Carrot Cake for President

                            

Wow.  Three whole days without posting.  That must be some kind of a new record for me.  If you must know, I’ve been very busy honoring our presidents, past and current.  But especially current.  God, I don’t think we’ll ever be able to top him.  Is there any way to keep him in there for a third term?  Any way at all?

Apparently, I’ve chosen to honor our presidents by eating all of the carrot cake I made for Husband for Valentine’s Day.  Presidents like cake, right?  And this exercise of honoring our presidents made me remember just how good this carrot cake is, which is why I’m back with the recipe. 

The single most important thing about this cake from Husband’s perspective is that it’s totally raisin-free.  Not a single raisin in sight, though there are pecans aplenty, which ought to make Jimmy Carter happy (what did he grow again?).  Lucky for FDR, there should be no Pearl Harbor flashbacks since there’s no pineapple or coconut or anything weird like that in here, either.  Just carrots.  Carrots in a cake aren’t weird.  Right, Bill Clinton?  And, of course, it has cream cheese frosting, which is the other obvious requirement.  And if anyone liked cheese, it was Calvin Coolidge.

I always make a habit of doubling frosting recipes.  Even my own, which I had already doubled the last time I made it and probably the time before that.  I hate the idea of running out.  This policy just guarantees that the cake gets better and better every year, just like our presidents.

Husband's Favorite Carrot Cake

1½ cups canola oil
2½ cups sugar
4 eggs, separated
5 Tbsp. hot water
2½ cups flour
1½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. cloves
1½ cups grated carrots (about 3)
1 cup chopped pecans

Frosting
½ lb. butter, softened (2 sticks)
1 lb. cream cheese (2 bricks)
1½ lb. confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease two 9-inch circular cake pans.  Line bottoms with parchment paper and grease that, too.  Dust with flour by shaking it around the pan until it completely coats the bottom and sides.  Shake excess into the other pan and repeat, emptying the extra flour into the trash.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix oil and sugar until well blended.  Beat in the 4 eggs yolks.  Add the hot water and mix well, scraping down the sides.  In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.  Beat into sugar mixture until just combined.  Stir in carrots and nuts.  Batter will be very thick.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.  Stir about a quarter of the egg whites directly into the batter to lighten it up.  Then, gently fold the rest of the egg whites into the batter.  Pour into cake pans to the same height and bake 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out pretty cleanly (a few moist crumbs are okay).  Let cool.

To make frosting, whip together butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer.  Add confectioner’s sugar and mix until lumps are no longer of a worrisome size.  This varies from person to person.

To assemble, remove cakes from pans and arrange one cake on a plate.  Spread top with frosting and stack second cake on top.  Frost the sides, then the top.  If you’re getting crumbs in the frosting and it’s pissing you off, do a thin coat of frosting and then refrigerate.  That will lock in the crumbs so that you can use the remaining frosting to give it a final, crumb-free coat.  Decorate attractively.  Or stupidly.  It’s a free country.

Comments

[Whatacard]

Wow, that looks awesome. Just the way I like carrot cake...without any annoying non-carrot related stuff like coconut. And with lots and lots of frosting!

[Adele]

I'm not much of a cake baker... but I do like carrot cake. Can this be baked in square pans, or must they be round?

[Tammy]

Adele: THEY MUST BE ROUND! Just kidding. It doesn't matter.

Whatacard: Coconut. Bah.

[Lily VS]

Uh, how do I clean out the drool on my keyboard...

Yeah, I am with you on the extra frosting bit. Only in my case it's because I use half to frost, and the other half gets eaten off the spatch!

God your stuff always looks so delicious! Makes me hate WW even more. *sigh*

[Susanna]

My grandmother used to make me carrot cake for my birthday every year. Yum. My husband also is a raisin hater. This recipe will be perfect (although I think I have my grandmother's recipe in a box somewhere and should probably dig that out at some point ... ).

[cookiecrumb]

Double the frosting recipe! Brilliant, although I don't bake much.
Next time I'm going for double the rabbit pate recipe.

[Warren G. Harding loved raisins in his carrot cake]

Dear God, I absolutely adore carrot cake.

[Mary]

Carrot cake is my favorite kind of cake. Although, I've never had a carrot cake without raisins. Also, I adhere to the personal philosophy that cake is merely a vehicle for frosting and I think it's BRILLIANT that you double the frosting.

[Sally]

What IS it about men and raisins??? I love it alllll baby! (Don't look now, but I think that WG Harding *might* be your dad...)

[Barry Foy]

This looks so good that I don't know which to do first: make the cake with the double frosting, or just make the frosting and skip the cake. I just might try both. Too bad about those raisins, though--nothing spoils a good carrot cake like leaving out the raisins.

[sunny12]

screw the raisins, where's the PINEAPPLE???? Although maybe I won't notice with all the frosting. Yum!

[Annemarie]

I made a carrot cake this week which didn't knock me out, but even at it's worst it's a wonderful cake. I'll be taking a look at this recipe...

[Katrina]

It is not safe to read your blog at work. I've got tears from laughing and now I'm hungry but only for carrot cake! Actually forget the cake, I just want frosting.

[aforkfulofspaghetti]

God, that looks good. And double frosting is ALWAYS a good thing. Lucky hubby!

[Dad]

I can also commend this recipe since I finally got some of my daughter's baking efforts (for a change!). Not crazy about raisins but I would have eaten them.

Warren Harding????

[Tammy]

Dad: Don't mind Ed. He was just posing as Warren Harding, again. Sally thought it was you, but I meant to tell her that you're all about Abe Lincoln.

[Janet]

I made it for Easter this weekend. I used carrots = Easter Bunny for an excuse, but really it was all about the frosting. Oh it was good. Too good. I learned an important lesson about too much frosting. That's not to say I won't do it again, though.

Thanks for another tasty recipe.