When looking around the web, we’ve noticed how savory desserts (including vegetable desserts) are trending—so we thought it would be the perfect time to highlight the Culinary Vegetable Institute’s carrot cake recipe with its uniquely delicious frosting.
Carrot Cake Recipe Ingredients:
For the Cake:
1 cup cake flour
1 tbsp whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp ground cardamom
¾ tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup (80 ml) neutral oil, such as grapeseed
1 ½ cups grated carrots
For the Frosting:
8 ounces softened butter
8 ounces tempered chèvre
2 2/3 cup powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
Zest of 1 orange
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp of toasted Poppy Seed (optional; for a more traditional frosting, these can be omitted)
Carrot Cake Recipe Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F
Combine all of your dry ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
Whisk the eggs and oil together in a separate container, then add them and the grated carrots to the dry mix. Use a spatula to fold the ingredients together; take care not to overmix the batter.
Transfer the batter to a lined and buttered 9x13” baking tray and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 25 minutes). Ensure it is not more than ¾ full, or it will spill over during baking. Depending on the depth of your tray, this might mean you will have to reserve a small quantity of batter.
While the cake is baking, mix together the softened butter and chevré. On low speed, add the powdered sugar a bit at a time. Add all of the sugar, then follow with the salt and turn the speed to medium.
When all of the sugar is dissolved, add the zest and toasted poppy seeds.
When the cake is finished, baking remove it from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan.
Cut it free from the sides then frost it.
Not All Carrots Are Alike!
At The Chef’s Garden, our carrots are grown slowly and gently in full accord with nature—and the result is a carrot that is incredibly delicious and nutritious. In fact, independent testing has shown how our regeneratively farmed crops have 300 to 600 percent more minerals than USDA baselines. Focusing specifically on the farm’s fresh carrots, they significantly exceed the baseline figures in carotene levels.
If you love the earthy sweetness of carrots, then we invite you to also try our Carrot Cake Marmalade—created as a collaboration among The Chef’s Garden, the Culinary Vegetable Institute, and Emily Hutton from the Prospect Jam Company, an artisan jam and marmalade company located in Ohio.