I’ve never been much of a Baker. I like to cook, I like to NOT follow recipes, I like to mix and match interesting ingredients (dating back to my high-school days when my friend Becca and I came up with Peanut Butter Chocolate Coconut Butterscotch Popcorn…), but rarely have I ever “liked†baking. This has always made me scratch my head. I’m so methodical and organized – why wouldn’t I thrive off meticulous measuring and particular precision? Instead, baking has irritated me, because I don’t understand when something doesn’t turn out like it is supposed to. The chemistry of it all perplexes me.
However, this year has presented me with the fun challenge of making 16 birthday cakes for my dorm girls, and I’d like to say I’ve met the challenge with enthusiasm and pleasure. Some have been simple – chocolate with chocolate icing, or vanilla with chocolate mocha frosting, or triple chocolate chip brownies. And, others have been a bit more complicated. Still others haven’t turned out quite as delicious as I was hoping. Especially when I don’t have the luxury of a Kitchen Aid for forming those perfect, pointed whipped cream peaks, or smoothing the butter with brown sugar evenly!
But, last night was officially my favorite:
Asian Pear Walnut Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Toasted Coconut
I originally got the recipe from a page I ripped out of the April 2007 QSR magazine, but ended up modifying the recipe based on what I had available and also a mistake I made early on ☺ But, it turned out DIVINE. Watch out – this cake is NOT diet friendly…but as I’ve learned this year, trying to create low-calorie desserts that actually taste good is pretty difficult.
Cake – Dry Ingredients
1 ½ pounds (4 large) carrots, peeled and shredded through a food processor
3 large Asian pears, peeled, poached in a pressure cooker for 30-40 minutes, cored, diced, and drained of any extra liquid.
½ cup raisins
½ cup craisins or dried cranberries (unsweetened is better)
1 ½ cups walnuts, lightly toasted and pulsed through food processor
4 cups flour, all-purpose (reserve 1 cup)
1 cup flour, whole-wheat
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves
Cake – Wet Ingredients
4 large eggs
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar (Reduce to 1 cup if you’d like)
1 ¼ cups brown sugar
¾ cup canola or sunflower oil
2- 3 oz salted butter
Cream – Cheese Frosting
2 ½ cups low-fat cream cheese, softened
6 -7 oz salted butter
¼ cup canola or sunflower oil
½ cup plain yogurt
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Topping:
½ to ¾ cup unsweetened desiccated coconut, toasted
1) Take out butter and cream cheese to soften
2) Prepare carrots, walnuts, pears, raisins, craisins. When everything is prepared, mix together in a bowl. Set aside.
3) Mix 3 cups all-purpose flour and the 1 cup whole-wheat flour, baking soda and spices in large mixing bowl. Set aside.
4) Turn on oven to 350. Center two oven racks evenly.
5) Cream the 2-3 oz butter and ¼ cup oil with granulated sugar till smooth and well blended. Add brown sugar to blend again. Add eggs one at a time, till fluffy and smooth.
6) Pour wet mixture into dry mixture. Use wooden spoon or spatula to fold mixtures together.
7) Stir in carrots, walnuts, pears, raisins and craisins into the batter. This is where the batter may begin to appear too wet, due to the pears. Add the 1 extra cup of all-purpose flour if the batter looks too wet. (For high altitude, definitely add it!)
8) Spray two 10†circular cake pans with PAM cooking spray, and evenly dust with flour.
9) Pour ½ the batter into one cake pan, and the other ½ into the second
10) Place in oven to begin baking. Rotate pans after 20 minutes. Cook for another 14-18 minutes until lightly brown and your toothpicks come out of the center clean.
11) Remove from oven. Let completely cool.
12) While oven is already on, toast coconut on a baking sheet for 2-5 minutes until lightly brown. Watch carefully so as to burn. If you just use the “broiler†setting, it only takes 1 minute.
13) Combine butter, cream cheese, yogurt and oil into a glass mixing dish. Beat on high speed until smooth and completely combined. Add 1 cup confectioner’s sugar and mix. Continue mixing at a high speed, as you pour in the 2nd cup of sugar. Add vanilla extract in while beating on a low to medium speed. Lick the icing, and then cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.
14) After cakes are completely cool, remove ONE cake from the cake pan and place right-side up on a serving platter that is wide enough so as not to let the cake droop into the center.
15) Evenly spread ½ of the icing on top with a icing spatula.
16) Remove second cake from the cake pan, and carefully place on top of the other one.
17) Use rest of the frosting to coat the top, but not so much that would make the frosting drip down the sides. (You may have some left over, which I did.)
18) Sprinkle toasted coconut on top, then take 5 extra whole walnuts to create a mini flower in the center of the cake. Use a small orange flower to decorate with if you want ☺
19) Place back in the fridge until ready to slice and serve. Because the frosting has a good amount of butter and cream cheese in it, I kept the cake in my fridge even after serving to the girls.
20) Notes: I didn’t have any unsalted butter, so I cut out the salt from the original recipe. If you want to follow the original, use all unsalted butter and add 1 teaspoon of kosher salt into the flour/baking soda/spices dry mixture. But, I didn’t really taste the salt in the frosting, so my way also came out nice. I loved the delicate balance of the pear with the stronger, more potent flavors of the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Yet, it still had that lovely crunch of the walnuts. I think the next time I make it, I will reduce the sugar a bit, simply because the frosting is so rich and creamy!
Enjoy!