Cast Iron Chaos RecentChanges
XMLFacebookTwitter

LoginLogoutRegisterContact the WebmasterPayPal Me

Carrot Cake

carrotcake.jpg frostedcarrotcake.jpg

Based on an Allrecipes.com recipe for carrot cake. I took the suggestions in the comments and modified the recipe to produce the following:

Pans needed: Medium-sied bowl for mixing carrots and pineapple, large bowl for mixing ingredients, medium-to-large bowl for mixing frosting. 9-by-13 inch baking pan.

This is a very moist cake, and it will likely stick to the bottom of your baking pan. You can avoid this by lining the bottom of the pan with parchment paper before adding the batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9-by-13 inch baking pan, or a 12 inch cast iron skillet. Because the cake will likely stick, cut a sheet of baking parchment paper and cover the bottom of the pan. The pan needs to be greased before applying the paper, so the cake will pull away from the sides of the pan as it bakes.

In a large bowl, mix in dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom. It's important to whisk the dry ingredients to keep them light and add air to the batter.

In an even larger bowl, peel and grate carrots. Strain pineapple to remove most of the liquid. Mix drained pineapple into carrots. Add applesauce and stir it all together. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix them together: white sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Mix in canola oil. Add dry ingredients and stir it all together into a batter. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Baking with a cast iron or heavy metal cake pan

A thin cake pan, such as light aluminum or non-stick, needs to be greased and floured to prevent the cake from sticking. However, if you are fortunate enough to own a cast iron or thick, heavy cast aluminum cake pan, do not grease and flour the pan. Yes, that's correct: do not grease the pan! Instead, place the dry cake pan into the oven. Preheat oven (and the pan) to 425° Fahrenheit. That may seem like a high temperature for a cake, but this is correct and intentional.

As the oven is heating, prepare your ingredients, mixing them in order so the wet ingredients are added to the dry ingredients. Mix together into a batter.

When the oven temperature reaches 425 degrees, carefully remove the cake pan from the oven. Do not turn down the oven temperature or turn the oven off. Add 2 tablespoons of Crisco or shortening, and brush the inside of the pan so the entire baking surface is covered. When finished coating the pan, add the extra hot oil to the cake batter, and stir it all together. Pour the batter into the hot cake pan.

Place the pan into the oven, and immediately turn the oven temperature down to 350° Fahrenheit. This will let the temperature decrease as the cake bakes. Bake for 50 minutes.

Let a young child lick the spoon and the bowl. This is important.

After baking, let the pan cool on the stovetop or a trivet for twenty minutes. The cake will continue baking as it rests in the hot iron pan, which is why the twenty minute rest period is necessary. After twenty minutes, the heavy iron cake pan will still be very warm or hot. This is the time to remove the cake! Use heavy gloves to avoid burning yourself on the iron pan. Use a thin blade or knife to loosen the edges of the cake from the pan (including the inside, in the center). Flip the cake onto a platter and remove the cake pan.

Cream Cheese Frosting

This recipe for carrot cake gives a result that is very, very rich – so rich, in fact, that a typical frosting (such as the kind you buy at the store) may be a little more sweet than it needs to be. This quick and easy frosting recipe has been adjusted a bit more so that the coating will have more of a "cream cheese" flavor to blend with the cake.

In a medium-to-large bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake.