October 12, 2018

Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Richly flavored with carrots roasted with maple syrup and cinnamon, and frosted with a lightly maple cream cheese frosting, our carrot cake is a delicious and moist new take on the classic.

Yield:

8 slices

Prep time:

60 min

Cook time:

50 minutes

Difficulty:

Medium

Now and then, I want something sweet. Sometimes, I go simple, and settle for making a batch (or four) of scones. Other times, I want something a little fancier that will give me an excuse to bust out the piping tips, and will make a cake. Most recently, needing an excuse to use up the carrots we bought for our pho, I opted to treat myself and made a carrot cake.

Most of the cakes and sweets that I make are adapted from recipes found in our collection of vintage cookbooks, which have a crazy variety of desserts to experiment with. However, none of them had a recipe for carrot cake. NONE. Consequently, I took to the internet to find some inspiration.

There are literally thousands of carrot cake recipes out there on the internet. There’s some classic versions, varieties that include chopped nuts, or pineapple, or coconut, or combinations thereof. I found recipes that use baby food, or pureed carrots. In short, there’s a lot of choices out there.

So what’s a girl to do?

I ended up piecing this recipe together from several sources, taking what I liked of one recipe and patching it into another recipe, or using a random aside found in a post and using it in my own cake. I wanted a cake that met all of my needs in a perfect carrot cake.

On one hand, I wanted all the flavor of a classic carrot cake. This meant carrots, and I don’t “do” veggies. I hate taking a bite of something and unexpectedly getting something more in the bite than I bargained for, like a chunk of tomato in an otherwise smooth tomato sauce, and we won’t even get into how my mother needs to grate the onion and celery to make a stuffing that we’d both eat. I could cook the carrots first, then bust out the chopper and puree them, or simply use a few jars of baby food in the mixture and call it a day. But…..

On the other hand, I like the texture that well-grated carrots lend to the cake in a traditional carrot cake recipe. I feel like the batter is not so much heavier than a typical cake, but heartier .

On yet another hand (get a friend to assist you), in most cases, the shredded carrot blends seamlessly into the cake, but I’ve had some cakes where that wasn’t the case at all. You’ll be sitting there, happily munching your way through dessert, and suddenly CARROT.

Carrot Cake with roasted carrots and maple cream cheese frosting

What I actually did

First, I skipped most of the extras in my version of carrot cake. I omitted the nuts that I found in nearly every recipe, not because I don’t like them, but mostly because I didn’t want to overload my cake with stuff. Similarly, I left out the coconut because I didn’t feel like it added anything to the recipe. Many of the recipes I found included pineapple in various forms, I substituted apricot preserves, which helped keep the cake moist without adding more weight to it. However, I kept the raisins found in most carrot cakes, opting to soak them in a honey liquor for a while.

I also roasted most of my carrots before adding them to the cake. The carrots were sliced lengthwise and tossed in maple syrup and cinnamon before roasting them until they softened. Once roasted, the carrots were given a few pulses in the food processor until they coarsely chopped. I wanted all that carroty flavor without a lot of the “fibrousness” sometimes found in a carrot cake made with only grated carrots. The remaining carrots were grated, allowing us to get even more flavor as well as keeping the same feel of traditional carrot cakes.

Topping It

You won’t get any argument from me when it comes to topping a carrot cake. In my opinion, a sweet cream cheese frosting is the only option when it comes to carrot cake. In this case, I added both maple syrup and maple extract to the icing, which complimented the maple roasted carrots in the cake. Plus, the cream cheese drives the cats crazy.

Bonus! Handheld carrot cake!

When I first decided to work with a carrot cake recipe, I posed a question to the Beard. Should I make a cake or cupcakes? Storing a single cake is much easier than a few plates full of cupcakes. However, I’m the type of person who has absolutely no restraint, and if there is a cake in the house, I will eat a lot of it. Because of this lack of willpower, I try to bring half of whatever I’ve baked into work, where I can foist them off on coworkers who are not watching their weight, and cupcakes are much easier t transport and portion out.

While the cake was baking, I texted the Beard three simple words:

CARROT CAKE WAFFLES.

His response was swift. “I’ll pick up more carrots.” And that, my friends, is how I broke my waffle iron that night.

What’s a waffle, other than a handheld cake?

Drop us a line and leave a comment if you try this recipe, we’d love to hear how it goes for you!

Carrot Cake with Roasted Carrots and Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Richly flavored with carrots roasted with maple syrup and cinnamon, and frosted with a lightly maple cream cheese frosting, our carrot cake is a delicious and moist new take on the classic.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cake, carrot cake, cream cheese, maple, carrots

Servings 8 slices

Ingredients

Roasted Carrots

8 oz carrots peeled and sliced lengthwise
2 tbsps pure maple syrup
1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

Carrot Cake

3 3/4 cups flour
2 tbsps cornstarch
2 cups sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 1/2 tsps baking soda
2 1/2 tsps ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup almond milk room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup butter melted and brought to room temperature
4 eggs room temperature and lightly beaten
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 cup apricot preserves divided
4 oz carrots peeled and grated
1/2 cup raisins soaked in warm water (or rum, or honey liqueur)

Lightly Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

16 oz cream cheese room temperature
3/4 cup butter room temperature
1 tsp maple extract
3 tbsps pure maple syrup
6-7 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

Roasted Carrots

Preheat your oven to 350°F, and line a baking pan with foil.
Take 8oz of your peeled carrots and slice them lengthwise. Add them to a mixing bowl, then drizzle with the maple syrup. Sprinkle with 1/2 tbsp of the ground cinnamon, then toss the carrots to coat evenly.
Spread the carrot halves in a single layer on the foil-lined baking pan. Cook until tender, about 45-60 minutes, depending on their thickness. Allow to cool, then pulse in a food processor until coarsely minced.

Lightly Mapled Cream Cheese Frosting

Using a mixer, beat the butter until it is light and fluffy, then add the cream cheese and mix until it’s smooth.
Add 3 cups of the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add the maple syrup and maple extract and mix until combined.
Gradually add the rest of the powdered sugar, half cup at a time, mixing until sugar has been just combined before adding more sugar. You don’t want to overmix things.
This frosting seems to work a bit better for piping if it’s been chilled first.

Carrot Cake

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 8″ round cake pans with butter or cooking spray. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper, then grease or spray the paper.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, salt, cornstarch, baking soda, and the spices. Add the milk, butter, and oil, and mix well. Add the eggs and vanilla mix until just combined, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl to avoid lumps of dry ingredients. Add 3/4 cup of the apricot preserves and all of the minced roasted carrots and mix until the batter is an even consistency. Fold in the raisins and the grated carrots until mixed.
Try to avoid overmixing! As each ingredient group is added, mix only until the batter is evenly combined.
Evenly distribute the batter between the two pans. Cook for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and/or the internal temperature of the cake’s center is about 210°F. Since it seems like all ovens have minds of their own, test the cake after 35 minutes, and adjust cooking time from there.
Remove the cakes from the oven and set on a metal cooling rack, allowing them to cool in their pans for 5-10 minutes. Turn cakes out of the pans, leaving the parchment on the bottoms if at all possible, then flip so the cakes rest right-side up (aka parchment side down) on the rack. Allow to cool for about an hour, remove parchment if needed, then level the tops if desired.
Heat the remaining 1/4 cup of apricot preserves until it is easily spreadable, microwaving for 5 seconds at a time, until it has the consistency of melted caramel. Spread on the tops of the cakes and allow the cakes to chill in the fridge for at least an hour before frosting.