Classic Carrot Cake

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This must be my second time making carrot cake. The first time happened years ago and I wasn’t this experienced with recipes and ingredients so I chose a recipe that had too much vegetable oil. As you might expect, I ended up with an oily, quite dense cake that tasted like oil and sugar rather than a good cake, therefore I didn’t like it. But I decided to give it one more try today and this is what I made – an airy, moist, fragrant carrot cake with bits of crushed pineapple and walnuts, filled and frosted with a rich, smooth cream cheese Swiss meringue buttercream flavored with plenty of vanilla and a touch of orange zest. And surprise! I love it so much that I had two slices as I was taking pictures and I am incredibly tempted to have a third slice. Someone stop me now!!! This cake is addictive! If you love spices as bold flavors as much as I do, you will fall in love with this cake. I’m mainly saying this for those of you who never had carrot cake before – I didn’t until a few years ago as adding veggies to desserts is definitely something unusual for Romanians.

The moist layers of cake and the rich, creamy, luscious filling are a match made in heaven! The sponge truly surprised me because ever since my other try, I had no real expectations and I’ve kept delaying making this cake for that reason. But here it is – a second try and one of the best cakes I had lately (except entremets, of course, but they are a different category). I’m seriously addicted to this stuff and I’m thinking to make one that has ginger and star anise as spices, just to be in tone with the season or maybe one that uses grated pumpkin instead of carrot. Gotta love a versatile recipe!

This carrot cake is just as you might expect it – moist, fragrant, the perfect bite with the cream cheese filling.

Servings :1 cake

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Ingredients

Carrot Cake

200 g vegetable oil (sunflower oil, canola oil)
200 g white granulated sugar
80 g light brown sugar
3 large eggs
5 g vanilla extract
5 g orange zest
280 g all-purpose flour
4 g baking soda
6 g baking powder
2 g salt
1 g cinnamon powder
200 g grated carrots
100 g shredded coconut
200 g crushed pineapple (drained)
70 g walnuts (toasted and chopped)

Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream

3 egg whites
130 g white sugar
1 g salt
10 g vanilla extract
5 g orange zest
145 g butter (softened)
300 g cream cheese (room temperature)
¼ cup powdered sugar (optional)
Toasted shredded coconut to decorate

Candied Carrot Curls:

2 small carrots
⅔ cup sugar
⅔ cup water

Instructions

Carrot cake:

Preheat your oven to 350°F – 175°C – and line your round cake pans with baking paper. I used 2 small pans of 18cm Ø then cut the cake in half to make 4 layers, but you can use bigger pans, keeping in mind that a bigger pan won't yield 4 layers, but 2 or 3.
Sift the flour with baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.
Combine the oil, sugars, eggs, vanilla and orange zest in a bowl and mix until double in volume and light in color.
Gently stir in the flour, either with your mixer on low speed or with a spatula.
Fold in the crushed pineapple, carrots, coconut and walnuts.
Pour the batter into your prepared pans and bake for 30-40 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test.
When done, remove the pans from the oven and let the cakes cool completely.
Level up the cakes if needed and cut them in half lengthwise. (Remember that if you used a bigger pan, cutting in half may not be possible anymore)

Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

Combine the egg whites, sugar and salt in a heatproof bowl.
Place the bowl over a hot water bath (make sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl) and heat the mixture up until the sugar is melted, mixing all the time.
Once the sugar is melted and the mixture is frothy and hot, remove from heat and using an electric mixer, mix the whites for 8-10 minutes or until the bowl cools down completely and the whites turn into a stiff and glossy meringue.
Add the butter, all at once, and mix on medium speed for 5-7 minutes. Once you add the butter, the mixture will become soupy, but keep mixing. A few minutes later, it will curdle up, but keep mixing. 2 more minutes and it will become creamy and so so delicious!
Spoon the cream cheese in a different bowl and stir in the vanilla and orange zest. Mix it well with an electric mixer until creamy and smooth.
Add the buttercream you made earlier, spoon by spoon and mix until well incorporated.
It’s done when you’ve incorporated all the buttercream.
At this point, if you want it sweeter, you can add some powdered sugar. If not, use it to fill your cakes.
Reserve about ⅓ of the buttercream to frost the cake.
Once covered in buttercream, cover the sides of the cake with toasted shredded coconut or coconut flakes.

Candied Carrot Curls:

Wash your carrots well then using a vegetable peeler, peel thin ribbons of carrot.
Mix the water with sugar in a small saucepan and place over medium flame.
Bring to a boil then add the carrot ribbons.
Cook for 10-15 minutes until the syrup becomes thick and the carrot ribbons become slightly translucent.
Remove from heat and let the carrot peels cool in the syrup.
Drain the carrot ribbons and spread them in a baking pan lined with parchment paper.
Cook in the preheated oven at 350F – 175C – for 10-15 minutes just until they begin to become slightly golden brown. What happens is that the sugar begins to caramelize. Watch them closely as they burn easily.
Remove from the oven and while still warm (not hot as caramelized sugar burns easily) wrap them around the handle of a wooden spoon (or around some Chinese chosticks in my case) and let them cool completely. If the ribbons in the pan begin to harden and are difficult to curl, place the pan back in the oven for 3-4 minutes.
Decorate the cake with carrot curls and serve it chilled.

Keyword Butter, Buttercream, Carrot, Cinnamon, Cream cheese

Classic Carrot Cake