World's best carrot-cake recipe

[paulraphael]

Has anyone made carrot cake substituting butter for a siginificant chunk of the oil?

Seems like it would be a much better cake, but I don't know what structural issues you might encounter.

[rooftop1000]

I think the cake would be much firmer and possibly seem dry. Carrot cakes can have an oily feel to them but I think thats just part of the package.

tracey

[paulraphael]

I think the cake would be much firmer and possibly seem dry. Carrot cakes can have an oily feel to them but I think thats just part of the package.

tracey

I might experiement with replacing half the oil with butter, and then seeking moisture from some other source: applesauce, sour cream, etc...

I tend to think of oil-based cakes as creating the illusion of moisture rather than being truly moist. so I think this could be an improvement, not a compromise (unless you like corn oil more than butter!)

[Tri2Cook]

Replacing part of the oil with butter is fine. There are sufficient wet ingredients in most carrot cake recipes for it not to be a real issue. Even if it seems a little dry initially, by the next day it balances out nicely. I always use half butter, half oil at work. I also pre-hydrate the raisins so they don't pull too much moisture from the cake. It's one of our best sellers. I've done them with all butter and didn't find it unpleasantly dry, just not as moist as the usual suspects and a little too far from what people expect to be able to do it that way all of the time.

[JohnRichardson]

I think I asked this once before but might have been misunderstood (before meaning years ago).

Why is the FC cake baked in a tube pan (the kind that leaves a hole in the middle)? And do you fill that hole with filling, or end up with a cake that is shaped like a stack of pineapple rings? A picture of the finished cake would be helpful.

When I've made it, I just did 2 9" pans, and split into 4 layers.