Carrot Cake

I love carrot cake. It reminds me of Spring. The sweetness of the carrots, the crunch of toasted nuts and the frosting. Cream Cheese frosting. yummm. So when my friend Dave's birthday arrived yesterday I was delighted to hear that he loved carrot cake! I've made this recipe a couple of times before. Once I made it in a sheet cake pan and it was soup in the center. (urgh). So I stayed with the old stand-by. The 9" round cake pan. One thing I dislike about carrot cake is sometimes it can be dry and as dense as a fruitcake. Not this recipe!  I found it on Epicurious.com and the secret ingredient is orange marmalade! Also there is a thin layer of the marmalade on the bottom layer before it is topped with the frosting.  This made the cake even more moist and tasty.

The chopped nuts on the outside of the cake are a classic carrot cake decoration. Their crunch helps offset the cream cheese's sweetness.

This is the first time I'm posting a recipe so I hope you like it.

 

Marmalade Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

adopted from epicurious.com

Cake:

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour (I only use King Arthur's)

2 teaspons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup packed golden brown sugar

1/2 cup orange marmalade (I used my mom's homemade but you can use what you like.  Beware of high fructose corn syrup varieties!)

1/2 cup orange juice (fresh squeezed is best!)

3 cups (lightly packed) grated peeled carrots (about 4-6 large)

3/4 cup chopped toasted nuts (I used pecans but walnuts work great too)

Frosting:

4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

Nutty outside:

1 1/2 cups chopped toasted nuts

9" cardboard cake circle

For Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 9 inch diameter cake pans with 2 inch sides.  Using a whisk, mix first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside.  Beat eggs, oil, sugars, marmalade and juice in a large bowl until blended.  Stir in dry ingredients.  Fold in carrots and nuts.  Divide batter between cake pans.  Bake until tester inserted into centers comes out clean, about 40 minutes.  (Cookinmary note:  Due to all of the sugars in this recipe the cake begins to brown rather quickly.  Don't let this alarm you.  If the center jiggles when you move the pan the cake isn't ready - put it back in and check again in 10 minutes.) Transfer the cakes to racks; cool 15 minutes.  Turn out cakes onto racks; cool completely.

For Frosting:

Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until smooth.  Add vanilla and blend well.  Add sugar one cup at a time and beat just until smooth.  Taste to confirm it meets your personal level of sweetness.  (this is the best part!)

Assembly:

Place one layer on a 9" cardboard cake circle. Spread cake with 1/4 cup marmalade.  Spread 1 cup of frosting to cover layer.  Top with second layer.  Spoon enough frosting to cover top and sides.  Smooth sides.  Remember to keep frosting thick enough to allow nuts to adhere.  Grab a handful of chopped nuts and gently press them to the side of the cake (don't worry lots will fall off, just scoop them back up and use them for the next part of the cake).  Do this until the cake is covered on the sides.  I typically do this on a separate plate than the one I'm going to serve the cake on.  It's a messy process and by transferring the cake to a clean plate I can dust off the nuts that didn't stick.  This is why I always use a cardboard cake circle underneath my cakes. 

Penguin Cake

This is my first foray into fondant.  (except for the arms and legs of the monkey - but nobody really SAW it since I covered it with frosting stars!).  My good friend is fanatical about penguins. So when her 40th birthday rolled around it seemed as likely a time as any to make a go at it. I've always loved making 3-D animal cakes and luckily a penguin is relatively easy. I have a 3-D snowman cake pan from Wiliams Sonoma and thought it wouldn't be too difficult to carve it into a penguin!  I began with a few sketches, to get the proportions correct.

 

First I cemented the two halves of the pan with royal icing, wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer.  After it was solid enough to carve I began by cutting off the top hat, the broom, and any other bits to give me a smooth head and body.  Obviously the snowman has curves so I frosted the whole thing with a coupler-fitted decorating bag without a tip.  Then, starting at the bottom, I frosted a long rope spiral up and around the body, filling in the curvy parts.  Once the spiral was at the top I used my small offset spatula to carve out the neck and smooth the whole body.  I then used a piece of waxed paper to create a template for the big fondant piece that was to cover the head and face.

By the way, I used a chocolate fondant which tastes a lot like tootsie roll!  I can't say I'm very fond of white fondant - which is why I left the body in buttercream. Once I had the hat smoothed over the head I used kitchen shears to trim the excess.

After that I added the "cape" and wings. Once it was transferred to the base cake I added some orange fondant feet...

As well as a nose and some eyes! Voila! A very happy Penguin!