Category: Cookies and cakes

Carrot Cake Supreme

Last summer when I asked my wife what she would like for her birthday, I assumed that she would suggest something simple, like finding her an autographed copy of the latest Joyce Carol Oates novel or an inexpensive dinner at some four star restaurant in Chicago or New Orleans.  Instead, she smiled and said, “Carrot Cake.”

She knows that cakes and cookies with vegetables in them are not high on my list of favorites.  My idea of a good dessert is one with lots of eggs, butter and sugar accompanied with a scoop or two of ice cream, not something with roots or squash ground up in it.  She also knew that I had never even considered making a carrot cake.

But since she has been making my special birthday cake (angel food cake with whipped cream lemon icing) for over 40 years, I said, “OK.”

Do you know how many carrot cake recipes there are?  I do not, but when I searched the web for “carrot cake” Google reported 7,650,000 results in .2 seconds.  In other words, lots of people either like carrot cake or want to use up extra carrots.

A few years ago at a church potluck I had a small piece of carrot cake that I liked, so I looked for a recipe that I thought might result in something similar.  The recipe below is close to what I remember, and it tastes pretty good.  Jerri and several of her friends said it was delicious.  A neighbor said it was one of the best carrot cakes he had ever eaten.

I have made it twice so far and have eaten four pieces (two from each cake).  You might want to try it.  I’ll be grating carrots for the third one next week.  There’s a birthday later this month for someone who likes carrot cake.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1  cup crushed pineapple
2 cups grated raw carrots
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts

PROCEDURE:

Peel and shred the carrots and chop the walnuts.  Set them aside to add later. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Sift the flour, soda, cinnamon, and salt together into a small bowl.  In large bowl beat the eggs, then add the oil, buttermilk, sugar, and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour mixture, pineapple, carrots, coconut, and walnuts and stir about a minute to mix the batter thoroughly.

Grease and flour a 9 x 13 x 2 inch cake pan and spread the batter evenly into the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 55 minutes.  When the cake is done a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean.  Let the cake cool completely in the pan on a rack, then frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.  You can firm up the icing by placing the cake in the refrigerator.

Cream Cheese Frosting

INGREDIENTS:

12 ounces Neufchatel cheese
6 T butter
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

PROCEDURE:

Put the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl and allow to soften at room temperature at least an hour before making the frosting.  With a wooden spoon mix the cream cheese and butter together until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually sift in the confectioners’ sugar (about a quarter cup at a time) and beat until smooth. Store any extra frosting in the refrigerator.

NOTES:  I use Neufchatel cheese because it has a bit less fat than cream cheese and still makes an excellent frosting.  Cream cheese will work just as well and may taste better to you.  I substituted pecans for the walnuts the second time I made the cake, and it was just as good.

Mennonite Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

When I was a kid, nearly every garden in northern Wisconsin featured two perennial vegetables.  Both yield better when they have a chance to rest during a nice cold winter, which helps explain why they were so popular in our part of the United States.

The first was a row of winter onions.  My father loved those onions and waited impatiently every spring for the new green sprouts to get big enough to pull.  He would come home from work and walk out to the garden sometimes even before going in the house when they were getting close to being ready to pick.  Pushing the season a little, Dad would bring in a dozen tender green onions for supper, and we would know that spring was finally here.

The second was two or three rhubarb plants.  Rhubarb was classified as a fruit in 1947 by a court in New York State because it is used as a fruit, but I still think that stalks that resemble celery are best considered a vegetable.

My mother was in charge of our rhubarb, though Dad helped with the mulching, liming and fertilizing.  When the time came, Mom pulled big stalks of rhubarb and made pies, sauce, cakes, breads and marmalade.  I enjoyed them all, but my favorite was her sauce.  It made a nice change from the canned berries and applesauce Mom had put up the previous summer.

Once in a futile attempt to lose some weight I bought a little calorie counter book small enough to put in my pocket.  My plan was to consult it before buying any tempting food item.  Jerri made the sensible observation that if I just reduced portion sizes and exercised a bit more I would probably not need the book.  As  sat at the kitchen table looking for some low-calorie foods I liked that she could make to help me lose weight, I found rhubarb.

“Here’s one,” I said.  “Rhubarb.  One cup of rhubarb has only 26 calories.  And I love rhubarb.”
“That’s raw rhubarb,” she answered.  “Check rhubarb sauce.”

Needless to say, rhubarb sauce did not make it onto my list of diet foods, but I still enjoy a little of it from time to time along with some other rhubarb favorites.

Soon we will be making Jerri’s rhubarb custard pie again, and if you want to try it, the recipe is in the blog archives from last May.  Here is another delicious rhubarb desert.  A couple of days ago, Jerri made this upside down cake from a recipe in the Mennonite Community Cookbook.  She thought that it was a little too sweet with all the brown sugar caramelized on the bottom, but I loved it.

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 cups diced rhubarb
1 cup brown sugar
2 T butter

PROCEDURE:

Pull three or four large stalks of rhubarb.  Trim the base of the stalks and cut off the leaves, which are not edible.  Wash the stalks and dice them into 1/3 to 1/2 inch pieces. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Melt the butter.  Grease a 9 by 9 inch cake pan or 10 inch pie pan.  Mix the butter, sugar and rhubarb in the pan and set it aside.

Cream the sugar and shortening in a mixing bowl, then beat in the egg.  Sift the flour, salt and baking powder and add alternately with the milk.  Stir until you have a smooth batter.

Spread the batter over the rhubarb mixture and bake at 375 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.

Note:  Serve with half and half or cream.  Makes nine generous servings.