The popular carrot cake is one of the richest and healthiest desserts that we can have for all the benefits that this vegetable, which was already known in the Mediterranean before Christ, brings us: from strengthening the skin, hair and nails to improving eye health or reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems.
Used as a natural sweetener in the Middle Ages, when puddings were made with it, it was during rationing after the Second World War – a time of precariousness when sugar was scarce and expensive – that it resurfaced in the United Kingdom in the form of a cake. carrot or ‘carrot cake’. Later, layers and coverage of a soft butter cream or cheese – frosting – were added until it acquired its current appearance. That cream must be soft and tasty.
This dessert takes the form of a spongy cake, thanks to the moisture that the vegetable adds to the dough. It is usually flavored with hints of cinnamon, ginger or nutmeg, and completed with some dried fruit. A good carrot cake is not excessively sweet, it is juicy, well aerated and tastes like carrots. Although we find lots of recipes in which we play with different ingredients, there are a series of mistakes in their preparation that we can never make. Should we add yeast? What carrots do we choose? Do they have to be grated? Can we use the blender? What should the coverage be like?
Well no. You do not have to cook the carrots before making the cake. Baking the dough when it’s time is enough to make it perfect.
What is essential is to buy carrots of good quality and in good condition. “You have to choose them at their point,” says Hugo Roche, founder of PastéBCN and expert in this dessert. He advises us to buy them “with a very orange tone because it is indicative that they are not green.” Xavier Pellicer also chooses purple carrots, which have a purple pigment that is a powerful antioxidant, for his carrot cake, collected in the recent recipe book Healthy Kitchen (Planet).
Although there are many recipes for carrot cake, it will always turn out better if the quantities are well proportioned. We cannot exceed or fall short with the ingredients or else it will be too sweet, it may take on an inappropriate texture…. “The proportion is important, the ideal is that the solids – such as flour, carrots… – and the liquids are equal,” Roche tells us. A combination that works: 225 grams of flour, 250 of brown or white sugar, 250 of carrot, 150 grams of sunflower oil, 5 whole eggs, a teaspoon of cinnamon powder, a pinch of salt and 10 grams of yeast. We can also include lemon or orange juice, and some spices or nuts.
For the coverage, if we make a butter cream we can use 400 grams of cream cheese, 300 of icing sugar, 200 of pomaded butter – at room temperature – and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Carrot cake is a cake that needs a few grams of yeast to achieve the right texture. Whipping the eggs alone is not enough to make it fluffy. “There are simple cakes that are made by whipping egg whites with sugar and that are super airy, but in this case, as it carries a significant load of fat and solid food, the dough is heavy and, therefore, it is necessary to add yeast to that it is spongy enough,” says Roche, who before having his own business has worked in the kitchens of the Bo.Tic restaurant and the Canal bakery in Barcelona.
We can make a ‘carrot cake’ with butter, but it is not advisable. To make the dough it is better to use oil “so that the cake is less compact and retains its sponginess.” Hugo recommends using sunflower oil, which is softer than olive oil. But it can even be coconut. “Brownies, for example, which are denser, are worked with butter, but this cake is fluffier and doesn’t need it.”
Carrot cake is usually made with dried fruits, which combine very well with carrots. We can incorporate hazelnuts, almonds, pine nuts, pistachios… There are also those who add raisins, although Hugo thinks that they give the cake a slightly bitter taste. The chef prefers walnuts. We can also add a little vanilla essence. Or maybe ground cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg, or some ground ginger. If we put them all, we have to pay attention to the balance. But you don’t have to play too much with other flavors, vegetables or spices to prevent it from stopping being a carrot cake and ending up being something else.
Once we have washed and peeled the carrots, it is time to prepare them raw to make the dough. It is not prohibited to grind it, but Hugo advises us to grate it finely “to get a more intense tone, and so that it does not turn yellowish.” This decision does not affect the appearance of lumps at all, although the grated carrot makes the cake a little thicker.
The first step in making the cake is to mix the eggs—white and yolk—with the sugar. “Beat well until it foams,” says the expert, who, in this case, advises doing it with electric whisks or a blender because by hand the process can take forever.
The second step is to add the oil and grated carrot to the mixture. We mix it a little, but be careful, because in this case it is not convenient to use the blender. You just have to incorporate these elements into the egg and sugar mass and mix everything well.
The next step is to add the flour, yeast and cinnamon or the aroma you want to incorporate. It is very important that, before mixing it, you sift the three ingredients to avoid lumps.
Instagrammer Marta Sanahuja uses coconut flour to make the coconut ‘carrot cake’ that appears in her latest cookbook, Delicious Marta (Grijalbo). Likewise, in that cake she uses coconut oil to make a dough where there are also spices, lemon juice, honey and fresh ginger. Xavier Pellicer uses organic rice flour in his.
Once the mixture is made, we introduce it into the chosen mold. Hugo, who makes it in a metal pyrex one, recommends greasing it beforehand, but not too much. “Greasing it a little with oil favors the cake because this way you get a golden tone on the sides of the cake that is very aesthetic,” says the pastry chef who is not in favor of using baking paper. You don’t have to put much to avoid it getting toasted. Marta Sanahuja greases it with extra virgin olive oil.
We must preheat the oven before introducing the cake, which we will bake at 170-180 degrees. We have to place it in the center of the appliance, so that it receives heat from above and below for about 40 minutes. The old trick of inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake and seeing if it comes out dry to check if it is done, is useful in this preparation. But we don’t have to do it too soon or continually open and close the oven.
It is common to make a “buttercream” or butter cream to cover the carrot cake. It is made by mixing pomaded butter, powdered sugar and vanilla essence. You can also add cream cheese. You have to beat the mixture with electric beaters until everything is integrated “and we have the texture of a cream.” It is better not to do it with the blender because it can liquefy too much. Once made, it is placed in a pastry bag and the top of the cake is decorated.
There are cakes with layers of this cream filling. You can do it by making two cakes and then join them with the cream layer; or just one, which you cut in two and fill. But you should always do it when the cake is already cooked. “It works well with cakes that are not too spongy because otherwise they tend to fall apart.”
We can replace the butter cream with whipped cream, meringue or even chocolate, but not with other creams that take center stage from the carrot, such as a currant or strawberry cream.
Hugo makes in his atelier – sold only online or via WhatsApp – a very special and renowned creamy cheese with white chocolate, more difficult to make than the cake itself. Xavier Pellicer puts the decoration at the forefront and covers his cake with a beautiful frozen disk of purple and orange carrots, previously cooked and mixed with spices.
Once the cake is finished, it is best to let it rest for a bit and cool before eating it. It is not advisable to store it at room temperature because the buttercream can spoil. It can last up to five days in the refrigerator. If we want to freeze it, “we don’t have to add the cream, we just have to put the cake in the freezer,” explains Hugo.
