?best ever? carrot cake?

a bit wrecked….

the mission, and i did choose to accept it, was to conjure up a carrot cake by Wednesday.

it was supposed to be homemade, and not have walnuts, and not have any cream cheese touching it anywhere.

and since it was The Birthday Boy requesting it, i happily acquiesced (though i did flirt with the idea of ordering one from the European bake shop…just for a second).

i thought i’d make something different from the usual, especially looking for a recipe for carrot cake that starred only carrots: no pineapple, sweet potato, coconut, apple/applesauce…just the carrots.

whenever i stumble upon a recipe that says “best ever” it’s like a “throwdown,” a challenge that i take really personally.

so. a just-carrot recipe, check.

now for the frosting: green tea mousseline cream? chestnut whipped cream? lemon buttercream?

finally, getting down to the wire, i firmly decided on white chocolate ganache.

and it was a roaring success! The Birthday Boy, er no, the Birthday Man i should say, was terribly pleased.

“best ever” carrot cake, based on a recipe from Cakes, 1001 Recipes from Around the World, Reader’s Digest, 2003.

2& 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 & 1/2 tsp. cardamom

1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg

a pinch of ground ginger

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 & 1/2 cups (3 sticks butter)

2 cups granulated sugar

2 tsps. vanilla extract

4 large eggs, at room temperature

3 cups finely grated carrots, packed

1 & 1/2 cups slivered almonds

1/3 cup raisins

preheat oven to 350F. butter, line with parchment paper, then butter again, 3 9-inch pans.

whisk together the flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla in a mixing bowl and with the mixer at medium speed, beat until creamy.

add the eggs, one at a time, just until blended after each addition.

with mixer at minimum speed, gradually add in the dry ingredients. stir in the carrots, walnuts and raisins.

spoon the batter into the prepared pans. bake for 45-55 minutes (stagger the pans so that they don’t overlap each other, and use the middle racks not too close to the bottom or top of the oven; i also used the convect mode ), or until a cake tester comes out clean.

cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, loosen and invert onto cooling racks. cool completely before frosting.

white chocolate ganache from The Cake Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum

makes enough to fill and frost 3 9-inch cake layers

6 ozs. premium quality white chocolate (Ghirardelli, Lindt, Tobler)

2 cups heavy whipping cream

on top of double boiler over medium heat, melt the white chocolate with 1/2 cup of the whipping cream. remove from the top of water before completely melted and stir constantly until smooth.

let cool.

whip the remaining whipping cream until beater marks show, then add the melted white chocolate and cream. beat until soft peaks form.

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