24 karat cake
As I had hoped, three city-dwelling friends visited my suburban apartment this Saturday, plied by promises of (what else?) food, and lots of it. Formally, this gathering would be called a dinner party—but that sounds so staid, doesn’t it? I think of dinner parties as those events of my youth when children were banished by means of early bedtimes. As a child then, my biased opinion was that dinner parties must be no-fun zones washed of spontaneity and liveliness.
Of course, as I’ve grown up, I’ve learned better. Now that college is over, dinner parties are a great way for groups of far-flung friends to get together at once. They’re cheap, with only the cost of an extra bag of groceries to fuel an evening. And they don’t require screaming over music and strangers, as with nights spent at restaurants or bars. Really, I’m glad that I’ve gotten over that childhood bias, just as I’m relieved to have recovered from another one: vegetable phobia. Because when dressed up with cake batter, golden raisins, and white chocolate, carrots ain’t half bad.
For dessert on Saturday, I planned to make a carrot cake from my newest cookbook, Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. Ted was cooking Marcella Hazan’s chicken cacciatore (which should also be tagged with the adjective “heavenly”), and we’d round out the meal with orzo and Parmesan-roasted broccoli. For the finale, I wanted to make something similarly homey, but with an unexpected twist; white chocolate sounded like an interesting addition to the standard carrot cake’s cream-cheese frosting. The vegetable matter involved in my chosen recipe was astounding, though: three cups, packed, of shredded carrots! Did I trust Rose Levy Beranbaum enough to risk the addition of so much beta carotene to an iced confection? She’s the author of The Cake Bible, which gives her more than a little bit of street cred. And a quick perusal of her website helped convince me; she was tech-savvy! And understood the benefits of social networking! Rose clearly knew what was up. So I Cuisinart-ed those carrots, and stirred them into the otherwise vegetable-free cake batter.
Where the cake layers were a relatively virtuous affair (filled with carrots, and richened by oil instead of butter), the frosting was anything but. Cream cheese! Butter! White chocolate! Sour cream! Health food it was not, but this was a party, right? Whipped together, the ingredients produced a silky and subtly rich icing.
When the layers were completely cool and ready to frost, it quickly became obvious that I’d never assembled a multi-tiered cake by myself. Frosting Attempt #1 ended with the top layer making a slow-motion slide off the slightly-domed bottom layer. Lesson learned: always slice off any unevenness on the bottom layer before attempting to stack anything precariously on top. You’ll waste less of the delicious frosting that way.
Newbie mistakes aside, this cake was nothing but a good idea. The carrots kept the cake moist, so I had absolutely zero regrets about the vegetable-cake thing. I don’t think anyone else did either, because we all happily munched on huge slices, pausing only to flip through my stack of vinyl records and keep the tunes spinning. Even better? I can say with authority that the cake dresses up a Sunday-morning breakfast like no other. Coffee, anyone?
Serves 12-16
Adapted from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 Tbsp. unsweetened, alkalized cocoa powder
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup minus 2 tsp. light brown sugar, packed
- 1 1/4 cups canola oil
- 4 large eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 3 cups coarsely shredded carrots, firmly packed (the slicing attachment of a food processor works perfectly for this task)
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
Frosting
- 9 oz. white chocolate, chopped
- 12 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. sour cream
Preparation
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the base of two 9-inch round cake pans, place parchment circles inside, and coat pans with baking spray.
2) In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and cinnamon.
3) With a wooden spoon, mix granulated and brown sugars with oil, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.
4) Add the flour mixture to batter, stirring until just incorporated (overmixing will make the layers tough). Add the carrots and raisins, and stir until they’re evenly mixed in.
5) Pour the batter into the cake pans, scraping the bowl with a silicone spatula and making sure batter is evenly divided.
6) Bake until a cake tester comes out clean and cakes are just shrinking from the sides of the pans, about 40-50 minutes. Cool briefly on a rack before unmolding the layers, by inverting them first onto a plate, then flipping them right-side up back onto the cooling rack.
7) To make the frosting, melt the chocolate in a double boiler, removing it from heat once all pieces are melted. Let cool for 10 minutes.
8) In a food processor, pulse other frosting ingredients together until smooth. Add the white chocolate and pulse until incorporated.
9) Once cake layers are fully cooled, flatten the tops of any uneven layers with a serrated knife. Place the bottom layer on your preferred serving platter, arranging two pieces of parchment paper underneath to protect the dish from any rogue frosting. Spread half the frosting evenly over the top and sides of the first layer; set the second layer carefully on top, and frost the other half over the cake with the remaining frosting.
10) Slice and devour, preferably with dinner guests around your table!
