The Carrot Cake.

I am a foodie in all aspects. I love to eat good food and hence I love to cook. Since I was a little girl, I am always happy in the kitchen. Nothing fascinates me more than a beautiful kitchen and a shelf full of different gourmet cakes and pastries in a bakery. So I learned baking.

I've been baking for quite some time and think that I have mastered my cakes, with no cracks on top, even rising and beautiful sponge. Having said that, this also gets to my head sometimes. In one such incident I registered myself for a gourmet baking contest. Off course I didn't win and that was clear after looking at the other entries for the contest.

However I still stand by my creation. It was very old fashioned, rustic yet amazingly delicious.

Here is the recipe for anyone who is interested in trying this one out.

Ingredients:

Carrot Cake

Eggs - 2

Flour - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 cup (Powdered)

Carrot - 1 cup

Oil - ½ cup

Baking soda - 1 tsp

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Salt - ¼ tsp

Cinnamon Powder – 1tsp

Frosting:

Butter – ½ cup (softened at room temperature)

Cream Cheese – 85 grams (Followed Priyanka Sirohi's recipe)

Almond extract – 1 tsp

Icing Sugar – 3 ¾ cup

Pistachios (roasted, salted) – 50 grams (crushed)

Method:

Cake:

1. Separate the yolks from egg white.

2. Mix egg yolks and sugar and cream them together till the sugar dissolves.

3. Slowly mix the oil in this mixture till well incorporated.

4. Mix all dry ingredients together and sift a couple of times. 

5. Slowly incorporate all dry ingredients into the yolk mixture. 1/3 dry ingredients at a time works for me. Mix into a loose batter.

6. The eggs I used were large and so the liquid was enough for all the dry ingredients. If you find it too dry use some milk at room temperature to loosen up the mixture. 

7. Grease a 9'' cake tin with some oil and dust some flour. Put a parchment or cake liner on the bottom of this pan.

8. Start preheating your oven at 180 degrees Celsius.

9. Beat egg white in a separate bowl until soft peaks are formed. If possible use a hand whisk instead of electric beater. That will give you smaller air bubbles and so no big air pockets in the finished cake.

10. Fold the whites into the flour mixture again 1/3 of the whites at a time.

11. Add carrots to the cake mix.

12. Pour the mix into the prepared tin slowly to remove any big air bubbles from the mix.

13. Tap the tin gently on the counter top to make sure any remaining big bubbles are removed.

14. Bake for 45 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. If a knife poked in the center comes out clean its done

15. Leave it out to cool down completely.

Frosting:

1. Mix Butter and Sugar together till the mixture is smooth and creamy.

2. Add almond extract and cream cheese and mix till its smooth and shiny.

3. Put the frosting on top of your cake that has cooled completely and smooth with a knife or spatula.

4. Coat the top with crushed salted Pistachios.

Here is the original recipe and the one above is a little twist on the original one.