David’s Carrot Cake

The carrot cake that makes carrot lovers out of carrot haters! The main ingredient is boiled then mashed, creating a moist cake without obvious carrot bits but loads of flavor. Top with cream cheese icing!

We call this David’s Carrot Cake because we were first introduced to it by my dear friend, Jacky, when she made it for her son’s birthday, way back when we were living in Brazil, probably circa 1996 or 1997. We made a lot of fancy cakes back then but this one didn’t need decorations or specially shaped pans to make it great. The cake, with cream cheese frosting, is enough. It has single-handedly converted more than a few non-carrot eaters to lovers. Jacky got so many requests for the recipe that I ended up printing it in the little school newsletter I put out periodically for parents and teachers. The title was, of course, David’s Carrot Cake.

If you have been reading along for a while or at least since last March, or June before last, you know that at our house the birthday girl or boy gets to choose the cake and the evening meal. My younger daughter has requested the carrot cake for every birthday for a very long time so this makes AT LEAST one appearance at our house every year. But it often makes many more. Today is the day that my baby begins her final year as a teenager. Happy 19th birthday, sweet thing!

 

She was so tiny once.  Just like a baby doll.  And that's her sister, smug smile and all, holding the real baby doll.

Ingredients

2 eggs at room temperature

2 cups or 400g sugar

1 cup or 240 ml light cooking oil (like canola or sunflower)

16 oz or 450g carrots

2 cups or 250g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons allspice (We aren't fans of allspice so I skip it and add extra cinnamon.)

3 teaspoons cinnamon 

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup chopped nuts (optional) We never add nuts but feel free if your family likes them.

Method

Peel and cut the very ends off of your carrots.  Cover them with water in a medium sized pot and cook until very fork tender.  

Drain the water off and mash them with a potato masher until there aren’t any lumps.  I do them rather fine so that haters don’t find a piece of carrot in the cake.  Transfer the mashed carrots to a bowl and leave to cool.

When your carrots are cool and you are ready to start mixing, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your cake pan by buttering and flouring it or lining it with parchment paper.  I use a rectangular pan with internal measurements of 12.5 in x 8.5 in or 32cm x 22cm.  I give the pan a quick zap of non-stick spray to keep the parchment from moving about. 

Add all the ingredients to a large mixing bowl, including the cooled carrots and mix well.  

Scrape the bowl down with a rubber spatula and beat for about two more minutes on high.

Pour into your prepared pan and bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.   

No, it did not get bitten by a snake.  I tested it twice for doneness. Second time's the charm.

Allow to cool completely before even thinking of adding frosting.  The cream cheese frosting recipe post is up.  Carrot cake cries out for cream cheese frosting.  

Enjoy!

Update:  My baby girl has turned 20!  Of course, I baked carrot cake again.

And for her 21st, there were just three of us celebrating so I halved the ingredients and baked it in one round pan. Served with Champagne!

Poached Salmon with Creamy Caper Onion Sauce

Whenever I get home from a holiday, I reminisce by looking through my photos and remembering all the people I’ve met or visited with and all the places I’ve been.  I also reminisce about the meals I have eaten.  I’m going back through my summer photos of food because there are so many dinners and salads and desserts that got made, photographed and eaten with relish, but never got posted.  I am not even home yet and I am already feeling nostalgic for wild salmon, which I have yet to find in Cairo.

Wild salmon is much drier than its farm-raised brethren so poaching is an excellent method of cooking it.   Add on a creamy caper onion sauce and you can’t go wrong.   I cooked this, along with a cherry tomato tart, for my in-laws and it was very well received.  My father-in-law has been ill and had not been eating very well for a couple of weeks when I served this and he cleaned his plate!  We were all very excited.  Seriously.  To the point that we took a photo of his empty plate.  Looking back now, that seems weird, but it felt right at the time.  Any small victory!

Strawberry Shortcake Muffins Kicked into Dessert #Muffin Monday

With the addition of extra strawberry sauce and whipped cream, these become Strawberry Shortcake Muffins Kicked into Dessert! So easy for Sunday dinner or any day of the week, really.

My maternal grandmother was a wonderful homemaker.  In addition to running a business full-time with my grandfather, she did the grocery shopping and cooked the meals and cleaned house.   I seem to recall that they had a lady in to do the ironing once a week.  And, of course, we pitched in when we visited.  Especially my mother.

The store was in the front of their property on one of the main streets going through New Iberia, LA and their house was in the back so they were never really off-duty if someone had a major appliance emergency.   Their home number must have been given out when an appliance sold because hardly a weekend or holiday went by without a call from someone who needed help with a recalcitrant machine.  Back in the day, Maytag appliances were only sold in smaller shops, by authorized sellers who also provided service when needed.

My grandparents only sold Maytag washers and dryers (and other brands of refrigerator and freezers and stoves) but my grandfather would service anything so he was never lonely like the repairman on the television ads.  Some of my best childhood memories are riding around with him in his old truck, meeting the farmers’ wives out in the country and, trying to be an able assistant, handing him the tools he needed to make repairs. 

While my grandmother was a good cook, time did not allow for fussiness or time-consuming dishes.  She had a number of solid recipes that took advantage of seasonal fruits and vegetables and which were simple to make and always well-received.  One of her most popular was strawberry shortcake.  She would buy the little round sponge cakes at the grocery store and macerate (although I am sure she never called it that) her freshly sliced strawberries with a generous amount of sugar.  After the strawberries created their own syrup, she would whip cream and serve a good helping of strawberries on each of the little cakes and then top with whipped cream.  What could be more simple or more delicious? 

I give you these:  Strawberry Shortcake Muffins.  My grandmother’s strawberry shortcake kicked up a notch or two because 1) freshly baked at home and 2) rich cream IN the muffin AND on top and 3) strawberries IN the muffn AND on top.

Strawberry Shortcake Muffins Kicked into Dessert

This is part of Muffin Monday and the muffin recipe comes from Seasons and Suppers,  a great website if you are trying to eat more seasonal fruits and vegetables.

Ingredients

For the muffin batter:

2 cups or 250g  all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup or 170g granulated sugar

1/2 cup or 115g butter, cold and cut into cubes

1 egg

1 cup or 240ml heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

9 oz or 250g (after hulling and dicing) strawberries

For the strawberry sauce:

9 oz or 250g strawberries

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon cornstarch

For the whipped cream:

2 cups or 480ml heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

(Photo disclaimer:  I discovered as I started this project that my dear husband had my camera in his backpack.  And I had just put him on a plane back to Cairo.  I had to use an old tiny Canon until younger daughter’s lovely Canon SLR could charge. I apologize in advance for the dark and blurry method photos.)

Method

Preheat oven to 350° F or 180°C.  Grease or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. 

Hull and dice your muffin strawberries.

In large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar.  Cut in cold butter with a pastry blender (or two knives) until it is in small pea-size pieces.  (Mine was more like soft sand.)

In small bowl mix the egg, vanilla and cream.  

Add all at once to flour mixture. Stir with spoon or rubber spatula until just blended.  Gently fold in the diced strawberries.

Spoon into muffin cups, making sure each muffin has some strawberries and bake for about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, hull and slice your sauce strawberries.

Pop them in a small pot with the sugar, water, lemon juice and cornstarch.

Cook over a medium heat for a few minutes, stirring gently, until the mixture thickens slightly and the cornstarch cooks clear instead of milky looking.  Remove from heat and set aside.

No food coloring, I swear!  Doesn't it turn a gorgeous red?!

When the muffins are baked, remove them from the oven and cool completely before removing from the pan.

When you are ready to serve, add in the vanilla and whip your cream with a whisk or electric beaters until soft peaks form. 

Cut the muffin into two (removing the muffin liner if used) and spoon over some of the strawberry sauce.

Add a spoon or two of whipped cream.

Enjoy!

(End note:  I should say that these muffins are divine just on their own as well!)

My five most viewed posts this week have been

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins 

White Chocolate Mousse Torte with Fresh Berries

Trinidadian Rum Punch 

and

Oven-roasted Filet of Grouper