Carrot Gold

I made this cake this weekend for our friend Edgar's birthday. It was a big hit and everyone went back for seconds. As a lover of carrot cake, I was interested in this cakes "lighter" recipe. It was still moist, sweet and not too heavy like some carrot cakes can be.

Light Carrot Cake
from America's Test Kitchen

You can either use the large holes of a box grater or the large holed
shredding disk in a food processor for grating the carrots. Use a
metal cake pan, not a glass or Pyrex pan, for best results. This cake
is terrific with a dusting of confectioners' sugar, or for a special
treat, try it with our Light Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below). I wanted a two layer cake, so divided the batter into equal parts and used two 8 inch circle pans lined with parchment.

Serves 16
Vegetable cooking spray
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon table salt

3 large eggs
1 cup packed light brown sugar (7 ounces)
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used Canola which is the healthiest of the veg. oils)
1 pound carrots (about 6 medium), peeled and grated (about 3 cups)

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350
degrees. Lightly coat a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan with vegetable
oil spray, then line the bottom with parchment paper.

2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt
together in a medium bowl; set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat
the eggs and sugars together in a medium bowl until they turn thick
and creamy, 1 to 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low and slowly whip in
the oil until thoroughly combined and emulsified, 30 to 60 seconds.
Sift half the flour mixture over the batter and gently mix in. Repeat
once more with the remaining flour mixture and continue to whisk the
batter gently until most of the lumps are gone (do not overmix). Using
a rubber spatula, gently stir in the carrots.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top. Bake
until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with
a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the pan
halfway through baking (do not overbake). Cool the cake in the pan for
10 minutes, then invert the cake onto a wire rack and remove the
parchment paper. Flip the cake right-side up, and cool completely on a
wire rack, about 2 hours, before frosting (if desired) and serving.

**You can also had some toasted walnuts if desired. Stir about 1/3-1/2 cup into the batter when adding carrots.


Light Cream Cheese Frosting


The original recipe said to "be sure to mix the frosting by hand—an electric mixer or food
processor will turn the frosting soupy." However, even though I softened my cream cheese, I was left with a lot of lumps that refused to come out. I put on one layer of lumpy frosting to do a "crumb coating", put it in the fridge to harden for about 30 mins. Meanwhile, I busted out my handmixer and whipped the rest of the frosting on a low speed which made the lumps disappear. I then finished off frosting the cake and added some freshly grated nutmeg on the top for garnish. I also added about one tablespoon of maple syrup and some freshly grated nutmeg right to the frosting for another element.

Makes about 2 cups
12 ounces Neufchatel (1/3 less fat) cream cheese , softened but still cool
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (6 ounces)

Mix the cream cheese and vanilla together in a large bowl with a
rubber spatula. Add the confectioners' sugar and stir until thoroughly
combined and smooth.