TWD: Bill's Big Carrot Cake

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick comes from Amanda of Slow Like Honey. She choose one of my favorite cakes to eat...Carrot Cake! Yum! While I am normally not a big carrot eater, I love carrot cake. I really don't know why. Could it be the sweetness of the carrot in the cake? Perhaps. All I know is I have never met a carrot cake that I didn't like and this one was no exception. It may even be my new favorite.

The recipe called for three cups of grated carrot or about nine whole carrots. I used 9 but I'm pretty sure I had more than slightly more than three cups. I ended up just using all that I had, I don't think it made big difference. I was going to use pecans but when it came time to making the cake, I realized I didn't have any! Well, I did but they weren't shelled and that takes forever! So no nuts in it this time. I doubled the amount of dried cranberries to make up for the lack of nuts and also added a bit more coconut. Coconut and dried cranberries was a new one for me. I can't remember ever having a carrot cake with dried cranberries before this one. It was definitely very tasty! I will have to try it again, maybe next time I will have pecans to put in it!

Instead of making one large cake (after all its just little ol' me) I made half the batch in regular size cupcakes and froze them for breakfast at work later. With the rest of the batch, I used my recently acquired mega muffin pan (I permanently borrowed it from my mom...what? She wasn't using it!) It made 6 big cupcakes. When they first came out of the oven, the first thing that popped into my mind was the spotted dick (hey! get your mind out of the gutter!) that I had during my semester in London. While the carrot cake made it different, the texture and the cranberries just screamed spotted dick to me. So I whipped up a batch of pastry cream with a bit of cinnamon thrown in to go with the carrot cake and voila! Heather's Make Shift Spotted Dick! Now all I need is a real recipe for it and I'll be set!

Besides looking pretty, this cake was very moist. It also tasted like it had honey in it. It doesn't but for some reason, my taster and I both agreed that it was very honey like in taste. The cranberries also added something very tasty to the cake. They didn't overwhelm the carrotness but added a fruity sweetness that was so good.

I was content to just stay with the pastry cream and not make the icing but my taster (who tried it with just the cake only) said he thought it would be good with just cream cheese spread on top. So I came home and whipped up a modified frosting from this recipe. Using less sugar let the cream cheese more dominant and the frosting didn't over power the cake with sweetness (I love frosting but sometimes its just too sweet.) I wanted more of a lemon taste to come through so I used about tablespoon of lemon juice. It ended up being more of a glaze than a frosting which I liked better with the carrot cake.

This was a great pick this week. I'll definitely be making this one again! Thanks for choosing such a tasty recipe Amanda! Come back next week for Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake as selected by Caitlin of Engineer Baker. Please check out the other bakers at Tuesdays with Dorie to see their Carrot Cake takes!

Bill's Big Carrot Cake

Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Yields 10 servings

Ingredients:

For the cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
3 cups grated carrots (about 9 carrots, you can grate them in food processor fitted w/ a shredding a blade or use a box grater)
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
½ cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden) or dried cranberries
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 large eggs

For the frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick ( 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 pound or 3 and ¾ cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or ½ teaspoon pure lemon extract
½ cup shredded coconut (optional)
Finely chopped toasted nuts and/or toasted shredded coconut (optional)

Getting ready:
Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter three 9-x-2-inch round cake pans, flour the insides, and tap out the excess. Put the two pans on one baking sheet and one on another.

To make the cake:
Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, stir together the carrots, chopped nuts, coconut, and raisins.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the sugar and oil together on a medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one by one and continue to beat until the batter is even smoother. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear. Gently mix the chunky ingredients. Divide the batter among the baking pans.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until a thin knife inserted into the centers comes out clean. The cakes will have just started to come away from the sides of the pans. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes and unmold them. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.
The cakes can be wrapped airtight and kept at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.

To make the frosting:
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the frosting is velvety smooth. Beat in the lemon juice or extract.
If you'd like coconut in the filling, scoop about half of the frosting and stir the coconut into this position.

To assemble the cake:
Put one layer top side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. If you added the coconut to the frosting, use half of the coconut frosting to generously cover the first layer (or generously cover with plain frosting). Use an offset spatula or a spoon to smooth the frosting all the way to the edges of the layer. Top with the second layer, this time placing the cake stop side down, and frost with the remainder of the coconut frosting or plain frosting. Top with the last layer, right side up, and frost the top- and the sides- of the cake. Finish the top with swirls of frosting. If you want to top the cake with toasted nuts or coconut, sprinkle them on now while the frosting is soft.
Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes, just to set the frosting before serving.

Serving:
This cake can be served as soon as the frosting is set. It can also wait, at room temperature and covered with a cake keeper overnight. The cake is best served in thick slices at room temperature and while it's good plain, it's even better with vanilla ice cream or some lemon curd.

Storing:
The cake will keep at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. It can also be frozen. Freeze it uncovered, then when it's firm, wrap airtight and freeze for up to 2 months. Defrost, still wrapped, overnight in the refrigerator.