Carrot cake

What do you think of my alternative to the carrot tanning lotion, it sure does not make you so brown, but it is much richer, the carrot cake or carrot cake with an orange cream cheese glaze . I really wanted to include this recipe on the blog, because lately it has become very fashionable in Spanish homes.

The carrot is a natural sweetener, which has been used since the Middle Ages for making desserts. By the middle of the century, the popularity of carrot cake had jumped to America. During World War II, it is said that there was an excess of canned carrots in the United States and an entrepreneur named  George C. Page  hired bakers to find uses for carrot cans in order to create demand for the product. The solution was carrot cake, which he then sold through his Mission Pak company  . In  1960 it  became fashionable in restaurants and cafes in the US, at first as a novelty, but people like it so much that it quickly becomes a classic, competing the premises to make the best and attract the largest number of customers. The American-based ” Food Network ” considers  carrot cake, with its cream cheese or frosting,  as one of the main trendy foods of the  1970s .

It is a cake that allows incorporating many ingredients depending on our preferences. Some include pineapple or raisins. I am going to prepare it with sour cream, which will give the cake a more compact and moist texture. Since the carrot has a lot of sugar, I am not going to add much more. The sweetness that this vegetable provides is more than enough to achieve an extraordinary flavor.

I accompanied the cake with an orange cream cheese glaze , but I leave it to your choice. If you like the classic cream glaze more, then go for it. You know, “for tastes, the colors” or in our case, “the flavors”. I have prepared a round mold. This time it is not silicone. By the way, if you want the cake to look taller, you can use a smaller round pan. The one I have is about 22 cm. I am going to use force flour and I am not going to add extra yeast, but if you want it to rise a little more, you can add a tablespoon of yeast dessert when you are sifting the flour. That said, let’s get to work!

Preparation of carrot cake

1. We will start by preheating the oven to 160 ° C and greasing the mold where we are going to prepare the cake. To avoid sticking, we will line the base with waxed paper.
2. Next we sift the flour and spices (cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger) into a large bowl. Then we add the sugar (white and brown), the grated carrot (or very chopped) and the chopped walnuts (I like to chop them in mortar so that they are not powdered, but in very small pieces, almost crumbs). Mix well all the ingredients.
3. In a bowl we beat the eggs, the oil and the sour cream and add this mixture to the one we had from the carrot. Stir well, so that all the ingredients are mixed.
4. We put the mold in the middle tray of the oven. The cooking time will be approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until we prick it with a fork and see that it comes out clean. When it takes 20 minutes in the oven (you will see that it already has a little crust, which begins to curdle) we put a little bit of aluminum foil to cover the surface and prevent it from burning. The last 5-8 minutes we leave it uncovered so that it catches color.
5. Once the time has elapsed, we remove the cake and let it cool in the mold (without unmolding) for about 10 minutes, and then transfer it to the plate where we are going to present it with the cream cheese. Let it cool on an oven rack.

Preparation of the cream cheese and orange glaze

The first references to the use of cream cheese icing in this dessert appear in the USA around 1960, when this type of cake began to cool.

1. We will use a large bowl, if it is cold much better, like the cheese or cream cheese that must come out of the fridge. Why cold? The cream cheese is fat and with the heat it loses consistency, if it is not cold it will be difficult to rise as we want, if it rises. The ideal temperature is around 10º C.
2. We wash the orange and grate it with a good grater. It is important not to get to the white part, the recipe would make us bitter. With the orange we make juice and strain, we do not want the seeds to spoil the recipe. We reserve.
3. We combine the cheese cream with the orange juice and the zest, beat until it goes from liquid to a kind of cream, with a little volume (not much), it should be light. This process will take us 3-4 minutes, nothing more.
4. Once we have reached this kind of dense liquid cream, add the sugar, if it is glass better, and beat until it reaches almost solid state. Easy, right? I assure you that with the trick of the cold it comes out perfect. We will get a smooth, homogeneous cream and without any lump, perfect to put on top of the carrot cake when it is cold.
5. Finally on the very cold cake, we spread the icing.

And this is my carrot cake, perfect for a snack or as a special dessert for a celebration. I hope you dare to make it and of course to eat it!