12198 Cardamom-Spiced Carrot Cake with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting 1 hr 5 mins, plus cooling and frosting time 10 mins 1 double-layer 8-inch cake (10 to 12 servings) Fri Jul 11 09:19:00 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 13 16:59:54 -0700 2009 Easy American CHOW http://www.chow.com/recipes/12198 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:59:54 GMT Have your cake and eat your veggies too Kept extra-moist with a generous helping of grated carrot, and lightly spiced with cardamom and ginger. Have your cake and eat your veggies too, with this moist, nicely spiced carrot cake. It’s flavorful enough on its own, but topped with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting it makes for a no-fuss dessert fit for any celebration.

Game plan: Grating 2 pounds of carrots on a box grater can seem like a daunting task. Give your biceps a rest and use the grater attachment on your food processor.

This recipe was featured as part of our Easy-Bake Birthday Cakes story and our Baked Sweets photo gallery.

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  • Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange the rack in the middle. Coat two 8-inch cake pans with butter and flour, and tap out any excess flour. Set aside.
  • Combine flour, baking powder, cardamom, cinnamon, baking soda, ginger, and salt in a large bowl, and whisk to aerate and break up any lumps. Set aside.
  • Combine eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla in a large bowl, and whisk until eggs are broken up and mixture is thoroughly combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold in flour mixture until just combined. Fold in carrots and walnuts until evenly mixed.
  • Divide batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes.
  • Remove cakes from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool, about 15 minutes. Run a knife around the perimeter of each, and turn cakes out onto the rack to cool completely.
  • To frost, place a cake layer on an 8-inch cardboard round, a tart-pan bottom, or a cake plate. Evenly spread about 1/3 of the frosting over the top of the layer. Stack the second layer, and evenly spread another 1/3 of the frosting over the top and sides of the whole cake. (Don’t worry about looks at this point—this is just a basecoat, a.k.a. a crumb layer, and it will be covered up later.) Place in the refrigerator until frosting is set up and slightly hard, about 15 minutes. Remove from the refrigerator and spread remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake, ensuring it’s as even as possible. Serve.

    • Beverage pairing: Dow’s 10 Years Old Tawny Porto, Portugal. Spiced desserts like carrot cake go wonderfully with sweet wines that have some degree of oxidation, such as tawny port, Madeira, and Vin Santo. The nutmeg, cardamon, and cinnamon just seem to fit smoothly with the nut and toffee notes of the wines. This Dow’s port is a great tawny for carrot cake, as it’s one of least sweet versions of this style.

    ]]>     http://www.chow.com/assets/2008/07/carrotcake290.jpg Kate Ramos 54 Sweet/Dessert 3 cups all-purpose flour

    ]]>     2 teaspoons baking powder

    ]]>     275 2 teaspoons ground cardamom

    ]]>     279 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

    ]]>     1 teaspoon baking soda

    ]]>     75 1 teaspoon ground ginger

    ]]>     301 1 teaspoon kosher salt

    ]]>     4 large eggs, at room temperature

    ]]>     298 2 cups granulated sugar

    ]]>     1 cup vegetable oil

    ]]>     1/3 cup well-shaken low-fat buttermilk

    ]]>     292 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    ]]>     119 2 pounds carrots, grated on the large holes of a box grater (about 6 cups)

    ]]>     1 cup walnuts, toasted and finely chopped

    ]]>     2 Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting recipes

    ]]>     5931 kate ramos 1 chow 20497 birthday cakes 771 potluck 15412 reunion 770 satisfying 9889 memorial day 6328 myo 7279 no brainer 273 party 661 celebrate 2166 kids 9636 adults 2747 make ahead 8548 no fuss 435 vegetarian 1619 omnivore 1585 birthday 23 cake 260 apples