CARROT CAKE

TUESDAY'S WITH DORIE: 

BILL'S BIG CARROT CAKE

I realize today is Monday but I just couldn't wait until tomorrow to post. Plus, I'm not sure how much time I'll have tomorrow to do so, so here it is....(insert drum roll here)....Bill's Big Carrot Cake!! This week's entry for Tuesday's With Dorie was chosen by Tara of Smells Like Home and she chose Traditional Madeleines. However, because Madeleines require a certain type of pan (which I do not own), Laurie (who runs the group) suggested those who do not own the pan can make an alternative recipe from Dorie's book; as long as the recipe has already been used for the weekly entries. I knew right away that I wanted to make this carrot cake. I joined 1 week too late to participate in this carrot cake's entry week so I figured I would make up for it this week, as long as I had the opportunity to choose among several already baked recipes. This was my first carrot cake. I've never even baked anything involving a vegetable.  Well, let me just say that this cake was off the charts, hands down, out of this world, unbelievable. 

I've always loved carrot cake. I think my love for carrot cake began when I was 13 and my mother insisted upon making my Bat-Mitzvah cake a carrot cake. It was an enormous sheet cake with gorgeous marzipan decorations throughout with silky,buttery cream cheese frosting. After that, carrot cake was always my first choice.  Rather than making this cake in 3-9 inch round pans (which is what the recipe called for), I opted for 3-6inch rounds and 1 standard size cupcake tin (12). I only ended up using two of the 6inch rounds and sliced each one in half, creating 4 layers. I frosted the middles, sides, and top,  piped orange colored shells around the top and bottom, and using decorating tip #3, designed a carrot on top. If you were wondering what I did with the 3rd cake round, I wrapped it up and froze it for the future.

 

I swirled the cream cheese frosting on the cupcakes and topped it off with yellow sugar crystals. If I haven't yet made it clear enough, I LOVE THIS RECIPE! These flew off my desk at work at an exponential rate as the day went on. 

Bill's Big Carrot Cake

Adapted from: Baking: From My Home To Yours

For the cake:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
3 cups grated carrots (about 9 carrots, you can grate them in food processor fitted w/ a shredding a blade or use a box grater)
1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
½ cup moist, plump golden raisins
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 large eggs

Getting ready:
Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter three 9-x-2-inch round cake pans, flour the insides, and tap out the excess. Put the two pans on one baking sheet and one on another.
 
To make the cake:
Whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, stir together the carrots, chopped nuts, coconut, and raisins.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the sugar and oil together on a medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one by one and continue to beat until the batter is even smoother. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear. Gently mix the chunky ingredients. Divide the batter among the baking pans.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until a thin knife inserted into the centers comes out clean. The cakes will have just started to come away from the sides of the pans. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes and unmold them. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.
The cakes can be wrapped airtight and kept at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.