Carrot Cheese Cake

Whenever I want something in mind, I will keep think & think how to get it done, how to present it nicely, how to etc etc etc..

Carrot cake 'was' in my library for quite sometimes.. my print-out of carrot cake recipes are pilling up. Seems like they are trying hard to get my attention each time I passed by . Every night I'm flipping thru recipes before I sleep (like kids must have story telling b4 sleep).

Sis is going back to KL this Sun afternoon! I must start my engine fast! Yesterday, spent the whole day looking & searching & studying which recipes will yield the best well at least Good carrot cake! Mostly are 2 cups flour to 4 eggs then with the rest ingredients. So I m pretty sure the one I m using is fairly safe. (yes, proven good after eaten ) Quite to my surprise that, not many recipes opt to include raisins in the cake! they preferred crush pineapples, shredded coconuts. I am really not so comfortable in using 'crush pineapples' here. Yes they do give moisture to cake, however.. may be next time! Let me do more research first.

Also, I realise , my memory starts to fail me recently. I was 'blank' in front of the ingredients shelf at Merdeka Supermaret, could not recall what the hell which nuts should be putting into the carrot cake (excuse me, I just read million of recipes b4 I stepped in the supermarket) .. (may be my mind just too tired).. and seriously "Walnuts/pecans" R not appearing in my mind!!!! ( Of cuz that is not explaining why i bought Mixed Nuts & Seeds (later u will see the picture).. When I picked Almonds in the first place, I was thinking, this is not right, definitely not Almonds! then I picked Hazel nuts, again I said not so tiny round one...which one ah? I just couldnt recall what NUTS !!!! Ended up I was attrached to this pack of "Super nuts & seeds" (I already knew this is not the one, but I just bought it nonetheless!)

Shredded coconut, I dont have this. Requested mum to detour me to Foh Sang when on the way home, she refused! so that's fine! I make that next time. I reached home after work around 6pm. Had my dinner, started to bake around 7pm... until 9:30 pm I finished. (the 2.30 hours included Preparing, Baking, Washing!!!!, Cooling, Assembling, Icing, Decorating, Photoing!!!!!)

I wasn't intend to roll 'rose petals' using camerlized (Candied) carrots in the first place. I wanted to somethiing like carvinmaven's excellent design! ( Really beautiful!! I must learn it one day)

caption: Candied carrots wrap around the cake, creating a gift like appearance, by CarvinMaven.

Ingredients

( original recipe are double in portion, the following has been halved)

1 cup cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon powder

1/4 tsp salt

1.5 cup grated carrot

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans/walnuts ( ok, I used nuts & seeds)

1/2 cup raisins ( I soaked in hot waters, and drained)

1/2 cup oil

1 cup sugar (I reduced to 1/2 cup only, & the cake Just nice!)

2 eggs

Frosting

120 g cream cheese

40g butter

3 Tbsp confectioners sugar.

Camerlized Carrots

Peel the carrots, Boil in 1.5 Cup water about 5-7 minutes on a pan, add in 2 T sugar, 1 T butter, simmer for another 2-3 minutes until syrup thicken.

* These nuts & seeds give good bites to my cake! not hard, just nice.

Steps

1. Prehead oven to 160C. Butter 9" inch round cake.

note: I used 2 ramekins here, and 2 (10cmwidth) round tins.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl stir together the carrots, nuts, and raisins. Set both aside.

(I soak my raisins in hot water for 10 minutes. and Drain well.)

3. Beat the oil and sugar together until they are smooth. Add the eggs one by one. and beat until the batter is smooth. Reduce speed and add the flour mixture, until dry ingredients disappear.

4. Gently mix in the carrot mixture by hand. (Yes, bare hand!!. Keep 5 fingers straight & close, iimagine like a spatula).

5. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until small knife comes out clean.

Note: Because I used small tins & ramekins here... I started to check after 30 minutes. and my cake are dones at 33 minutes! so check urs too)

6. Allow to cool for 5 min on a cooling rack and then unmold the cakes.

7. When cakes are cooled, combing the cream cheese & butter , beat until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar and beat until smooth.

Like the original Author says, "the cake waas very good! shredded carrot was soft . The crumb was verrry soft which was a nice combo with raisins & nuts. Eat with cream cheese was excellent. Both sis & I love it !

This is a keeper. For crushed pineapples & shredded coconut ( which I totally omitted from the same recipe)... pls visit CAST SUGAR's