Classic Carrot Cake

I’m grossly late with this week’s HCB post.  The unimaginable happened; I couldn’t find my cookbook!   It finally turned up last night; it was hidden under a pile of papers.  I need these cupcakes for our June birthday party at today’s staff meeting; I was about to resort to my usual carrot cake recipe from Silver Palate, but I’m so glad that I got to try Rose’s version.

The Silver Palate recipe calls for a lot of add-ins: nuts, coconut, pineapple, and it makes a great cake.  Rose’s recipe calls for raisins and a secret ingredient, that I (being a bit of a blabber mouth) will reveal if you keep reading.

The cake begins with the usual two step process, the dry ingredients are sifted together.  The wet ingredients are combined.  The dry are added and then the shredded carrots and raisins.  (I was baking late at night, so I didn’t take time for the 2-part addition of raisins.)

The batter filled my 2 cupcake pans (24 cupcakes) and a few mini cupcakes.  I frosted them with Rose’s Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting and topped it off with a swirl of white chocolate ganache and a shard of pepita brittle.

The inspiration for the brittle comes from a Primavera Cooks! fundraising dinner our birthday girl attended recently at J-Bar, a casual restaurant owned by Tucson’s culinary star, Janos Wilder.  You’ll notice the cooked sugar is clear rather than opaque.  I used a peanut brittle recipe and omitted the baking soda.

I sampled mini cupcakes this morning, and I can tell you that the taste is fantastic.  If I didn’t know what the secret ingredient was, I don’t think I’d be able to identify it, but the addition of cocoa adds a certain depth to the flavor.

Unlike my other blog posts, as part of the Heavenly Cake Bakers, I don’t post recipes from this book on the internet.  One of the reasons for this baking group is to encourage readers to purchase the cookbook.  That strategy worked on me!  After follow the group’s baking adventures for a couple of months, I ordered a copy from Amazon.  This week, I was so panicked that I was ready to order a second copy!

Lois Britton

An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com,  she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.