Carrot Cake!

Carrot Cake with fresh blueberries!

     How quickly this summer has already gone by.  I am now 27 years old (yikes), Jake completed the PhD program, and Luck is 4 years old now, older than me by dog-year standards.  We started receiving our CSA share at the beginning of June and have loved having a box of fresh local produce every week.  Our garden has been producing an abundance of Kale and Swiss Chard and butter lettuce meaning that we have had fresh greens every single day.  The tomato plants are huge and very stable, each dotted with green plump tomatoes and some almost-ready-to-pick red ones.  The Nasturtium plant we started from seed has taken over half the deck, each of it's vines reaching for it's own private real estate.  The jasmine plant is equally productive and when the breeze hits it just right, the smell is intoxicating. 

     I have been baking a lot actually, but have not been blogging about it. Jake got me a wonderful bake-book filled with recipes from the gluten-free and vegan bakery in New York called Babycakes.  They have been challenging and fun to make and I have worked with ingredients that I have never heard of before.  It really is miraculous that you can make something so delicious out of so many powders.  More on those creations later...

     I made this carrot cake what feels like years ago.  Jake had a craving for carrot cake and picked up a box of cream cheese.  It took a couple weeks, but I finally made the carrot cake from The Tassajara Bread Book.  We omitted the walnuts because we aren't too fond of them and made extra frosting.  It took a few evenings, but we ate our way through the cakes with ease.  This was definitely not a gluten-free, vegan healthy recipe, but hey, there were carrots in it.

#67 Carrot Cake

One 10inch tube pan or two 8 inch layer pans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

4 eggs

2/3 cup melted butter

2/3 cup oil

2 cups unbleached white or whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons allspice

2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup chopped walnuts (we omitted this)

3 cups grated carrots

1 cup raisins

-Mix the two sugars and cream them with the eggs.  Mix in the melted butter and oil.  In a separate bowl, mix the flours, spices, and chopped nuts.  Blend this mixture thoroughly into the sugar mixture.  Stir in the carrots and raisins.

-Put into a well-buttered and floured pan.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes.  This cake may also be baked in two 8 inch layers.  In this case, bake only for 30-35 minutes.

-Let cake cook, and remove from pan.  Sift a little powdered sugar over it or crown it with Cream Cheese Icing (#109).

#109 Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz fresh cream cheese at room temperature

1/2 cup sweet butter at room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

juice and zest of 1/2 lemon

-Cream together the cream cheese and butter.  Slowly sift in the powdered sugar and beat until the mixture is well blended and has no lumps.  Then stir in the vanilla and lemon.