Carrots, spice and everything nice!

One of my absolute favorite cakes in the entire world is carrot cake. It actually surprises me how much I love it now considering how much I despised it as a child. But I guess most children aren’t too keen on vegetables in their cake…at least, I wasn’t.

Then I grew up. My tastes matured. I learned to love mushrooms and olives and even became quite tolerant of onions and eggplant – all foods I hated when I was little. I also fell in love with carrot cake. But I think I was spoiled because my first carrot cake experience was so good that I’ve become a bit of a carrot cake snob. I’m very picky when it comes to carrot cake now – it has to be moist, but not too dense, with just enough spice and sweetness. Not to mention copious amounts of cream cheese icing.

Oh, and no raisins. I like raisins in some things, but NOT carrot cake. I get furious when people put raisins in carrot cake.

Yeah…I’m weird like that.

But anyways, I’ve strived to find a great carrot cake recipe…and I think I’ve finally found it. At least, for now. It’s from a cookbook of comfort food by real mothers and I have to say, it’s pretty darn amazing. The secret is purée-ing the carrots, as opposed to shredding them. It gives the cake a ton of moisture and just enough of that signature taste. I also upped the spices a bit and took out the walnuts – only because I didn’t have any. Otherwise, they would’ve been in there. Walnuts are a must in carrot cake for me…except when I have none and I’m desperately craving it but it is -30 out and I refuse to leave my house. In other words, only in extreme circumstances do the walnuts get left out.

But enough yacking about carrot cake, how about you go make some? Here, I’ll even give you the recipe.

Carrot Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting
(Adapted from my “Mother’s Best Comfort Food” cookbook)

Ingredients:

1 pound carrots, peeled and thinly sliced (about 4 medium carrots)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup packed sweetened shredded coconut
3 cups walnuts (divided)

Directions:

Fill a saucepan with a couple inches of water. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Place the sliced carrots in a steamer basket and set over the saucepan. Cover and steam the carrots until very tender when pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes. (You can also bring a pot of water to a boil, add the carrots, cover, and cook until tender – that’s what I did.) Place the carrots in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and purée until smooth (I used my magic bullet). You should have 1 1⁄3 cups puréed carrots.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease the bottom and sides of a 13x9x2-inch baking dish or two 9-inch cake pans with oil. Sprinkle in a little flour and turn the pan(s) to evenly coat the greased areas.

Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt into a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, mix the oil and sugar until combined. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until well incorporated before adding the next. Add the vanilla and carrots and beat for another minute. Slowly add in the sifted dry ingredients, mixing just until combined. Stir in the coconut and 1 cup of the walnuts.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and bake in the center of the oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the cake is pulling away from the sides of the pan(s). Remove the pan(s) from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. After 15 minutes, place a cooling rack(s) over the pan(s) and invert (so the cake falls out of the pan and onto the rack). Cool the cake for at least 1 hour before frosting.


Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

2 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla with a mixer on medium speed until combined. Slowly add icing sugar, and beat until it’s at the consistency you want.


Now, all you have to do is frost your cake and eat up! Warning...this makes alot of cake...and you may be tempted to eat it all. I was. My thighs are hating me right now.

Some Post-Christmas Recipes

So Christmas has come and gone…the radio stations have stopped playing Christmas music, Christmas movies are nowhere to be found on TV…it’s all a little depressing. I plan on spending the next week in my new Christmas sweats, watching lots of movies and continuing my Christmas eating. I may also do a little shopping. I probably won’t go to the gym. I may cook instead. And speaking of cooking…

Now, I’m not one to brag about my Christmas gifts or do some “Christmas Haul” post, however my very handsome and loving boyfriend bought me a Bravetti slow cooker for Christmas…and it is BEAUTIFUL! Consequently, we will most likely be eating chilis and stews for all of 2011. I’m pretty excited. And you should be too.

But before I get into a whack of slow cooker adventures, here are a couple more Christmas recipes…in case you’re like me and just can’t let go.

However, I am Ukrainian. And our Christmas (or my 2nd Christmas) doesn’t happen until January 7th so my tree stays up until then.

Pecan Puffs
You know how everyone has that traditional Christmas sweet that their mom makes that just takes them back to their youth? These are that for me. We haven’t made them the past couple years and this year my mom gave me the flour-stained, yellowing, barely legible recipe card and told me to make them for Christmas. So I did. They lasted about 3.5 minutes on the table after dinner.

Ingredients:

½ cup soft margarine or butter
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup flour

icing sugar, for rolling

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Mix all the ingredients together (you usually have to get your hands in there by the end). Roll into balls and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 30 minutes.

After they come out of the oven, wait about 5 minutes and then roll the balls in icing sugar. Wait until they are completely cooled and then give them another healthy roll in icing sugar. You can do either of these steps or both, it doesn’t matter. We’ve done a variety of different techniques over the years but this is my favourite. The icing sugar gets a bit sticky on the warm cookies initially, so the second roll is usually needed.

Makes about 2 dozen small balls.

Enjoy!

I also made red, white and green marble cupcakes for Christmas. These are always a hit and people are always super impressed but they’re actually pretty easy – you just need a little extra time.

Basically, just whip up your favourite vanilla cupcake recipe, separate the batter into 3 bowls and add red food coloring to one of the bowls, and green to another. Then, drop a scoop of each color into each cupcake wrapper and swirl with a toothpick.

People will think you’re a cupcake magician.

I topped mine with vanilla butter cream and chopped candy canes. Delish!

Festive Sugar Cookies

I know I’ve been seriously slacking in the recipe department this past week…one would think that because it’s Christmas and I have time off to bake, I would be baking. And in all honesty…I have been baking. However, I keep forgetting to take pictures. Or I’m out fighting the crowds at the mall or driving all over town to holiday get-togethers and parties.

But enough excuses!! Here is a traditional holiday cookie recipe: sugar cookies!! These are Matt’s favourite cookies so I tend to make them a lot…they’re good for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, birthdays, when your lover-man is away doing a show in southern Alberta for 4 months…they’re just always appropriate. And so simple. And delicious.

So, enjoy!!

Sugar Cookies
*Note: These cookies call for margarine and I have made them with butter and they just weren’t the same…normally I would stress the use of butter, but these are an exception.

Ingredients:

1 cup margarine
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
2¾ cups flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (my oven is super old and these tend to burn at 400 if I’m not careful, so I bring it down to 375, just to be safe).

Cream margarine & sugar. Add egg, baking powder and vanilla – mix well. Add flour.

Roll out and cut using festive cookie cutters.

Bake for 6-7 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Makes a crapload of cookies. I wouldn’t recommend doubling it, unless you have A LOT of time on your hands to ice them.

Ice with royal icing – or any basic icing of your choice. I kind of always make mine up…

Feed to the people you love!