Adventures In the Kitchen

Every once in a while I have a complete failure in the kitchen. Kids underfoot, distraction, or atmospheric conditions can drastically alter the finished product. Yesterday was a day where we had 150% humidity due to afternoon thunderstorms. Most people who bake a lot would recognize this as a sign to stay OUT of the kitchen and away from anything that has to do with chemistry, but every once in a while I conveniently forget and end up with an unusable dessert, bread, candy...it's happened quite a bit, you see.

I created a carrot cake recipe a few years ago that my family really enjoys. I have never been a fan of regular carrot cakes; they're either too dense, too nutty, too sweet, or too oily. With a weekly supply of delicious garden-fresh carrots from our CSA, however, I was getting creative with many things carrot related. It was only a matter of time before I looked into putting them in a cake. I combined several recipes and substituted butter for some of the oil. It's still very high in fat (even though other recipes call for 1 1/2 cups oil!), but with the addition of whole wheat pastry flour and lots of carrots, there are some healthy factors too, especially compared to a regular chocolate or vanilla cake. This is the main reason why I chose to bring carrot cupcakes to my son's last T-Ball game this morning. Coupled with the cream cheese in the icing they're a better choice for a treat than, say, Rice Krispy Treats (which one team had last week).

I'm getting ahead of myself. I was talking about flops above. Ha! I have made this recipe numerous times, in the form of beautiful layer cakes sprinkled with toasted walnuts, but yesterday I watched as the cupcakes sank into the muffin cups, creating big craters. Ugh. Did I mention I tried these while a thunderstorm was in progress? I was annoyed, to say the least. After my husband got home from work I headed to the grocery store and thought about my little failure. I returned to a quiet house, no rain, kids in bed, and decided to try again, especially since the previous cakes were all wonderful. Success! I cut the recipe in half to make 12 cupcakes, and they turned out just fine. The carrots in the batter do make them a bit craggy in appearance (as expected), but the crumb is moist and tasty, and the icing is classically divine.

Carrot Cake

Use organic or garden-fresh carrots for the best flavor.

3 cups grated carrots (loosely packed)

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup canola oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat PASTRY flour

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

chopped, toasted walnuts, optional*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8 or 9" round pans, line with parchment, and lightly grease the parchment.

Place the grated carrots on a clean cutting board and chop finely (this gives a more fine, less tweedy texture to the cake).

Cream the butter, oil, and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla. Add the salt, cinnamon, soda, powder, and flours. Beat until just barely mixed; some flour should remain. Add carrots and mix well.

Pour into prepared pans, dividing evenly. Bake 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans, the remove to wire racks. (Usually I leave cakes IN the pans to cool, but this cake is so moist it does better cooling out of the pan.)

Trim layers evenly and frost with Cream Cheese Icing. Decorate with chopped walnuts, if desired.

Cream Cheese Icing:

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 8 oz brick cream cheese, softened

2-3 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Beat together the butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Add vanilla and 2 cups powdered sugar, beating well. Add more sugar, if necessary, to achieve the desired consistency (and taste for sweetness). For the T-Ball cupcakes I used very little powdered sugar, resulting in a lightly sweet, loose icing that I just dolloped on the tops of the cakes. If you're wanting to ice a layer cake, you'll need a thick, spreadable consistency.

*To toast walnuts, place whole nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until browned, about 10-15 minutes. Let cool, then chop. Or, you can place them in a skillet and toast them on the stovetop, shaking the pan as needed to brown them evenly.