The Epic Carrot Cake

Hi, everybody, this is my first post in English. There were many friends encouraging me to write recipes in this language so here I am, in the English version of my Cook ´n´ Shout blog. Sorry for my English as it is not my mother language.

I usually dedicate the recipes in my Spanish blog, because cooking usually reminds me of people: husband, mom, dad, friends, siblings, grandmothers. And this recipe is dedicated to Cora, my older sister, because she´s the one who gave my husband and me the Kitchen Aid (the one I used to make this carrot cake) as a wedding gift.

Another thing you will notice while surfing my blog is that my first ingredient is, and always will be, patience. I learned after many (and believe me when I say ´many´) mistakes that when you cook (and paint) you want to be patience. If you are not in a rush and you are able to think what you are doing and feel the chemistry going on with the ingredients, then you will have a wonderful result.

Now, to the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

A- PATIENCE

B- 2 eggs

C- 5/8 cups of vegetable oil (or to make things easier, half a cup plus an eighth of a cup. You said you wanted it    to be easier? Half a cup and a little extra!) 

D- 1 cup of sugar

E- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 

F - 1 cup of all purpose flour

G- 1 teaspoon of baking soda 

H- 1 teaspoon of baking powder

I- 1/4 teaspoon of salt

J- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

K- 1 teaspoon of ginger

L- 1 1/2 cups of thin grated carrots (believe me, the cake will NOT taste of carrots!) 

M- 1/2 cup of walnuts

Did you notice that when people think of a sophisticated tasting dessert, they think it must be very hard to make?  Well, guess what? This one isn´t! In fact it is really easy to make and really straight forward. And remember, don´t be afraid of trying a carrot cake because it has the word ´carrot´ in it: Chill, it does not taste  as the salad you had for lunch!

FIRST STEP: grate the carrots and reserve. You can grate them thin or thick. I personally prefer it thin because they release more juice . Thick grated carrots make the cake a little bit dry, plus, people see the carrots and freak out. Why people? Why are you afraid of carrots? Bugs Bunny likes them, they can´t be bad, right?

SECOND STEP: chop the walnuts. You don´t want to chop them too small nor too big. And here a little trick for when you put rasins, blueberries, nuts, chocolate chips into a cake mix: put a little bit of flour to the cup of whatever it is you are going to add so that, in this case the walnuts, don´t sink and end up at the bottom of the mixture when they are in the oven (check pictures).

THIRD STEP: turn on the oven to 157-180 degrees Celsius and  oil the cake mold. Do not flour it. 

FOURTH STEP: beat the eggs with the vegetable oil, the sugar, and the vanilla extract. 

FIFTH STEP: incorporate the dry ingredients to the mix while beating. 

SIXTH STEP: Add the grated carrots and, last but not least, the chopped and floured walnuts.

SEVENTH STEP: pour the mixture into the cake mold and bake it for less than an hour. You will know it is ready because your house will smell incredibly good. When we grab the cake mold we will see that the mixture is raw in the middle because it will move a little bit. But we won´t let the dough fool us! We must sink a knife in the cake and when we pull it out it must come off clean, otherwise, into the oven for a little longer.

Let´s not forget about the topping. Of course you can eat it without any topping, as the cake is very moist anyways. But you may want to prepare a delicious toppings to serve to your family and friends.

Important: the following are ´as you wish´ quantities, there´s no exact amount of ingredients you must use, as long as you like it, its fine!

Sour cream

Grated lemon peel

Powdered sugar

Vanilla extract

Mix the ingredients altogether and voilà...the topping for your epic carrot cake. Enjoy!