Tuesday, July 8, 2008

All about the Carrot


Sometimes all you need is a lil cake for two. The occasion was my husband's birthday. He is especially fond of carrot cake. So while the rest of the year I experiment away with chocolate and citrus and spices and nuts, for his birthday I let it be all about the carrot. Truth be told, I'd never baked one before we got married, but since then, I have made a number of different versions.

There was the Cooks Illustrated version, the Cooks Illustrated Best Light Recipe version, the Bon Appetit Cookbook version (very popular with the birthday party crowd), and most recently, an (almost) single serving size version from Small Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos. Instead of baking the batter in tin cans, I used two ramekins to make a small double layer cake. I added orange zest and Boyajian Orange Oil to the cream cheese frosting and did a simple walnut garnish. Hmmm....on second thought, maybe it's all about the frosting.

How about you? What is the best carrot cake you have eaten?


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the idea - smaller cakes- one for everyone! I think carrots are great, and would one day love to be able to make a carrot cake that looks like the one in the photos!

Sefali said...

I also love the idea of smaller cakes and small batch recipes in general. Nowadays we are all trying to eat healthier and it's too tempting to have that many goodies lying around. Much better to make a couple of This today, and a couple of That, a few days later. :) Stay tuned for more small batch experiments...