Cardamom Spiced Carrot Cake
Cake Shopping List
1 cake leveler
3 cups flour
4 eggs
3 cups grated carrots
1 ½ cups white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup olive oil
1 ½ cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Frosting Shopping List
1 cake spatula
½ cup butter, room temperature
12oz cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
3 ½ cups powdered sugar
OPTIONAL jar of salted caramel spread that you can coat the top of and let spill over on the sides
The Short Story
First thing is to take four eggs and your cream cheese out of the fridge at least an hour before baking but no more than 4 hours.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease three cake pans of the same size and cut circles with parchment paper to place on the bottom of each pan.
In a food processor or hand grater, shred the carrots and place in a mesh colander or cheese cloth. Press shredded carrots lightly and squeeze any excess juice.
In a stand mixer bowl, combine together your flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg.
Attach the flat beater paddle to your stand mixer and pour the olive oil and melted butter into the bowl and stir on medium setting
Add eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.
Stir in vanilla extract then carrots
Evenly divide cake batter into prepared baking pans and bake on 350F (175C) for 40 minutes.
Let cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then flip onto the cooling rack to cool completely.
After the cakes have cooled for an additional 20 minutes on the wire rack, use a cake leveler to trim the domes to create a flat surface.
Frosting
Combine room temperature butter and cream cheese into the stand mixer with the whisk attachment and beat on high until creamy, well-combined and no lumps.
Lower speed to the medium-low setting, add vanilla extract and sprinkle salt into the bowl and stir well to combine.
Gradually add powdered sugar. Use the cake trimmings from earlier to occasionally dip into the frosting to test the level of sweetness to your liking.
Once your cakes have cooled completely, cover with frosting using a cake spatula.
Pics Or It Didn’t Happen
The Long Story
Salted Caramel: There are a few things I refuse to make in my kitchen - one is heating any oil over 350 degrees and the second is melting sugar. Everyone is different but a friend burned part of her tongue off after accidentally getting a drop of melter sugar on her finger and instinctively put her finger in her mouth to soothe the pain.
Because of this, when using caramel sauce I get it from a jar. The brand I used for this cake is from a local company in Seattle called Jonboy. They are fantastic and I highly recommend checking out their products:
Jonboycaramels.com
Carrots: Fun fact, carrots are wet. When shredding carrots, a lot of water content comes out and if you don’t squeeze out some of the juice beforehand you will get a very soggy cake. Some people like moist cakes and others don’t but I bake with caution knowing that I don’t need any extra liquid in my batter than needs to be.
Room temperature: It sucks having to wait to make a cake I know but sometimes you can’t rush the process by throwing butter or cream cheese in the microwave. If you know you are making a cake a certain day, plan the day accordingly by removing the eggs, butter and cream cheese way in advance. Trust me, it makes a world of difference.
Tools: Something I don’t see mentioned often in cake recipes is letting people know what tools it took to get a cake to look like this. When you see photo perfect cakes on Instagram, I can guarantee that the bakers used at least a cake leveler when stacking the layers. Cakes don’t come out perfectly flat when rising in the oven, they become slightly misshapen and sometimes slopes to one side. There are several different cake levelers out there but the simplest one (and the one that takes the least amount of space in the drawer) is the DIY Cake Slicer. Others swear by the cake wire cutter but I have had better success using this one instead because there is no need to clean it and it has multiple applications than just leveling out cakes.
Other tools I would recommend is a simple inexpensive cake spatula. No particular brand I would recommend, just one long and flat enough that can cover a large surface area without getting your fingers covered in frosting.
The final tool that I would recommend you using but not supercritical is a lazy susan cake stand. The spin function on the stand cuts the time to coat a cake in half and makes you feel like a professional while doing it.
Butter: Salted or unsalted? I personally don’t care - I’m from the Pacific Northwest so I always lean towards having more salt in my food than most probably would. Using salted butter just means you can (if you want) forgo adding kosher salt to your batter but it’s all about your taste preference in the end.
