Recipe · any

Carrot Cake

A moist spiced bundt cake made with grated carrots or the pulp left over from juicing, with a cream cheese icing.

Meal: snackMain: carrot

Most of the time, instead of shredding carrots, Cindy uses the leftover pulp from making fresh carrot juice. Shredded carrots and carrot pulp are interchangeable in this recipe. Sometimes she freezes the extra carrot pulp in 3 cup amounts, just for this recipe.

Prep

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a bundt pan (or a 9x13 cake pan, or two 8x8 baking pans) by buttering or oiling it. Wipe lightly with a paper towel to remove any clumps of butter or puddles of oil. Lightly dust with flour, shaking out the excess. Cindy’s preferred pan is a large bundt pan, because she likes the look of the cake when she serves it.

Ingredients

Cake ingredients

1 cup vegetable oil of your own choice
5 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup liquid: milk, kefir, or juice
2 cups unbleached flour (can substitute 1 cup whole wheat flour if desired)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp each nutmeg, allspice, and ginger (if you don’t have one of these spices, don’t worry about it)
3 cups grated carrots (or carrot pulp left over from juicing)
Optional: chopped toasted nuts like almonds, walnuts, and pecans; pumpkin seeds or raisins

Steps

1In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and all the spices. Set aside.
2Cindy likes to stir the carrots into the dry ingredients until thoroughly incorporated, but you can also fold them in at the end if you prefer.
3In a separate bowl, beat the 5 eggs, add the sugar, and keep beating until thoroughly combined. Add the 1/2 cup of liquid and mix in well.
4Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and gently fold together until everything is equally moistened. If you feel you need a little more moisture, add a little more.
5Pour the batter into the prepared pan. If the pan is more than 2/3 full of batter, remove a few tablespoons to a smaller prepared pan and bake it separately. This stops the cake from rising too much and overflowing your bundt pan.
6Set in the centre of the heated oven and set the timer for 35 minutes. Start checking every five minutes after that. Depending on the size of the pan, it can take between 45 and 60 minutes. The bundt pan takes the longest because it’s deeper. Don’t undercook. Test by lightly tapping with your finger. If the cake bounces back, test further with a toothpick. When it comes out clean, remove the cake from the oven and set aside to cool about half an hour.
7Lightly loosen with a spatula, then turn upside down onto a serving plate. Let it finish cooling before fully removing the pan. Cindy leaves square or rectangle cakes in their pans to serve, and only removes the cake from the bundt pan.

Icing

Icing ingredients

1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 Tbsp cream or milk
Optional: chopped toasted nuts like almonds, walnuts, and pecans; pumpkin seeds

Directions

In a medium bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium-high speed until completely smooth (1 or 2 minutes). Gradually add the icing sugar, then the vanilla and cream, beating until fluffy. Lightly pour over the top of the cake and smooth out with a spatula. Cindy likes a drizzled look on the bundt cake. If you’d like it iced completely, double the recipe. Sprinkle chopped nuts over the top of the icing.