itself was a bit grainy for my taste. 

The reviews came in for the cake and my customer said that she was told over and over that "This was the best carrot cake I ever ate!" She added that everyone was in their 80s so they should know.  Here is a tidbit of history from "The Carrot Cake Lady" 

The popularity of carrot cake was likely revived in Britain because of rationing during the Second World War. Carrot cakes first became commonly available in restaurants and cafeterias in the United States in the early 1960s. They were at first a novelty item, but people liked them so much that carrot cake became standard dessert fare. In 2005, the American-based Food Network listed carrot cake, with it's cream-cheese icing, as number five of the top five fad foods of the 1970s.

Ingredients

Makes enough for one 9-inch, three-layer cake. It made two 10” layers for me

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (fresh is best)

1/4 tsp allspice

1 stick butter, room temperature, plus more for pans

1 cup oil

1 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs (room temperature)

1 TB Vanilla extract

¼ cup orange Juice

¼ cup buttermilk

1 pound carrots (8 to 10 medium carrots), peeled and shredded on a box grater or in a food processor (about 3 cups) finely shredded is best. I used a microplane.

1 TB grated orange peel

2 cups pecans These can be eliminated if you want to go nutless. (1 cup finely chopped for batter, 1 cup coarsely chopped for decorating sides of cake)

Directions 

One thing to keep in mind is to make sure your spices are fresh. If you are like me I only use allspice once in a great while. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with

parchment paper. Dust with flour, tapping out excess. Whisk together flour, baking powder,

baking soda, cinnamon, salt, ginger, allspice and nutmeg.

 

Grate carrots and add ¼ cup of the white sugar. Let it macerate for on half hour. You should

see liquid in the bowl.

 

Beat butter and sugars with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at

time, beating well after each addition. Beat 3 minutes. Add oil, vanilla, and orange 

juice, zest, buttermilk, and carrots with the liquid. Beat until well combined, about 2 minutes. 

Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture, then the finely chopped pecans.

 

Scrape batter into prepared pans, dividing evenly. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until

golden brown and a toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean, about 30 minutes. 

Let cool in pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around edges of cakes to loosen

and turn out cakes onto rack. Turn right side up, and let cool completely. 

Brush each layer with Brown Butter and Orange Glaze

Place one trimmed cake, cut side up, on a serving platter. Spread 1 cup frosting over cake

Top with second trimmed cake, cut side down. Spread 1 cup frosting over cake. Top with

remaining cake. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides. 

Gently press coarsely chopped pecans onto sides of cake. 

Refrigerate 1 hour before serving.

Ingredients for the brown butter and orange glaze:

·       1/2 c. butter

·       1/4 c. dark brown sugar

·       1/4 c. orange juice (Wouldn’t a splash of Gran Marinier be good too?)

Directions:

Heat up small saucepan. Add the butter and let melt on medium heat until it bubbles up

and brown flecks rise to the surface. The melted butter should be brown. 

Add in the brown sugar and orang juice and stir until the sugar melts. 

 

Easy Cream Cheese Frosting for Carrot Cake

·       16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

·       2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

·       2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and brought to room   temperature

·       1 tsp orange zest

·       2 pounds confectioners' sugar, sifted

Directions

Beat cream cheese and vanilla with a mixer on medium speed until creamy. Gradually add butter, beating until incorporated after each addition. Add in orange zest.

     Reduce speed to low. Gradually add confectioners' sugar, and beat until fluffy and smooth.

A year later the recipient of the cake said all he wanted for his birthday was another one of those carrot Cakes! Nice to be remembered.

I did not use this but thought it might come in handy if I tweaked the graininess.

Not Too Sweet Cream Cheese Frosting from The Scran Line

Ingredients

Makes 1 batch frosting / Enough for 20 cupcakes

I frosted the outside of a 10" cake with enough for dams around each of three layers.

 

·       250g (1 cup) full-fat cream cheese blocks (not spreadable), chilled

·       250g (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

·       350g (12.3 oz) icing (confectioners’) sugar sifted

·       150g (5.3 oz) powdered milk (skim or full-fat)

·       2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

·       2 TB heavy whipping cream

·       1 TB Gran Marnier (Optional)

 

Method

Place the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Alternatively, you can use a hand mixer. Mix on low speed to begin with, to help break up the cream cheese a little, then increase the speed to high for a couple of minutes to help combine the cream cheese and butter.

After a couple of minutes, stop your mixer and scrape down the side of the bowl with a spatula. Add the icing sugar, powdered milk and vanilla. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated, then bring the speed back up to high. Continue beating on high speed until your frosting is fluffy and turns pale in color.

 

·       NOTES: It’s important to always mix this frosting on high speed. The only time you mix it on low speed is after you’ve added the dry ingredients. Mixing on high speed helps to aerate the frosting, giving it volume and making it easier to pipe.  This was also grainy without the additional cream (and Gran Marnier!) After it sat for an hour it was much better. Possibly the graininess would have gone away after sitting without the cream. I never tried to pipe since the cake’s design didn’t call for it but it was stiff enough to make a smooth surface for the cake. I found the frosting to be much less sweet than traditional recipes so I mixed half of the sweeter recipe with it.