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Tuesday’s With Dorie….

So one of my Un-Midas victims was this carrot cake that we were making for Tuesday’s With Dorie. Now you are looking at it and saying, doesn’t look that bad. Well let me tell you, I went through a lot of cake just to get a semi-decent looking cut out. Every time I went to level it out, I seemed to make it worse…until I just gave up. 🙂
I deviated quite a bit this time. I only used 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour and used almond flour to give it a more dense, torte like texture. Taste wise I was loving the cake, even though aesthetic wise it didn’t want to work with me. I changed the cream cheese frosting to a honey crème fraiche cream cheese frosting that goes very well with carrot cake. Oh and I made a peach-apricot sorbet. The last time I had carrot cake at restaurant it was served with an apricot sorbet and it went so very nicely with the cake that I wanted to make it at home. I only had a few frozen apricots so I had to go out and buy some peaches. You can make it with fresh if you can find them in your parts.
Speaking of the sorbet. Again, it turned out but that darn stuff would not stay still. Even though the plate had been frozen the sorbet thought it was suppose to ice skate all over the plate. Seriously, ran all over the place. It sucked big time to try and get photos of it.
A lot of people ditched the coconut in this recipe but I really liked it and I think it helped add to the moisture. I don’t think it really gives it an coconut flavor so if you are on the fence about coconut, I would throw it in there. I also didn’t add nuts since I used almond flour. I didn’t want to conflict my nuts…I hate when that happens. 😛
So thanks to Amanda of Slow Like Honey for picking a tasty cake. To see most likely a more traditional take on the cake go to the Tuesday’s With Dorie site for all the TWD participants.

 Bill’s Big Carrot Cake
Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

 
Yields 10 servings
 
Ingredients:
 
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.

Honey Creme Fraiche Cream Cheese Frosting

12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
8 ounces creme fraiche(if you can’t find use greek yogurt, such as Fage)
3 TBSP honey
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar(you may use more depending on your sweet tooth)

Cream together cream cheese and creme fraiche. Mix together for about 3 minutes. Add honey and mix until incorporated. Add powdered sugar a 1/2 cup at a time until you reach desired sweetness level.

 

Peach-Apricot Sorbet

3 cups frozen sliced peaches
1 cup frozen sliced apricots
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 TBSP fresh lemon juice

Defrost peaches and apricots(preferably in fridge over night).
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until thick and smooth.
Freeze peach mixture in ice cream maker according to manufacturer instructions.
Sorbet should be thickened in about 25 minutes; Scoop sorbet into a freezer-safe container and freeze for a few hours.

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Comments

  1. Oh gosh…I just hate it when my nuts have conflict! lol
    Pretty beautiful, even though you say there were problems. Very inspired added the sorbet. Very French bistro-ish.

    Reply

  5. You could have fooled me that your Carrot Cake was one of your “Un-Midas victims” – it looks perfect!! Peabody, you are FAR too modest :0)

    I saw your question on my blog – I have never baked with graham flour… do you make your own, or purchase it? I’ve never seen it at Whole Foods (I don’t think..)

    Reply

  10. The frosting and sorbet recipes look yummy–I’m going to have to give them a try. I’m sorry that everything was so uncooperative this week. It’s really annoying when things don’t go the way you want them to.

    Reply

  11. Fabulous looking cake! I love the little buttons on top and serving it with a peach apricot sorbet, well that’s plain genius!!! Well done!

    Reply

  13. Oh, it isn’t pretty when nuts collide.

    Just picked up an amazing jar of orange blossom honey at the farmer’s market, and now I have something new to do with it. Yessssss. Thanks!

    Reply

  17. Hey Peabody, your changes to this recipe are a nice detour on a simple and tasty cake. I also had similiar problems with the actually structure of the cake. My layers wouldn’t stay and the middle sunk quite a bit. But it was yummy nonetheless.

    Reply

  18. Conflicting nuts and skating sorbet. Awesome. No matter what challenges there were, that cake still looks wonderful with the beautiful frosting swirls on top. I love it! (Oh, and I thought of you when I was making my cupcakes – you’ll know why when you see the frosting). Great job!

    Reply

  21. I actually tried this cake for Easter (and blogged about it, heh)~ was not impressed at all. I agree that the coconut just keeps it moist, not really a flavor thing. I ended up making a whole different batch and spiced things up quite a bit. Love the peach-apricot sorbet tho. That sounds like the absolute perfect accompaniement.

    Reply

  22. honey crème fraiche cream cheese frosting ?!? get outta town! u sure knoe how to bring a traditional recipe up a notch. serving it with peach-apricot sorbet. now tts the real deal!

    Reply

  23. Coconut is always my “secret” ingredient in my carrot cake. Secret only in that no one can taste it in there, but it adds so much to the cake’s texture and richness.

    Reply

  25. Your cake came out beautiful Peabody! I Love the creme fraiche cream cheese frosting idea 🙂

    I also had to laugh at the skating sorbet… definitely something rhat would happen to me!!

    Reply

  27. I suck. I haven’t been able to keep up with your prolific posting. Can I just say that everything you’re posting looks really damn good and it’s killing me? When my treatments are done, I’m coming to your house and I’m going to sit in your kitchen polishing off everything you photograph for the blog… That sorbet rules.

    Reply

  33. The cake looks beautiful – no matter what you had to go through to get there! And that Peach-Apricot
    sorbet! I’d probably skip the cake and go for that, myself. Lovely!

    Reply

  34. I should think things will be greatly improved very shortly at you house and oven. I missed you visit to Dallas and my house but I know you were here and I have a picture to prove it.
    Your right I think that carrot cake looks divine – beautiful dense moist !! Is that what almond flour will do, I’ve got to try that.

    Reply

  36. So very pretty, despite your problems. I agree the coconut didn’t seem to add much flavor–just texture, in a good way. I make a yummy apricot sorbet using apricot nectar from a can, mixed with a little honey to taste. That’s it! And then churn it and you are good to go–so refreshing. Great idea!

    Reply

  38. if you hadn’t have said, i don’t think anyone would have known you had issues. your cakelette looks lovely (and i will have to try that frosting soon–sounds great!). and way to go with a molded sorbet! maybe a few cake crumbs underneath would keep it from sliding?

    Reply

  50. Uh I can’t see your pictures. I wanted to see that sorbet really badly! Since I love peaches and apricots I can only imagine a heavenly taste when they are combined.

    Reply

  55. Your carrot cake looks pretty aesthetically pleasing to ME. And I’m with you… I loved the texture that the coconut added. I’m intrigued by your frosting and will definitely try it myself next time.

    Reply

  58. You do know that carrot muffins were the very next thing on my list, right? I need to go through your archives again. That cake is looking beyond luscious, peabody.

    Reply

  63. Oh my goodness do you make you beautiful dessert plates. I totally agree with you about the coconut; I thought it really made the cake. The frosting that you made to go with the carrot cake sounds like a dream, and the sorbet looks perfect. Wonderful work!

    Reply

  64. I agree, the coconut added something nice to the cake, without adding the flavor of coconut. Even my coconut disliking child loved the cake.

    Reply

  66. wow, somehow i overlooked this post! i hate leveling cakes so i understand your frustration. i love how you decorated it w/the creme fraiche though 🙂

    Reply

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