Since this whole coronavirus thing began, I haven’t baked any large, two-tier, frosted cakes. We are only a family of four, and a giant cake on a regular basis would be a bit much for us to handle. However, now that the weather is a bit nicer, it’s possible to have our neighbors visit at a discreet distance, and since my sister had been bugging me for a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for the past week, this carrot cake was born. (Not to be confused with my earlier, easier carrot cake.)
As a big fan of Bon Appétit, I riffed on BA’s Best Carrot Cake recipe by Claire Saffitz. Obviously, Claire has never done anything wrong ever in her life, but I did make some adjustments to some of the ingredients and the amount of sugar in her recipe. The method, however, is essentially the same.
My biggest triumph of this cake was that, for maybe only the second time in my life, I made enough frosting to easily cover the entire cake. Also, unlike nearly every other time I have frosted a cake, I took the time to crumb coat it, let it chill, and then do a second layer, and guess what? I didn’t end up crying over my crumb covered, messy looking cake. Go figure.
For decoration, I chose to make candied walnuts which are very simple to make and extremely delicious. I am certain my method is not the “correct” one, but it the trick, so if you’re interested, here is how I did it:
- Heat about half a cup of sugar and half a cup of water in a saucepan over medium heat and let it start to bubble.
- Dump in about a cup of walnuts and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
- Watch your walnuts carefully and as the water starts to evaporate and the sugar thickens. This will take a little time.
- Once the water has evaporated, stir the walnuts so that they are fully coated, and remove them from the heat once the sugar starts to darken. They can burn very easily at this point.
- Immediately spread them out onto a piece of parchment paper and let them cool in a fairly flat layer.
- Chop up for decoration.
Or, if that seems like too much effort, top with uncandied, toasted walnuts. They’re also delicious.
Recipe
For Cake:
Ingredients:
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 pound carrots (I used multicolor carrots for extra color inside the cake)
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
1/2 cup yogurt
2 inch piece of fresh ginger
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking powder
11/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons dark rum
3/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and line two 9” cake pans.
Toast your walnuts until golden brown, about 8-10 minutes.
Grate your carrots, either on a box grater or with a grater attachment in the food processor. Put in a large bowl.
Combine the yogurt and milk, and pour over the carrots.
Grate the fresh ginger into the bowl with the carrots and milk mixture. Stir to combine.
In a large bowl, combine the flours, ground cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Whisk to combine.
In a stand mixer, beat together the eggs and sugars until the mixture is much lighter in color and thicker in texture. The mixture should be able to fold on top of itself briefly when drizzled.
Beat in the vanilla extract and rum, and then add the coconut oil.
On a low speed, add about a third of the flour mixture, then about half the carrot mixture, the next third of the flour, etc. until all of the carrot mixture and flour mixture are combined.
Fold in the coconut and walnuts and make sure there are no dry pockets of flour.
Evenly distribute the batter between the two cake pans and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool completely before frosting.
For Frosting:
Ingredients:
12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1½ sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
2 cups powdered sugar
Method:
In a stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth.
Add the vanilla and salt.
On a low speed, add the powdered sugar until combined.
Assembly:
Once the cake has cooled completely, place a very small amount of frosting on your cake stand or plate to hold the bottom layer of your cake in place.
Generously frost your center layer, don’t worry if some goes over the side.
Place your top layer.
Thinly coat the entire cake. This is a crumb coat. There should be plenty of frosting leftover, and the cake will still be fairly visible through the frosting.
Chill your cake for at least 30 minutes. This is a good time to make candied walnuts.
After 30 minutes, frost the rest of the cake with the remaining frosting. It should be much easier to get an even layer now.
Decorate as you so choose.
Never Enough Counter Space 