Easy and Moist Carrot Cake

I've tried many carrot cakes, and this is my favorite recipe. If you don't like pecans, feel free to leave them out.

Carrot Cake Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs (about 50gm each)
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup walnuts or peacans (or both)


Method:

Beat the eggs and sugar until it dissolves and become pale in colour.  Add vegetable oil. Then add the vanilla. This is much wetter than creamed butter and sugar together and helps make the carrot cake moist. 

Next add in the sifted flour, salt, baking soda and powder and your spices. After those are combined mix in the nuts and grated carrots, with spatula.

You can grate the carrots by hand or with a food processor. Peel them and cut off the top and bottom before grating for the cake. I usually grate by hand because the food processor grates the carrots finer than I like.

Greased baking pan, and lined with baking sheet.  Pour batter into pan and bake at 350 Farheinet in a 8x8x3 in pan about 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the top of the cake is firm to the touch.

Enjoy...!

Suara Takbir...

A deep resonant of Hari Raya songs often amplifies the Raya mood longed for this beautiful occasion. This is the occasion where most of us are captured in our pensive mode rather than a cheery one. I'm not exactly certain to how this emotion came about for the majority of us but it persists to stay come each Raya. Even our takbir carries this tone, unlike some I heard from other countries, they belt their takbir in a victorious manner. For me, it's that 'sayu' feeling of longing to go back, not just home but back to the days when we were kids.

(Buttercream Moist Chocolate Cake)

Air condition car was a luxury in those days. Travelling with the screen down was the way to go. We loved the wind in our hair, well not all of us though. Sitting with one brother who was adamant on saving his hair from the vicious wind and also from the embarassment of unruly hair upon arrival, alwas left us perspiring more that we should... *LoL*. He kept the window on his side with a one-and-a-half inch opening and that was after much argument and tossing and turning. If he had it his way, he wanted it shut.! He wanted all windows shut, let rain or shine or fart or screams or shouts. We went berserk everytime we had him travelling with us in one car. But we survived the journey with extra body odour to boot.

(Carrot & Walnut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosing)

I miss the times of packing the little that we had and drove back to Lenggeng, Negeri Sembilan, where my late grandmother stayed. Squeezing the seven of us at the back seat (no.. wait.... its five, the twins were on my mom's lap at the front) with three squirming brothers whose idea of pleasure was to see their sisters (me and my younger sister) wail with unrestful emotions was an adventure in themselves. The journey would commence with us fighting to have the seat next to the window. There were only two of those and there were five of us, at the back seat. It even started earlier, the night before, with us girls often 'choop-choop'-ing the seats first but to our brothers, our words did not match with their might. And needless to say, we lost to them aaallll the time..! Hate you guys..!

(Vanilla Cupcakes topped with Chocolate-Vanilla Buttercream)

(Vanilla cupcakes topped with Chocolate-Citrus Buttercream)

(Chocolate Moist Cupcakes topped with Vanilla Buttercream)

(Carrot & Walnut cupcakes topped with Cream Cheese Frosting)

Ahhh.. I could just rant about the hey days folks, but I still have house to clean, cakes to bake and deliver and that 'sayu' mood to recapture. I have exactly the song to make me wobbly, shaky and tottery and you are listening to it right now....

Many thanks again.. Qarl, Ameer, Rina, V-Violet and Aminah.....

and again... for those who ordered..

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri...

That yummy indulgence treat....

Dangle a slice of delectable carrot cake for a yummy indulgence or a naughty but nice treat.

The lightest and most enticingly moist carrot cake you will ever come across - just find a good hiding place for it! Carrot cake always manages to lure those with a sweet tooth...that goey cream cheese and moist flavour... Yummy scrummy Carrot Cake...!

Think Carrot Cake... Think Zia Azizi..

(Arif... can you handle this...?)

Ask anyone in my daughter's class about their idea of a perfect chocolate cake and you’ll get a completely different answer. But whichever camp you’re in girls and boys..... this cake is a Gooey, Fudgey and Downright Delicious..!

If you’re anything like me, you’ll have tried many chocolate cakes in your time.

Some disappoint and some enthral.

Where to start?

To: Naddy, Fatin, Arif, Lai Hong, Zia, Nazreen, Maisara...

and the rest (cant remember all names)....

ENJOY..!

Carrot Cake

Another Carrot Cake this week...!

What do I love about this cake?

The carrot (I must admit that I hate raw carrots!) and the nuts it it.

And the cake....the cake part is moist and a tad on the heavy side, as it should be with all that butter and cream cheese. Right after you turn it out of the pan to cool, it has this kind of nutty and sugary crust.

I had a slice of cake before dinner.

I had a slice of cake after dinner.

I also had a slice of cake for lunch.

Being a grown-up doesn’t always suck..!

.. but it's good for your eyes...!

I've developed a love-hate relationship with Martha Stewart over the last 10 years. It only makes sense that a woman who churns out so many recipes would produce a few duds and an occasional doozie. For the moment, she's in my good graces. Martha might have to come to my home and probably throw out my Hari Raya Rendang or Roasted Chicken 15 minutes before the 'family get-together-makan' starts to undo all the good she has done with this carrot cake recipe.

Carrot cake isn't really something that's ever made me sit up in the middle of the night. The cream cream cheese frosting that typically adorns such a cake...yes. The cake itself... hmm...not so much.

Veggies for dessert - it's an oxymoron. And blasphemy..!

Anyway, this cake is simpe the best carrot cake I've ever baked AND eaten (clap..clap..).

The cake is moist. It isn't overly spiced - I thinks that the cinnamon and fresh ginger is perfect enough. The cream cheese frosting? ... Well, that just goes without saying.

Sharing the recipe:

CARROT GINGER LAYER CAKE

with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Unsalted butter - to grease baking pan

3 cups - All Purpose Four (plus more for baking pan)

1 cup - Peacan / Walnut / Hazel (chopped)

2 1/2 cups - Carrot (peel & shredded)

3 large Eggs

1/3 cup buttermilk

(if you dont have buttermilk, you can substitute with:

1/3 cup milk+1 tbspn vinegar/apple cider - stir & let it rest for about 3 minutes)

1 tspn - Vanilla Extract

2 cups - Castor Sugar (I prefer less sweet, so I used Brown Sugar)

1 1/2 cups - Vegetable Oil

1 1/2 tbspn - Freshly grated Ginger

2 tsp - Baking Powder

1 tsp - Bicarbonate Soda

1tsp - Salt

1 1/2 tspn - Ground Cinnamon

Heat oven 375 deg. Butter a 8x2 inc round cake pan.

Dust pan with flour and tap out the excess. Set pan aside.

Roast all the nuts in the oven until lightly golden, and let it cool completely-chopped-set aside.

Place carrot, eggs, buttermilk, vanila, sugar, vegetable oil, and ginger - whisk until combined.

In another bowl, fold the flour mixture into carrot mixture until combined and add toasted nuts.

Pour batter in cake pan, and bake until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

Transfer to wire rack to cool (about 15 mins).

Then turn cake out onto rack - let stand until completely cool.

If desired, using a serated knife, trim tops of the cakes so surfaces are level (I'm not bothered 'coz it will be wasted).

Slice cake in half horizontally. Place a layer on a cake stand or board and spread 3/4 frosting.

Sandwich and assemble the cake. Spread the remaining frosting over the top and the side of the assembled cake. Transfer to refrigerator, and chill 3-4 hours.

ORANGE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

3/4 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)

500 gm - Cream Cheese (room temperature)

3 cups - Icing Sugar

1 tbspn - freshly grated Orange Zest

2 tbspn - freshly grated Ginger

Pinch of Salt

Splash of Orange Juice

Place butter in a bowl, beat with electric mixer until fluffy. Add cream cheese, beat until well combined and fully. Add the remaining ingredients and beat for another 5 mins more.

Use immediately or store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to two days.