Concept Cooking: Carrot Cake

I made this for Easter, and was asked for the recipe. Anyone who has read any of my cooking threads knows I don't use recipes, I cook by concept. I'm attempting to make a recipe of what I did, and why I did so, in hopes others might try it too. It's the best carrot cake I have ever had, to me this was what carrot cake is supposed to taste like. Definitely, to my taste, the best I have ever had.

Parameters:
I used a 7 x 9 x 2.5 pan, so the recipe was scaled to go in that. That's a good sized cake for two of us.
I can't currently eat dairy products for health reasons, so I didn't use any. I do use eggs and gelatin.
I don't like white flour.
I don't mind using some sugar, but I don't like things that are very sweet (no matter what sweetener I use)
I like CARROT cake not carrot CAKE, I used a LOT of carrot.  I saw recipes that used that much carrot, but it made a cake 3 times the size of mine.

Recipes that I looked at for ideas:
Basic pound cake, something along these lines Classic Pound Cake with Only 4 Ingredients! White flour, eggs, butter, sugar.
I don't see it on that recipe, but usually you beat the batter for 8-10 minutes to get the eggs to raise a pound cake right.

Carrot Cake Pound Cake
They soaked currants  in brandy, I did raisins in Triple Sec orange flavored liqueur. I liked their idea of pouring simple syrup on it, but made it my style instead.

Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting - No Refined Sugar An excellent recipe! I saw recipes that used 5 cups of powdered sugar (ewww, NO!) this uses 3 tablespoons of maple syrup, and that's all it needs, tastes great!  


Night before: I soaked about 3/4 cup of raisins in enough Triple Sec to cover them. I got out 1 stick of butter to come to room temperature.

Grated around 4 cups carrots. Drained the raisins, keeping the liquid.
Oven on 350.  Greased the pan really well.
Beat in a bowl 1 stick of butter, about 1/3 cup sugar till mixed well, added about 3/4 cup whole wheat flour, about 1 cup oat flour, about 1.5 tsp powdered anise, about 2 tsp vanilla. Beat it all really well.
Added 3 eggs, beat it for 8-10 mins.
By hand stirred in the raisins, then 1/3 of the carrots, until they were mixed in well, then the next 1/3, stir it well, and the last 1/3 is kind of hard to get in, stir it in till it's all well mixed.
Pour it in the pan. Bake until a knife comes out clean.

Take the liquid from soaking, mix it with water to total about 1/2 cup, add about 1 tablespoon of gelatin, heat it till the gelatin melts (don't let it boil) stab the cake with a fork all over, pour the gelatin over it all, refrigerate till it's totally cool and set.

For the icing: I almost followed the recipe!
I used a box of firm tofu (not the kind in water, the kind in a box, it's 12. something ounces) put it in the blender, about 1/4 cup coconut milk, 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 2 tsp bottled lemon juice, pinch of salt, then I changed it...
I had no maple syrup, my options were blackstrap molasses, which sounded too dark, or sorghum syrup,I used 3 Tablespoons sorghum syrup. I have no xanthan gum, I used 2 heaping teaspoons of glutinous rice flour. Blended it all up, tasted it, that's REALLY good! I recommend that recipe, I kept it in my files, I'll use that one again.

To serve, I didn't ice the cake, I served pieces of cake and the icing in a bowl, we just glopped some on. Kept the icing from drying out in the fridge.

The whole cake was nutrient dense, not crumbly without being a brick, it's surprisingly light. The orange flavor disappeared, was a waste of Triple Sec. I'd say soak the raisins in anything, I'll probably do something like apple juice or cardamon tea next time. The anise was excellent, I am bored by the "normal" spices in carrot cakes, next time I may use Five Spice (star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Szechuan peppercorns, and fennel seeds) or ginger.

It was by far the best carrot cake I have ever made, well worth trying once if you like CARROT cake, not carrot CAKE. Not too sweet, but definitely cake, not bread. The gelatin added firmness without toughening it, and adds a bit of protein. Using juice or spiced tea instead of water with the gelatin would have been good.

Ever made a CARROT cake that came out well? With enough carrots that it's a serving of vegetables and not sticky sweet?  Got neat variants? Tell us! I'd love to get more ideas

:D

Edit: I didn't get a picture of it, but if I had, it would have looked sort of like this:

That sounds delicious! I made a carrot quick bread recently. I was told I couldn't call it cake because it wasn't sweet enough, but it tasted plenty sweet to me. I used chai spice, and for maximum flavor I browned the butter and bloomed the spices in the hot butter. I want to try it with anise next! Christmas cookies are the only time I've had aniseseed, so it's been way underutilized in my home. Pouring gelatin over your cake was an interesting touch. I hadn't thought about trying that, yet I know I've seen recipes for "jello poke cakes" that do something similar. I guess I didn't realize it could serve a purpose besides just adding flavor to a dull cake (since the recipes I've seen have all been white cake).

Nikki Roche wrote:That sounds delicious! I made a carrot quick bread recently. I was told I couldn't call it cake because it wasn't sweet enough, but it tasted plenty sweet to me.

I cook for me and my mom, and we don't want things that are too sweet, we consider it cake!

I used chai spice, and for maximum flavor I browned the butter and bloomed the spices in the hot butter. I want to try it with anise next! Christmas cookies are the only time I've had aniseseed, so it's been way underutilized in my home.

I have always liked anise a lot, and at one of the weird scratch and dent stores I shop at I found about a quart of ground anise seed (I have always bought whole) for about 5.00. Definitely worth bringing home and playing with!

Pouring gelatin over your cake was an interesting touch. I hadn't thought about trying that, yet I know I've seen recipes for "jello poke cakes" that do something similar. I guess I didn't realize it could serve a purpose besides just adding flavor to a dull cake (since the recipes I've seen have all been white cake).

I learned that as a kid, doing it like you said, with jello over boring cakes. These days I use it to help hold low gluten baked goods together, add protein, and add flavors that don't come out of a box. Also helps hold together cakes that are more carrot than cake, I didn't want it to turn to scrambled cake, which we have had before.  :D

The gelatin trick is brilliant, Pearl! I'm not fond of white flour either. I prefer to use finely ground nut "flours", but they are tricky to get to hold together, so I haven't experimented as much as I'd like. I've heard that including psyllium husks in the recipe can help with binding things together too and improving texture, but haven't had a chance to try it myself.

I would probably be tempted to try incorporating some amount of nut flour into a carrot cake. I just make mine in the food processor. Finer ground would probably be better, but I work with what I have. I love the texture nut flour gives. Walnut or pecan seem like they could be yummy options. Plus it would add some extra protein and fat.

I was using gelatin for the protein, chia seeds would work too, ground and used the same way (needs more of them, for 1/2 cup of liquid I'd use a heaping tablespoon) heated till it's just below boiling) and poured over a well poked cake would hold it well too. I'm trying to get more gelatin down us lately.

I use a lot of chia as pudding or sauce thickener.

Pearl, you inspired me. I didn't make carrot cake, but I made teff crepes spiced with aniseseed (along with freshly grated nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper). My conclusion - it's a spice that I need to use more often.

sounds lovely!
I don't like the usual carrot cake I see (in the US, with nuts and white frosting, down here, carrots blended into nothingness and covered with chocolate frosting), so I make one that is a bit different:  
https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-domenica-marchettis-carrot-polenta-cake-with-marsala-recipes-from-the-kitchn-219390
I have tweaked this recipe so much and it usually does just fine. Corn (fine polenta, grits, or we have this large flaked pre-cooked polenta, which is what I usually use) can be scaled up and white flour can be knocked down by 50-75% and replaced with oat. Oil (light olive is good, otherwise a light oil with a bit of good olive mixed in just for the smell), wine (no Marsala here, I use whatever white i have around), carrots. If you want to use less oil, grate in an apple to make up the volume (it won't be as fluffy, and don't use less than 3T oil). Nutmeg (more than a pinch) gives it a hint of donut-shop while it's also full of carrots. No icing, which my teeth don't do, but if I want to be schmancy I dust it with powdered sugar over a flower or a stencil.
It's easy enough for spur of the moment, but also a show stopper wherever I bring it.

Nikki Roche wrote: aniseseed..... it's a spice that I need to use more often.

Always!
i'm growing it for the first time this year, and while I still haven't seen a single seed anywhere (maybe they're tiny? the flowers have been up for over a month... still hopeful though, winter hasn't officially started), the leaves make fabulous tea.