It's Carrot Cake... for Breakfast!

New friends Sarah, Christina, and Morgan and I were all chilling out before heading off to see a show and I mentioned that I should have baked something for this impromptu front yard bbq.  Suggestions?  Sarah's was carrot cake, another cake I've never made.  And hey - those baby carrots in the office were asking for more attention than a grab here and there when I get the midday munchies.  

I haven't baked anything good or of significance in months.  I have bounced back and forth from temporary home to temporary home and, even though I still have 9 days (9 DAYS LEFT) to move into my new apartment here in New Orleans - I had to make time to bake.  

Yesterday, starting at about 9pm, I start researching recipes, coming across a Barefoot Contessa recipe that looked pretty basic, used oil instead of butter, and I could easily cut the recipe in half and skip out on the frosting - making kind of a breakfasty bread since the thing was going to be done super late!  I pretty much substituted it to death so it's a pretty good original recipe...

YOU WILL NEED!

1 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 medium eggs, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans

2/3 bag of baby carrots, pretty much 2/3 of a 1lb bag

1/4+ diced fresh green apple

1/2 tablespoon butter

First things first: Oven at 350.

I noticed a time honored tradition of pairing carrots with pineapples.  I didn't have pineapples - had an apple though.  Figured that would be a great substitution.  Hoorah original idea, right?  Well - the reason you use pineapples - or applesauce - is to keep the cake moist.  I say fuck applesauce - make your own!

Take a nice crispy green apple and skin.  The only skinner I could find actually made these little shavings.  I have no idea what this tool is.  

Use this if you want to replicate, but I'll tell you why the aesthetic value of a little green in the batter does absolutely for you.  If not - skin the apple and chop up about a half of an apple, maybe a little more?  I don't know.  Like I said - it was an adventure in substitution.  I made sure the chunks were small, but I knew they would cook down a little too.  Touch your forefinger to your thumb, lightly and then bring your two sets together and touch lightly.  That big.  Cook in a pan in the butter until spongy.

Since I had already eaten some of my carrots and I couldn't split or measure out a half a pound I just used all of it, which was about 2/3 of a bag.  Chopped them to bits in the food processor.  It make a lot of carrots!  It was a pretty loud process.  (Did I mention I was watching "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" with Jay while doing all of this?)

This is a pretty super easy cake.  Next steps are what you'd expect - blend wet ingredients, sift dry ingredients, mix together, fold in carrots, apples, and pecans.  I would suggest using an electric mixer for the wet ingredients.  Beat those eggs up.  Also, really sift the dry ingredients if you have a sifter  Otherwise just blend with a whisk.  When you blend the wet with the dry - don't be afraid that the mix is a little thick and sticky.  The moisture in the carrots and apples will bring the batter to a good consistency.

And man, when you mix this up it literally looks like puke.  It was actually pretty gross.  With mine, since it had the little green flecks, the apple chunks, the brown bits of pecan - it looks so gross!  Julia concurred.  I did not take a picture of this to show you as to not discourage.  If your mix looks like someone blew chunks into a cake pan, don't worry - it's going to work out.  I mean, I got a little nervous but it tasted pretty awesome so I stuck it in the oven.   

After it started to bake it started to smell amazing!  This recipe has a lot of cinnamon in it so that started to warm up with the sugar and just make the kitchen smell great.  It takes about an hour - but babysit.  Everyone's oven is different and never perfectly calibrated.  So check with toothpicks until they come out clean.

I finished at about 12am.  Between bites of pizza and being involved in the movie it was a pretty long process.  I ate a piece when it was still warm, teasing my Chris from the distance over skype.  He'll get to have my baking soon enough when he moves down early September!

MMM....breakfast cake.  The only reason it's breakfast cake is because I wanted to eat it for breakfast.  Like breakfast pizza or something.  But I bet if you frosted it it would make a fine fine cake for whatever.  Also - you could double the recipe and layer with cream-cheese frosting.  

However -  I think that if you put more flour it may make the cake heartier.  I used unbleached cake flour but I bet if you use whole wheat all purpose , less sugar?  I'll have to get with Finney, new friend addition, another intro via Julia.  She has been experimenting with scones, which is awesome - I bet carrot & green apple scones with pecans would work there too.

For now - I'm back, fellow baking lovers.  Sorry for the 2 month delay.  Had to get my shit together, still have shit to get together!  But...more baking to come.  Love and Cake.

Chocolate Gateau L'Orange or the Ganachecapade

I am heading to my friend Maggie's house with a cake.  We're planning my going away party.  I'm originally from Rhode Island and I'm moving to New Orleans within days.  I had a hankering for baking since I've spent my last few weeks sitting on a couch applying for jobs and watching CSI - pretty much every day.

I broke out the Chocolate and Coffee Bible, a gift from my friend Astrid this past Christmas.  (I still have yet to figure out what I'm going to do with a pound of Guatemalan Dark Chocolate with Cinnamon.)  I just wanted to make a cake - just a cake with maybe some icing - because I'm not a frosting kind of girl.

In my parents house there is so much chocolate, especially after Christmas.  We eat it all the time - not like crazy - just a square of chocolate is a great little treat or dessert.  So, I had this Lindt Intense Orange Chocolate - 3.5 oz.  Perfect!  There's a recipe that calls for 3 oz.  Yum!  And instead of raspberry filling, I'll use marmalade.  Double yum!

YOU WILL NEED:

For the Cake:
4/5 of a Lindt Intense Orange Chocolate Bar
2/3 Milk
2.5 Sticks of Butter (3/4 cup)
1 1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
3 eggs
2 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
5 tbsp light cream

Filling:
4-5 tbsp marmalade - the fancier the better!

For the Ganache:
8 oz of chocolate - what ever you have or whatever shade you prefer
1cup of Double Heavy Cream
1/4 tsp Orange extract

Preheat the Oven- 375.  I don't ever convection.  Most of these recipes were made in real stoves.  (I'm wishing for a real gas oven when I move to New Orleans.)

Found two perfect little 8 inch pans in the cupboard, greased with a stick of butter (I like to pretend I'm coloring) and then line with Parchment Paper.

Pour milk in a saucepan over medium heat.  Break the Lindt Bar into the milk, melt on low heat, let sit to cool.  There are some little orange things in the chocolate, but it's not a big deal.

Cream butter and brown sugar.  I zap the butter in the microwave because I didn't take it out of the fridge to get to room temperature.  You can do that if you want.  Otherwise - no more than 15 - 20 seconds, otherwise it liquifies.  OK, butter, now sugar.

Shit - there's no brown sugar.  Wait - perfect excuse to make my own.  I found this recipe on the Food Network site after watching Alton Brown make awesome cupcakes:

1lb. of Sugar
3oz. of Molasses

ALL YOU DO - is mix in a food processor until all the molasses is incorporated into the sugar.  What I did was pour sugar right into the Kitchen Aid mixing bowl on a scale.  Crap - out of white sugar.  I topped it off with superfine left over from something baked during Christmas.  Pour delicious black-strap molasses until the weight gets to 1lb 3oz.  Stick the bowl back onto the Kitchen Aid.  (I want one of my own so bad!)  Mix like mad - it is the best ever brown sugar.  So fresh!  So fluffy!

So I pack the brown sugar with my hands so I get to lick it off later.

The sugar and butter is beaten and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  I cracked and dumped the eggs in without putting them in another dish first.  I should do that.  Perhaps you should too.  It's just a good idea.

With that done, sift all purpose flour and baking powder.  (It looks like a lot of baking powder, but it should be fine.  Least that's what I hope.)  I sifted 1 1/4 cup , then the BP, then the last cup right on top of sugar/butter/eggs.  Then fold, gently but thoroughly, until mixed.  It gets really kind of solid, so it's tough to get the last of the flour mixed, but if a little is left over, no biggie, just add chocolate and 5 tbsp of Light Cream.

But I don't have light cream.  Again - time to substitute.  You can use condensed milk - and it's probably the only reason I have condensed milk in the house, ever.  Divide by two.  2.5 tbsp then.  Mix that up and put even amounts of each in the prepped pans.  I like to use a giant ladle.  I like to make as many dirty dishes as possible.

In the oven - 30 minutes.  Check at 15 and then every 5 minutes after.

OK, ganache.  This is my first ganache topping experience.  My little boysenberry ganaches were tasty.  Won over a few hearts at a smorgasbord at Astrid's Mom's house.  'Night before I made them and Julia's house and we finished them off with a Boysenberry dessert wine reduction.  I am a sucker for reductions - and also drinking the dessert wine in the process.

I use the rest of the condensed milk - 1/2 cup - to substitute again cream.  (This was a mistake.  Don't do this - just read on.)  Then I need 8 oz. of chocolate.  I mixed some old chocolate chips with the remainder of the orange chocolate bar and a couple of mini truffles to get there.  This is fine.  But, the condensed milk didn't really work out.  I melted it all and let it cool, but it was still very thin.  Do yourself the favor and use 1 cup of double heavy cream - it will whip better and take on a shape once it cools.  Whip after room temp and it should be delicious.  My substitution is a failure.

The cakes come out of the oven.  While everything is cooling, I drive to the store to grab marmalade and orange extract for the ganache (At this point I still think it's going to work).  I also pick up more white sugar, since I used the rest of what we had for brown sugar deliciousness.  I also pick up Nutella.  Impulse buy.

Stack the cakes with 4-5 tbsp of marmalade in between, parchment paper sides kissing.  This is going to be good.  Mix Orange extract into ganache, pour over cake, and spread with a knife.  If you're baking this...you're done.  Now you can read my Ganachecapade.

It's loose.  It's so loose!  I remember I had a jar of frosting in the cupboard left over from a Christmas gift.  (I made a Robert Frost basket, with Frosted Flakes, Frosted Mini Wheats, Frosted Donuts, and Frosting. My cousin didn't get it.)  I add a little.  Get's thicker.  I add a little more, thicker still.  OK - this is going to work.  I am a genius.

It totally does not work.  It's still wicked loose and it looks like it's bathing in it.  It's thick enough not to soak completely into the cake but it's in a pool of it's own ganache.  (That sounds kind of gross).

My next bright idea is to put frosting flowers around the outside, to hide the fact that the cake is a little svelte in the center (When stacking the cakes, I put the two smoothest sides together, which is what you're supposed to do.)  I dig out my sister's Christmas gift - huzzah for getting what I asked for.  I throw the remainder of the frosting into the pastry bag and grab a large star tip.  I make two rows of stars, one big and then one little above it.  My master plan is working!  The cake looks better.

Until my stars start to sink down.  Oh well.  I don't care.  I just want to eat it.  And I will later this afternoon with Maggie.  It can't not taste good.  I'm so excited about it.

So, what have we learned today.  How to make brown sugar and how to fuck up ganache.

Voila!  A Delicious Cake Indeed!