Month: December 2011

This started life as the carrot cake recipe from _The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook_, Revised Edition. And then Anne tweaked it. Heavily.

h1. Carrot cake

h2. Ingredients

* 2 ^1^⁄~2~ cups spelt flour (all-purpose flour is acceptable)
* 1 ^1^⁄~4~ teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 ^1^⁄~4~ teaspoons cinnamon
* ^1^⁄~2~ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
* ^1^⁄~8~ teaspoon ground cloves
* ^1^⁄~2~ teaspoon salt
* 4 extra large eggs
* 1 ^1^⁄~4~ cups light brown sugar
* ^3^⁄~4~ cup granulated sugar
* 1 ^1^⁄~2~ cups coconut oil (melted)
* 1 ^1^⁄~2~ cups walnuts, toasted and chopped
* 1 cup raisins
* 2 pounds carrots, washed and grated (use a food processor, seriously)

h2. Recipe

# Make sure the oven rack is in the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
# Lightly coat a 9×13 cake pan with butter then line the bottom with parchment paper.
# Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.
# Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a *very* large bowl until frothy and the sugar is dissolved, 1 to 2 minutes with an electric hand mixer.
# Continue whisking the eggs and sugar as you add the oil, until the mixture is completely emulsified, about a minute.
# Gently whisk the flour mixture in until there are no streaks left.
# Stir in the carrots, walnuts and raisins. This will be an upper body workout.
# Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
# Bake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, assume a minimum of 50 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway through baking.
# Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack, about 2 hours.
# Run a paring knife around the perimeter of the pan, invert the fake onto the rack, peel off the parchment paper, then invert the cake again onto a serving platter.

h1. Icing

h2. Ingredients

* 8 oz cream cheese, softened
* 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
* 1 tablespoon plain yogurt
* ^1^⁄~2~ teaspoon vanilla extract (you can be liberal here)
* 1 ^1^⁄~4~ cups confectioner’s sugar

h2. Recipe

# Blend the cream cheese, butter, yogurt and vanilla until combined, 5 to 10 seconds.
# Add the confectioner’s sugar and continue to blend on low until smooth, scraping the bowl as needed, 15 to 30 seconds.
# Spread icing on cooled cake.