13/05/2025

This recipe for carrot cake is adapted from the "World's Best Carrot Cake" recipe on Norine's Nest.

There are three pieces to this cake: the cake itself, the icing, and the candied carrot curls.

The spices in the cake are completely up to you. Don't like nutmeg? Don't add it! This cake does well when it's heavily spiced, though.

---

Carrot Cake

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 250 grams white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (there's no butter in this recipe, so this is the only source of salt)
• 240 grams all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 225 grams crushed pineapple with juice
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Mise en Place

• Measure out all ingredients ahead of time (individually)
• Combine vinegar and milk to make buttermilk
• Peel and grate carrots
• Lightly toast walnuts in a dry pan for added flavour
• Toast a bit of extra coconut for on top of the cake, if desired
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans

Dry Prep

• Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices

Wet Prep

• Combine eggs, buttermilk, oil, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl
• Mix well, ideally with a hand mixer or stand mixer

Combine

• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients
• Mix until combined
• Add in the shredded carrots, coconut, walnuts, and pineapple
• Mix to combine

Bake

• Add equal amounts of the batter to the prepared cake tins
• The easiest way to get an equal division is to use a kitchen scale
• Bake for 35 minutes
• Start checking around 30 minutes
• Remove from the oven when an instant-read thermometer reads 200 degrees
• Allow to cool in the pans
• Turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely

---

Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup salted butter (softened)
• 225 grams cream cheese (softened)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 250 grams powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons real maple syrup

Prep

• In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese fluffy
• Add the vanilla
• Add the maple syrup
• Sift in the powdered sugar
• Beat until smooth
• If too thick, thin with a bit of whole milk

---

Candied Carrot Curls

Ingredients

• 200 grams white sugar
• 250 ml water
• One or two large carrots

Mise en Place

• Peel the carrots
• Using a peeler, pull off large strips of carrot (they will shrink)
• The ideal size is about 1 inch in width, and the full length of the carrot
• Prepare a baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Prep

• Add the sugar and water to a medium-sized pot
• Bring to a simmer
• Add the carrot strips to the simmering simple syrup
• Simmer the carrot strips in the sugar for about 10 minutes, or until they start to look translucent

Bake

• After simmering the carrot strips, carefully remove them from the syrup and lay them flat onto the prepared baking tray
• Bake the strips for 10 minutes, or until they start to look dry at the edges

Curl

• Working quickly, wrap each carrot strip around the handle of a wooden spoon
• Slide the curl off onto a plate
• Repeat with remaining strips

Finish

• After the cake has cooled, ice it with the cream cheese icing
• Decorate with walnuts, carrot curls, toasted coconut, etc
• Consume