Carrot Cake

“Carrot Cake”🥕🎂 is here as promised! Baked this yesterday to celebrate Cris’s 18th birthday.🥳 It was emotional for me as he celebrated this milestone birthday with us so far away from his biological parents. I tried to make it as special as I could and like what all moms do best …is feed their children their favourite foods on their special day! I baked his favourite flavour of cake and cooked his favourite food for dinner. 😃
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Carrot cake is basically grated carrots mixed into the cake batter and the cake is frosted with white cream cheese frosting. The origin of carrot cake is quite disputed. It is believed that it was first made either in England, France or Switzerland. Many food historians believe carrot cake originated during the Middle Ages when sugar and sweeteners were expensive for most individuals and often hard to find, so many people used carrots as a substitute for sugar.

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Anil had introduced me to carrot cake more than a decade ago while we were in NY and I’ve liked it’s flavour ever since. Just never got around to making it, probably this was the occasion it was meant to happen.
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The carrot cake turned out amazing. Carrot cake with the sweetness of carrots and spiced with cinnamon, ginger & nutmeg tastes absolutely heavenly. It is frosted with cream cheese & butter frosting. This was my maiden attempt at frosting a cake…I have a long way to go in getting better at that.😅 I mostly like my cakes without frosting but since I was making it for Cris who has a special place for all things sweet, I thought of going through with it.

Using cream cheese for frosting is common in North America whereas my Brazilian teens share that it is more common to frost carrot cakes with chocolate fudge back home…I guess that’s an experiment for another time… another birthday!🤣 Everyone relished this decadent cake and I’m a happy mom!🥰

Ingredients:

For the carrot cake:

2 cups (250 grams) All-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Baking soda
1–1/2 Cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp Dry ginger powder
1/4 tsp Nutmeg powder
1/2 tsp Salt

3/4 cup (180ml) Vegetable oil
4 large eggs room temperature
1–1/2 cups (300 grams) Brown sugar
1/2 cup (100 grams) Refined sugar
1/2 cup (125 grams) unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp Pure vanilla extract
3 cups (300 grams) Grated carrots, lightly packed

For the cream cheese frosting:

1/2 package (75gm) cream cheese
1/2 package (50 grams) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup (60 grams) Powdered sugar
1 tsp Pure vanilla extract

Others:

2 tbsp roughly chopped walnuts
Few carrot curls

Instructions:

Grease a nine inch round baking pan with melted butter and dust with all purpose flour. Line the bottom of the pan with a parchment paper for easy release of cake.
Pre-heat oven to 350°F. If using a pressure cooker, heat it on low flame on the largest burner.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda cinnamon powder, dry ginger powder, nutmeg powder and salt together until they are combined well.
In a separate mixing bowl whisk together eggs, oil, brown sugar, white sugar, applesauce, and pure vanilla extract until they are combined well. Add the grated carrots to this mixture and combine well.
Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix using a rubber spatula only until they are just combined. Be sure not to over mix the batter.
For cooking in oven: Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350°F. For cooking in pressure cooker: Cook on lowest flame of the largest burner for about 40 minutes or until the top is settled and the skewer when inserted in the middle comes out clean. You may also leave the cake in the covered pressure cooker for 5 minutes after turning the flame off. The heat inside is enough for cooking further for a couple of minutes more. Make sure to keep a stand at the bottom of the cooker before placing the cake pan.
The cake when ready, is such bright orange🧡 in colour that you can eat it as is. But since I was making it for a young man, thought of going the extra mile and adding the frosting. It is totally optional.
To make the frosting: Using a hand-held mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the butter and mix for about 30 seconds-1 minute until well combined and smooth. Add in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract and continue mixing until fully combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Frost the cake when cool and garnish with chopped walnuts and carrot curls.