Kitchen

[qualitygal]

Barb, hope you're making it today. Coffee too. Be right over! LOL

[SusieQ_2]

Sorry, I couldn't help myself (and I love carrot cake!).

[sfnative]

When I had my small commercial bakery and sold to restaurants, delis and coffee houses in S.F., the following was my standard carrot cake recipe. I've included a simply cream cheese glaze, though my cakes went out with a more complex and time consuming frosting. Enjoy!

Carrot Cake

Cake

3c flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp salt

1 lb carrots, grated finely

2 sticks butter, softened

1 c brown sugar, packed

1 c cane sugar

4 eggs, room temp

2 Tbs grated lemon peel

2 Tbs grated orange peel

2 Tbs lemon juice

2 Tbs orange juice

1 c coarsely chopped pecans

1 c raisins (optional)

Simple Cream-Cheese Glaze

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 Tbs lemon juice

1 tsp grated lemon peel

1-1/2 c powdered sugar

½ c coarsely chopped pecans

Lightly grease & flour a 10x4 tube pan or 9x13 pan. Sift flour with baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside. Wash and pare carrots; finely grate. Should measure about 4 cups. Put grated carrots in a bowl and cover with Plastic wrap. Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl of mixer, at high speed beat butter and brown plus regular sugars, scrapping sides as needed, until light and fluffy - about 4 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition, until smooth and light.

In measuring cup, combine lemon and orange peels and juices. At low speed, beat flour mixture (in 4ths), alternately with lemon-orange mixture (in 3rds), beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat just until smooth - about 1 minute.

With a wooden spoon, stir in grated carrot, nuts and raisins; mix well. Turn into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake 60 minutes in middle of oven or until a tooth pick comes out clean. Cool on rack 20 minutes to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, make cream-cheese glaze. In medium bowl, combine cream cheese, lemon juice, lemon peel and powdered sugar. With mixer at medium speed, beat mixture until smooth. Set aside.

Gently loosen edge of cake with a spatula. Turn out of pan onto rack, then flip, so you will be spreading the glaze over the top, not bottom, of the cake. Spread glaze over top of the warm cake, letting it run down the sides of the cake. Also great with just a sprinkling of powdered sugar & a dollop of whipped cream on the side. Carefully remove cake to a cake platter or plate. Sprinkle chopped pecans around top edge of cake. Serves 12. Keeps well stored in a tightly covered cake keeper.

[colliemom4]

On 2/3/2015 gkelly5744 said:

Carrot Cake has to be in the top 5 of the best cakes ever!!

[denisemb]

On 2/5/2015 SusieQ_2 said:

Sorry, I couldn't help myself (and I love carrot cake!).

Love this! (sorry, I'm an adolescent boy in a 61 y.o. body...)

If anyone is into sourdough, King Arthur Flour has a knockout recipe for carrot cake using sourdough starter. First time I've made it with pineapple and it was soooo yummy.

[Toppers]

Thanks for sharing your recipes! They look so good and yummy!

[RespectLife]

sfnative...how very nice of you to share your professional recipe with us! Sometimes I have seen posters state they have a great recipe they won't share! But you are very generous! Thank you!

I look forward to making it very soon!

[sfnative]

On 2/6/2015 RespectLife said:

sfnative...how very nice of you to share your professional recipe with us! Sometimes I have seen posters state they have a great recipe they won't share! But you are very generous! Thank you!

I look forward to making it very soon!

I know what you mean and find that weird. Now if we're talking a small town it might be different and I could understand that. I figure that we've all got some good stuff to offer. In the case of carrot cake, there are so many recipes out there and none taste the same, have the same moisture content, etc. I just thought I'd throw this one in. It had a good shelf life. I did make it in a large rectangular pan and having frosting it, girded it with a long knife, then piped a carrot in each "square" for presentation.