The Carrot Cake Project

The tiered Carrot Cake topped with chopped walnuts and pineapple chunks

For me, carrot cake is comfort food.

A slice of this decadent, moist, flavourful cake, full of chunks of nuts and fruits with sublimely delightful cream cheese frosting served with Lipton Ginger or Spiced Chai tea is my definition for an afternoon delight.

The other joy for me with carrot cake is how easy it is to make . It's literally one of those cakes where you can throw all your ingredients in at once...well not quite, but almost. it's just that simple.

I have an ex-colleauge who said to me that carrot cake wasn't a big hit with her family until I gave her this recipe, now she must bake a carrot cake at least once a month...it's such a hit. You can also make cupcakes with this recipe, just adjust your baking time.

I'm going to share my recipe with you. For those of you who have been following my posts, you know what I always say...make this recipe your own...add your own ingredients to match your own flavour profile. I hope you enjoy this cake and the simple process as much as I do.

The ingredients for my Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese frosting. Back row, L-R: carrots, ground cinnamon, vegetable oil, all purpose flour, sea salt. Middle row, L-R: pineapple chunks, vanilla extract, granulated sugar, baking soda. Front row, L-R: chopped walnuts, eggs, golden raisins.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs (at room temperature)

1 tsp. vanilla extract*

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour plus 1 tbsp. divided

2 tsps. ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. sea salt

2 tsps. baking soda

1 lb. grated carrots

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup raisins

1 cup pineapple chunks (1/2 cup for decorating; 1/2 cup for the batter)

Pre-prep

Chop your walnuts, grate your carrots, measure out your pineapple chunks and set aside. Grease and flour two 8" baking pans and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Directions

In your mixing bowl with paddle attacment mix the oil, sugar and eggs.

Beat these three ingredients together until the mixture is light yellow in colour. You may wonder what light yellow in colour means, but trust me, when you see it, you will know. It should look like the colour of butter. Now add the vanilla extract*.

* In the Caribbean most supermarkets and shops will carry essence. You can use an essece. You can even use almond essence as a substitute for the vanilla essence or extract. The extract flavour is stronger and truer than essence. But use what you have, you know what I say!

Sift the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon into another bowl and add this mixture of dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

When you add the dry ingredients to the mixture beat on slow speed until all the ingredients are fully incorporated. DO NOT OVER BEAT!

I chose to remove the paddle attachment for this step in the process, but you do whatever you're comfortable with because you will need some elbow room here. To the mixture fold in the pineapple chunks and grated carrots.

Folding is a simple process. It allows you to incorporate the ingredients into the batter without stirring or "disturbing" the mixture too much.

The folding process is specifically used in batters with foamed egg whites like Angel Food cakes and Chiffon cakes. Folding the egg foam into the cake batter prevents the foam from deflating so the cakes come out fluffy and light.

 

But back to our carrot cake. Using your spatula and starting from the middle of the bowl, fold the ingredients in by continuously passing the spatula blade lightly under the surface of the mixture until all the ingredients become part of the batter.

To complete the process, add the tablespoon of flour to the chopped walnuts and raisins and fold these into the batter.

Pour equal portions of your batter into your prepared baking pans and bake for 55mins to an hour. When your tester comes out clean after being stuck into the middle of your cakes, they are ready!

Cool your cakes on a wire rack until fully cooled then apply your topping.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

1/2 lb. unsalted butter

3/4 lb. cream cheese

1tsp. vanilla extract*

1 ld sifted confectioner's sugar, aka icing sugar, powdered sugar.

Directions

Mix the cream cheese and butter together until combined. Add the extract, remember I said before you can use vanilla essence here, but I wouldn't use the almond essence in the cream cheese frosting...alters the taste too much for my liking, but that's just me. Add the sifted confectioner's sugar to the cream cheese and butter, mixing on slow speedso that the sugar doesn't get all over everything, you included. Scape the sides of the bowl constantly until all the sugar is fully combined.

Decorate your cake and top with the reserved pineapple chunks and chopped walnuts. Now this is  the best part, cut a slice, a generous slice and have it with a cup of Lipton Ginger tea... the ginger just does domething to the flavours in your mouth and revel in the simple pleasures from your kitchen.

Look out for more helpful hints on  how to turn your kitchen into the one of the most magical rooms at home! Next time I'll go through the assembly of two-tiered cakes for that beautiful, simple, home-made look....

Decorate with candied carrot slices, candied ginger, chopped walnuts...get as creative as you want.