I never know when or where I'll find baking inspiration. A couple of weeks ago, I found it in my Facebook newsfeed, after a friend shared a gorgeous photo from Australian Gourmet Traveler magazine. One look at the Buttermilk Carrot Cake with Spiced Caramel, and I was smitten.
After I read through the recipe, I had one lingering question -- what in the heck is a "Dutch carrot"? While the internet told me that they're a variety of small carrot, that didn't help me acquire any for the recipe. I bought a bunch of the smallest organic carrots I could find and figured they would do the job just fine, since the Dutch carrots are mostly for decoration anyway.
From the title of the recipe and the photo, I assumed that this was merely a carrot cake served with a caramel sauce. It's not. The carrots are actually cooked with caramel before they are added into the cake batter. I've never seen this method before, but I imagined that it would produce a huge upside in a spectacularly flavorful cake. The downside was that because of the extra work required for the caramel, the recipe is time consuming -- at least for a single layer, unfrosted cake.
You start out by making a caramel from sugar, water, and butter. My mixture of sugar and water started to crystallize while I was waiting for it to darken, so I cheated a little bit and stirred in some corn syrup. When the caramel was ready, I added in grated carrots.
The recipe says to cook the carrots in the caramel mixture for 15-20 minutes, until the carrots are "caramelised." I had no idea what that meant. After all, you could argue that carrots are caramelized the instant you add them to a pool of liquid caramel. But since the recipe indicated such a long cooking time, I cooked the carrots until the caramel had reduced quite a bit, and there wasn't much excess liquid caramel in the pan.
After you've caramelized the grated carrots, you make more caramel and cook the halved Dutch carrots in the caramel until tender. Then you remove the carrots from the pan, and finish the caramel with some heavy cream, cinnamon, ground ginger, and nutmeg. You save the caramel to serve alongside the finished cake.
Once the grated and halved carrots are ready, making the cake batter doesn't take much time. You beat eggs, an egg yolk, and sugar until fluffy and pale, and then add in the sifted dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg), followed by the buttermilk, orange and lemon zest, and the caramelized grated carrots. I had to re-read the recipe a few times to make sure I had included all of the ingredients, because I thought it was odd that the cake batter doesn't include any oil or butter.
You pour the batter into a buttered and lined 9-inch pan, arrange the caramelized halved carrots on top, and then sprinkle on a pecan crumble made from sugar, flour, butter, and pecans. Finally, the cake is ready to go into the oven.
The finished cake is quite tall. I used a 3-inch tall cake pan and it's a good thing I did, because the batter would have overflowed a 2-inch pan. The cake unmolded easily, and I reheated the spiced caramel sauce to serve with it. I have mixed feelings about the way the cake turned out.
The cake is interesting. Because of the ginger and spices, it definitely doesn't taste like a normal carrot cake. The spiced caramel was delicious, and was hugely popular with tasters. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't tell that the grated carrots in the cake had been caramelized. But I had two more serious complaints about the cake. First, while it was moist, the cake had a dense and heavy texture. I think carrot cake should be soft and springy. Second, I really wanted some tangy cream cheese frosting to go along with it. Because the cake was heavy, I felt that it needed some frosting, or whipped cream, or ice cream, or something. After hearing me complain that the cake needed some ice cream, my cousin actually ran out to purchase some gelato, and the cake was much better à la mode.
Some of our guests positively raved about the cake, but for me, it was pretty meh -- especially considering how much time and effort went into preparing the carrots and the batter. I like carrot cake well enough and all, but I love cream cheese frosting. Somehow carrot cake without it just doesn't seem quite right.
Recipe: "Buttermilk Carrot Cake with Spiced Caramel" from Australian Gourmet Traveler.
After I read through the recipe, I had one lingering question -- what in the heck is a "Dutch carrot"? While the internet told me that they're a variety of small carrot, that didn't help me acquire any for the recipe. I bought a bunch of the smallest organic carrots I could find and figured they would do the job just fine, since the Dutch carrots are mostly for decoration anyway.
From the title of the recipe and the photo, I assumed that this was merely a carrot cake served with a caramel sauce. It's not. The carrots are actually cooked with caramel before they are added into the cake batter. I've never seen this method before, but I imagined that it would produce a huge upside in a spectacularly flavorful cake. The downside was that because of the extra work required for the caramel, the recipe is time consuming -- at least for a single layer, unfrosted cake.
You start out by making a caramel from sugar, water, and butter. My mixture of sugar and water started to crystallize while I was waiting for it to darken, so I cheated a little bit and stirred in some corn syrup. When the caramel was ready, I added in grated carrots.
The recipe says to cook the carrots in the caramel mixture for 15-20 minutes, until the carrots are "caramelised." I had no idea what that meant. After all, you could argue that carrots are caramelized the instant you add them to a pool of liquid caramel. But since the recipe indicated such a long cooking time, I cooked the carrots until the caramel had reduced quite a bit, and there wasn't much excess liquid caramel in the pan.
After you've caramelized the grated carrots, you make more caramel and cook the halved Dutch carrots in the caramel until tender. Then you remove the carrots from the pan, and finish the caramel with some heavy cream, cinnamon, ground ginger, and nutmeg. You save the caramel to serve alongside the finished cake.
Once the grated and halved carrots are ready, making the cake batter doesn't take much time. You beat eggs, an egg yolk, and sugar until fluffy and pale, and then add in the sifted dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg), followed by the buttermilk, orange and lemon zest, and the caramelized grated carrots. I had to re-read the recipe a few times to make sure I had included all of the ingredients, because I thought it was odd that the cake batter doesn't include any oil or butter.
You pour the batter into a buttered and lined 9-inch pan, arrange the caramelized halved carrots on top, and then sprinkle on a pecan crumble made from sugar, flour, butter, and pecans. Finally, the cake is ready to go into the oven.
The cake is interesting. Because of the ginger and spices, it definitely doesn't taste like a normal carrot cake. The spiced caramel was delicious, and was hugely popular with tasters. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't tell that the grated carrots in the cake had been caramelized. But I had two more serious complaints about the cake. First, while it was moist, the cake had a dense and heavy texture. I think carrot cake should be soft and springy. Second, I really wanted some tangy cream cheese frosting to go along with it. Because the cake was heavy, I felt that it needed some frosting, or whipped cream, or ice cream, or something. After hearing me complain that the cake needed some ice cream, my cousin actually ran out to purchase some gelato, and the cake was much better à la mode.
Some of our guests positively raved about the cake, but for me, it was pretty meh -- especially considering how much time and effort went into preparing the carrots and the batter. I like carrot cake well enough and all, but I love cream cheese frosting. Somehow carrot cake without it just doesn't seem quite right.
Recipe: "Buttermilk Carrot Cake with Spiced Caramel" from Australian Gourmet Traveler.
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