Carrot Cake

My husband loves carrot cake and I’ve been searching for a great recipe for awhile.  In the end I ended up at Cook’s Illustrated and of course the recipe was a winner!  I’m not a fan of a lot of icing on carrot cakes.  I find it takes away from the cake and it becomes more about the icing than the cake.  I like to have a very thin layer of cream cheese frosting.  Originally I was drizzling it on which would be a better presentation but I screwed that up and I ended up spreading it.  I tell you I always have big dreams about how I’m going to decorate a cake and in my mind it looks amazing but I have yet to execute any of my ideas well.  For this icing I used a little bit of cream cheese and mixed in some icing sugar to taste.

Carrot Cake
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated via Annie’s Eats

Note: I made half of the recipe below and used a round 9 inch cake pan

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb (6-7 medium) carrots, peeled
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups canola oil

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease 13 x 9 inch cake pan and line with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.  Set aside.

In a food processor fitted with the shredding disk (large holes), grate the carrots.  You should have approximately 3 cups.  Add the carrots to the dry ingredients.

Wipe out the bowl of the food processor and fit with the metal blade.  Add sugars and eggs.  Process for about 20 seconds.  Mixture should be frothy.  With the food processor on, slowly add the oil through the feed tube.  Process until mixture is light in colour and emulsified, about 20 more seconds.  Transfer this to a large bowl.  Add the dry ingredients and carrots.  Mix until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Smooth the top and gently tap the pan on the counter to release any air bubbles.  Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean, rotating pan halfway through.  Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack.  Frost as desired.  For my frosting I used a small amount of cream cheese (at room temperature) and mixed in icing sugar till it was to my desired sweetness.

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