Two Birthday Carrot Cakes

Sam’s carrot cake’s recipe came from a 1970’s issue of Gourmet Magazine (my mom was a subscriber), and for this one I will include the recipe below. First, as far as I know it’s not in any cookbooks — when I was doing a search for “Gourmet Magazine” and “carrot cake”, what I was finding was a lot of talk about a recipe they ran in 1990 featuring pineapple and raisins in addition to the carrots, and that recipe is definitely not this recipe.

Second, the version of the recipe I have is not a clipping from the magazine, but rather a list of ingredients (including things like “2 tsp cinn, pow, soda”) I had written down on the inside back cover of The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll (what can I say, that was what I was doing with my recipes at the time), and as I didn’t include any instructions other than baking temperature/time, I’m not sure whether I had made any changes to the recipe (other than leaving out potentially-helpful information such as the size of pan to use :-)).

So here goes. Continuing to diverge from the original recipe, I shall flesh out that bare list of ingredients by describing the steps and adaptations I take when making a cake like this:

Classic Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This really is a very classic carrot cake — try it and you’ll like it, carrot cake fans!

Cake ingredients

• 4 eggs (I always use extra-large)
• 1½ cups of sugar
• 1½ cups of a mild oil such as canola oil (if you think that’s a huge amount, then welcome to the world of most carrot cakes!)
• 4 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 cups of flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 3 cups of grated carrots
• 1 cup of coarsely chopped pecans and/or walnuts

Frosting ingredients

• an 8-ounce package of cream cheese
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 pound of powdered sugar (as in, a whole one-pound box or bag – no messy powdered sugar measuring!)

Instructions

1. Take the cream cheese and butter out of the refrigerator, and set them aside to soften at room temperature.
2. Cream together the eggs, sugar, oil, cinnamon, and salt, in a large mixer bowl or other large bowl.
3. Add the flour, baking powder, and baking soda to the bowl, and thoroughly mix them in.
4. Grate three cups of coarsely-grated carrots (you can put any extra on a salad or pasta dish, or just eat it).
5. Add the grated carrots and the pecans and/or walnuts to the bowl, and thoroughly mix those in as well.
6. Pour and spread the batter evenly into an 8″ by 12″ pan (just look at that nice 1970’s earth- tones color palette of cinnamon-brown batter with bright-orange grated carrots!), and bake it in a preheated 350° oven, setting the timer for 30 minutes, and then checking it every few minutes until it tests done.
    

   Because I had neglected to write down pan info in the book, I was unsure what size to use. When I poured the batter into my 8″ by 12″ pan I was concerned that it might rise so high that it would start dripping over the edges of the pan, but as you see here it rose nice and high in the oven without overflowing. A 9″ by 13″ pan, or two 9″ round or square pans, should work fine as well.

7. Because you need to wait for the cake to completely cool before frosting it (so the frosting doesn’t melt) you may want to wait a bit before getting started on the (quick, easy) frosting.
8. Put the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a large mixer bowl or other large bowl, and mix them together a bit.
9. Add the powdered sugar about a quarter of it at a time, and mix it in slowly and carefully so it doesn’t fly out all over the counter and your shirt.
10. This amount of frosting will frost the top, sides, and filling of a layer cake, so if you’re only doing the top of a sheet cake as shown here, unless you just love having as thick a layer of frosting as possible, you will probably want to put some of the frosting in the refrigerator to use with cookies or cupcakes later.
11. If you’re a big fan of nuts, then sprinkle even more coarsely-chopped pecans and/or walnuts on top of the frosting as shown above.