I loved carrots as a kid. They were one of the sweetest things my mom allowed. I brought this love of carrots to the kids I worked with in my day care counselor days. Every week we would bring the kids to the swimming pool and while the director would bring apples and watermelons for the kids, I would always bring a bag of carrots. There is nothing like a long hard day of swimming to convince a kid that they really do like vegetables.
You can slice carrots. You can roast carrots. You can juice carrots. You can boil carrots. You can even grill carrots. But is there anything more decadent to do to this lovely orange root than to make it into a sweet and luscious cake? Today I’m including my recipe for my bakery’s most requested cake. You might think me mad, but really, I’ve published this recipe many times before, so what more harm could I do? And it does make me happy to be finally giving you a sweet thing to make, since, after all, I am a baker by trade and a cook only by passion.
Also, customers using their EBT dollars at the farmers market can start doubling their money at the market on September 5! You can get up an addition $10 per market from this Saturday through the end of October.
Claire’s Carrot Cake
Cake:
1 cup oil
1.5 cups maple syrup
4 tbs arrowroot or corn starch dissolved in 4 tbs water
2 cup whole spelt flour or 1 cup whole wheat flour & 1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups shredded carrots
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 lb cream cheese (at room temp)
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 tbs vanilla
Chopped Walnuts (optional for decoration)
1) Preheat the oven to 350° F and grease two 9 inch cake pans
2) Whisk together the oil, maple syrup, and arrowroot mixture in a large bowl.
3) In another bowl mix together the spelt flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and whisk until smooth.
4) Add the carrots and walnuts to the batter and mix thoroughly. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for about an hour at 350° F or until the cake has pulled away from the sides of the pans.
5) In a food processor beat together the cream cheese, maple syrup and vanilla until smooth. Store in the fridge until the cake is ready for frosting.
6) When the cakes have cooled completely hold one pan at an angle and give them a nice hard tap against the counter to loosen the cake from the pan. Then invert the cake onto a plate. Frost the top and sides. Loosen the second cake and invert onto the first. Be careful here, these cakes crumble easily as this stage, so don’t try to hold the cake in your hands. Frost the whole cake and cover the sides with walnuts.
Serves 12
