World's best carrot-cake recipe

[MizLynnette]

If I'm repeating information already post please excuse..I haven't had the time to read the entire thread...just want to chime in that I use organic carrots for my carrot cake...the difference is amazing! The flavor of the carrots comes right up front. My clients always rave...

Lynne

[Becca Porter]

Here you go:

Frog Commissary Carrot Cake

There is none better than this.  This is the recipe made famous at Phiadelphia's sorely missed Commissary restaurant, one of the places that led the "restaurant renaissance" here back in the 70's and 80's.  The Amazon reviews of the Frog Commissary Cookbook say it's worth buying the book just for the carrot cake recipe alone.  That might be true, but it's an excellent book all around.

The carrot cake does RULE.

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I need some quick help. I want to make this today, but it calls for a 10" tube cake pan. What do they mean? A tube pan like an angel food cake pan or what? Thank you!!

[Patrick S]

I need some quick help. I want to make this today, but it calls for a 10" tube cake pan. What do they mean? A tube pan like an angel food cake pan . . .

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Yep. A 10" round cake pan with a removable bottom and a hollow column in the center.

[Becca Porter]

Okay, could I use a springform with a flower nail in the middle?

ETA- Never mind I found my tube pan. Isn't this an odd choice for a layered, frosted carrot cake? I'm ok with it though .

Edited March 22, 2006 by Becca Porter (log)

[Darcie B]

Here you go:

Frog Commissary Carrot Cake

There is none better than this.  This is the recipe made famous at Phiadelphia's sorely missed Commissary restaurant, one of the places that led the "restaurant renaissance" here back in the 70's and 80's.  The Amazon reviews of the Frog Commissary Cookbook say it's worth buying the book just for the carrot cake recipe alone.  That might be true, but it's an excellent book all around.

The carrot cake does RULE.

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Has anyone tried making this as a cupcake? Or does anyone have a great carrot cake cupcake recipe?

[Desiderio]

Does anyone ever tryed the Alton Brown carrot cake?

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_29955,00.html

This August I will like to make an american style carrot cake for my son's second birthday ( my husband love it), I never made the american style and I would like to get a good recepie and frosting as well.

I saved some of the recepie on this thread and I might tryed the UCLA one and the Alton Brown .

[Desiderio]

If I was going to make the commissary carrot cake into a round plain pan ( instead a tube one, dont want holes in my cake ) would I need to bake 2 or 3 separated round pan then assemble it with the filling etc? Or chose one spring round pan ( taller than my other round pan ) and then proceed as the recipe call ( plastic wrapping etc then cut into three layer ?

Edited July 24, 2006 by Desiderio (log)

[Ling]

^I've always used three 8 inch pans for that cake. I've actually never baked it in a bundt pan because I don't like the way that looks either.

[Desiderio]

Thank you Ling , I am going to give it a try .

[Desiderio]

It is normal that at the end of baking this cake the top middle sink slightly?

It was fine till almost the end ( 70 minutes ).The crust its a bit more crunchy of what I was expecting , I thought that would be moist all the way from inside out.It can be because I am in altitude should have I lower the sugar in the formula ?

I havent taste it yet but it looked pretty good with the frosting ( I didnt make the filling since was just a test one for next week ).I was thinking to make instead of a big cake a bunch of little cup cake with frosting and all for the birthday.

Another thing, I have noticed that the frosting its a bit too soft , I mean in this heat ,can I raise the amount of cream cheese to make it little bit stiffer so it can resist longer out of the fridge ?( today it seems like everytime it was out it would get soft very fast ).

Thank you

[Caroline923]

Has anyone ever tried thet buttermilk soaking from Southern Living on the Frog Commissary recipe???????

[Ling]

It is normal that at the end of baking this cake the top middle sink slightly?

It was fine till almost the end ( 70 minutes ).The crust its a bit more crunchy of what I was expecting , I thought that would be moist all the way from inside out.It can be because I am in altitude should have I lower the sugar in the formula ?

I havent taste it yet but it looked pretty good with the frosting ( I didnt make the filling since was just a test one for next week ).I was thinking to make instead of a big cake a bunch of little cup cake with  frosting and all for the birthday.

Another thing, I have noticed that the frosting its a bit too soft , I mean in this heat ,can I raise the amount of cream cheese to make it little bit stiffer so it can resist longer out of the fridge ?( today it seems like everytime it was out it would get soft very fast ).

Thank you

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Did you bake them in three 8 inch pans? I don't recall baking my cakes for that long (70 minutes)...more like 45-55 minutes for that size since each cake is so much thinner than a bundt cake.

I've never had this cake sink on me...they always bake up quite level (i.e. I frequently don't need to level them at all). Also, the top is never crunchy on my cake.

I don't follow the recipe for the FC frosting. I always use 2:1 cream cheese to butter, with a squeeze of orange juice and very little icing sugar.

Edited July 25, 2006 by Ling (log)

[Desiderio]

I used a 10" round pan and I bake a single cake , it did raise quite well and uniform but at the end the top center was little bit sinked ,I think as you said maybe need a less baking time .

I am going to try your formula for the frosting less sweet and more consistent I like it better.

Thank you Ling

PS: I have tasted the cake last night and I have to say its a very very good cake .

Edited July 25, 2006 by Desiderio (log)

[Ling]

^You're welcome. I like the Frog Commissary cake too, but I like the version I made (pictured above) even better. It's kind of a combination between the FC cake and the UCLA recipe (they are pretty similar anyway.) I forget exactly what I did as I was just winging it, but one of the major changes was using 1 cup of butter (UCLA recipe) and 1/4 cup of oil (= 1 1/4 cups of fat, like the FC recipe.)

Anyway, I posted that pic because my FC cake looks just like that too...those cakes weren't levelled, btw.

[hhlodesign]

^You're welcome.  I like the Frog Commissary cake too, but I like the version I made (pictured above) even better. It's kind of a combination between the FC cake and the UCLA recipe (they are pretty similar anyway.) I forget exactly what I did as I was just winging it, but one of the major changes was using 1 cup of butter (UCLA recipe) and 1/4 cup of oil (= 1 1/4 cups of fat, like the FC recipe.)

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Of course the UCLA recipe would be the best one!

Go Bruins!

[Desiderio]

As I was talking with a friend of mine that live here in COlorado as well , about the cake and the fact that it sinked a little bit ( its really bothering me ), she was telling me to get one ot those air sheet to use it whenever I bake ,expecially here in altitude ,and to add 2 tbsp of flour to my recipe also to compensate the altitude ,also I did add crushed pineapple as well and I was thinking ( then I read all the other posts and realize Ling just said that )to lower the sugar amount maybe to a 1 1/2 cup?I have the feeling that the large amount of sugar made the exterior of the cake little bit on crunchy side ,or so .I want to try to do like Ling said and use butter and oil and the frosting definatlly ,cause the one on the recipe its too sweet .

Thank you

[MelissaH]

Vanessa,

I cooked in Colorado for nine years before becoming a flatlander again.

The basic advice is that there is no general and exact solution to altitude problems. I'd try what your friend suggests, but be aware that you may still need to tweak to get it to work. Then, there's the other issue that if you're finding things too sweet, it may just be too sweet a recipe!

I'd highly recommend keeping a notebook of what you try, and what the result is. Photos can be useful, as can (of course!) the collective wisdom of eG. You're probably in for multiple iterations to get a perfect product, and it can help immensely to write things down so you know what you did and whether it made matters better or worse to your tongue.

That said, when I was visiting my parents last summer (their house is at about 8600 feet), I found the book Pie in the Sky by Susan G. Purdy (eG link) to be helpful in making baked recipes of all kinds work at altitude. The explanations inside of what happens and why you need to make the changes are quite useful. There are many other high-altitude cookbooks out there (and it's probably worth a couple of bucks to order the pamphlets from the Cooperative Extension, as the people in Ft. Collins know their stufff) but many of the recipes in other books didn't work at all at my parents' house. High altitude, in general, seems to be 5000 feet unless otherwise specified in the book. Heck, even the high altitude directions on a box of cake mix don't work when I visit my parents!

(BTW. my mom has wrecked more baked goods using an air-insulated cookie sheet than I can count. If you use one, NOTHING browns on the bottom. If your oven has a tendency to heat very strongly from the bottom, you may find one useful, but I wouldn't give one a blanket recommendation. It's probably worth a try, once...but YMMV.)

Good luck!

MelissaH

As I was talking with a friend of mine that live here in COlorado as well , about the cake and the fact that it sinked a little bit ( its really bothering me  ), she was telling me to get one ot those air sheet to use it whenever I bake ,expecially here in altitude ,and to add 2 tbsp of flour to my recipe also to compensate the altitude ,also I did add crushed pineapple as well and I was thinking ( then I read all the other posts and realize Ling just said that  )to lower the sugar amount maybe to a 1 1/2 cup?I have the feeling that the large amount of sugar made the exterior of the cake little bit on crunchy side ,or so .I want to try to do like Ling said and use butter and oil and the frosting definatlly ,cause the one on the recipe its too sweet .

Thank you 

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[Desiderio]

Thank you Melissa, it is a little bit confusing all these thibgs about altitude and baking or candy making .

I will indeed write down all my experiments , and I will give a try with the air insulated sheet just because my oven ten to cook everything from the bottom , but as you said I will keep an eye on and if it doesnt work oh well Ill use it strictly for baking cookies .

Thank you for you advices will keep posted

[Ylee]

Hi there!

I have a question about a carrot cake recipe I used recently.

The recipe is here :

http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=39601

I was making a 5 x batch and was in a hurry, so didn't bother following this step "Beat on medium speed with electric mixer for 5 minutes", instead I mixed it all together in a large bowl by hand. Everyone loved the end result, so I'm wondering why you would need to beat it for 5 minutes in the first place, and how different would the cakes have been? Any suggestions?

[Ling]

^I believe beating incorporates air (which makes the cake lighter) and adds structure by developing gluten.

[Ylee]

^I believe beating incorporates air (which makes the cake lighter) and adds structure by developing gluten.

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Thanks! I might give the recipe another go some time and see if I can tell the difference. Meanwhile, I'll also have to get round to try making that fantastic looking frog commisary cake ! So many carrot cakes so little time...

[Squirrelly Cakes]

Actually, most carrot cakes, like this recipe you used, are more of a quickbread than a cake. Therefore beating them isn't going to incorporate air the way a recipe containing butter or shortening would if you creamed it with the sugar, because you are using an oil. So normally you would follow a quickbread or muffin method. Whisking the wet ingredients into the dry just until combined, would be enough.

Five minutes of beating on medium speed is not such a good idea as you risk overdeveloping the gluten and creating a dry, more dense cake. This recipe as most carrot cake recipes do, already produces a dense cake.

This is the method I follow when making carrot cakes:

In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and stir together. Add nuts and raisins. In a separate bowl mix eggs, oil, milk and carrots. Make a well in the bowl containing the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients, whisking only to combine.

Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

[Flotch]

This is my mum's recipe but I generally reduce th sugar by half cup or it gets too sweet. It produces a lovely moist cake and tastes delicious straight out of the oven.

3/4 (275 g) carrots peeled & grated 5 eggs separated, whites beaten stiff

1 1/2 cups (300g) sugar 1/2 tbsp. (10 g) lemon rind

2 cups (300g) blanched almonds ground 1/2 cup (60g) flour

1 tsp. (5 g) baking powder a pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 220 C

Beat egg yolks and sugar well. Add lemon rind, ground almonds, carrots and mix.

Sift together flour, baking powder, pinch of salt and add to the carrot mixture. Fold

in the beaten egg whites and pour the batter into a well greased and floured tin

(20 cms round). Bake for 50/60 minutes. When done turn out and leave to cool.

Dust with icing sugar and decorate as you like.

[Dailey]

i made the FC carrot cake last week and noticed it was a bit greasy for my liking. my original carrot cake recipe calls for both butter and oil, which i think i like better. anyone else notice this? i did used vegetable oil instead of something a bit lighter like canola.

[Desiderio]

I was thinking that for the cake I want for my son's birthday party ( the FC) ,I am going to follow Ling's advice and use butter and oil, I havent try it yet but it seams that everyone likes it better that way.I did try it the first time with canola oil and it was fine very moist , indeed a very yummy cake ( I mean I am on a diet and I have to have a little piece once in a while , or everyday )