Carrot Cake

This is one of my husband's favorite cake. Carrot cake.

My husband remembers that he often eat a delicious cake when he was still on elementary school. He had no clue what it was. One time he found out that it was a carrot cake and he asked me to try to make it for him. Wow! I didn't even know what cake it was. I tried to find the recipe on the internet, tried some recipes, and none of them satisfied him. Until i found this recipe. Thanks to  myrecipes.com.

The cake is easy to made, delicious, and moist. I've made this many time at many special and casual occasion. Sometimes I made this cake as a big round 9 inch tart, but I usually made this as mini cupcakes. They are cuter, smaller,  and easier to decorate. I've made some changes with the recipe but the cake still taste great.

I've shared my recipe with my friend as well and she like it. She made some changes with the recipe but it still taste great.

Carrot cake 

Ingredients :

• 2 cups (256 grams) AP flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1.5 cups (250 grams) white sugar
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (190 ml)  vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup  (180 ml) buttermilk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups (142 grams) grated carrot
• 150 grams pineapple, crushed and drained 
• 3/4 cup (90 grams) chopped walnut  

Preparation :

1. Line 9 inch round cake pan with parchment paper. Lightly grease and flour the paper. Or muffin tin with cupcake paper. Set it aside. 
2. Preheat the oven 180 C (350 F) 
3. In a bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. Set it aside.
4. In another large bowl, beat the eggs.
5. Add white and brown sugar, oil, butter milk, and vanilla extract into the beaten egg. Beat together until  smooth and combined. 
6. Add flour mix into mixed wet ingredients.
7. Beat with low speed to mix them together until well combined. 
8. Fold in grated carrot, crushed pineapple, flaked coconut, and chopped walnut into the batter.
9. Pour the batter into cake pan.
10. Bake the cake for about 25-30 minutes (Until wooden pick comes out clean). For mini cupcake, bake the cake for about 20 minutes.

Tip : If you want to make layered carrot cake, it would be better to make each layer separately and assembly them instead of making one big thick cake and cut it into layered. This cake is contained so many fruits and nuts.  The layers wont be good and crumble a lot.

This is mini carrot cup cake that i made. Fresh from the oven. They smell so good

Carrot cake goes really well with butter cream cheese frosting. I like the sweetness and cheesy taste from the cream. To decorate the cake, put the frosting into pipping bag with star tip, and just swirl the frosting on the top of the cup cake. I made additional decoration for this cake using royal icing. It takes more time indeed. But I like the result. :)

Royal Icing

Ingredients :

• 1 egg white
• 1 cup (110 grams) confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Preparation :

1. In a large bowl, whisk egg white with lemon juice until formed small bubble
2. Add 1/2 cup confectioners sugar and mix with medium speed until sugar is incorporated and mixture is shiny.
3. Add the rest of the sugar
4. Mix with high speed until mixture form stiff and glossy peak.
5. Add food coloring agent and start decorating. 

For making small carrot royal icing decoration, separate the icing into two bowl and add orange and green coloring. Transfer them into piping bag, and start making the carrot shape on the parchment paper. Put the carrot icing into  60 C oven for about 10-15 min. It will help to harden the icing faster.

Tip : Store the dry icing in a airtight container to keep it dry. Decorate the cake with this carrot icing right before you pack it or serve it. Do not put the icing on the top of the cream hours before that. Otherwise, it will ruin the icing and the frosting. The icing will be wet and soft because of the moist from the frosting, meanwhile the frosting will have some spot with orange or green color because of the wet icing will transfer its color into the frosting.

One box of mini carrot cup cake is ready. I prepared this box for my friend's son birthday party. From 1 recipe carrot cake, i can make about 3 boxes mini carrot cup cake (1 box contained 28 mini cup cakes). It's a lot of cup cakes. But everybody likes it. :)