This Lady Bakes

So.  Blogging has sort of fallen by the wayside, as they say, for me lately.  I don’t really know what happened.  I have been pretty busy, but that’s not really an excuse.  I started a new job, which miraculously involves making cake and eating cheese and tasting wine and does not involve taking orders and cleaning up after messy kids and remembering who ordered a water with NO ice and NO lemon and who ordered a coffee with milk and two packets of equal.  I’m still cooking and baking and enjoying those things and talking about those things, but for some reason I haven’t had the urge to blog about them.  But here I am, and here’s what I’ve been up to.

I made it to Milk Bar.  I went there three times in two days, ate this amazing veggie bun topped with an egg, and some cereal milk soft serve. For real.  It was cray-cray.

I love you, Milk Bar.  I also made it to Noodle bar and loved every bite I had there.  I shared this ramen bowl with two others, along with some spicy noodles and the octopus.  If you’re in New York City, you must make it to Momofuku!

I ventured out to Minnesota and visited my Grandma there.  She has these great old olive oil containers on top of her stove, holding lots of utensils.  I like the look of them.

We ate grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, and I snuck some avocado onto mine.  My grandma tried avocado for the first time.  She didn’t like it, and I don’t understand that.

I did not get to eat at this cafe, but I loved their sign.  “Sun Shine Cafe – It is small but you will like it a lot!”.

This bar totally belongs in Duluth.

These little nuggets of goodness are something I whipped up the other day when I needed some chocolate.  I scoured my kitchen and the only chocolate I had was unsweetened baking chocolate and raw cacao nibs.  For real?  I went for the cacao, and blended about 2/3 cup of it with 1 cup of raisins and 2 teaspoons of coconut oil in my food processor.  It becomes like a dough and I just rolled it into balls and then rolled the balls in unsweetened shredded coconut.  These are best when they can firm up in the fridge for awhile, since the texture is nicer and the chocolate flavor comes out a little more when they are chilled.  I think I ate two before they made it in the fridge. And then two more later.

In other news, I started a garden! These are my tomato starts, and I am so, so excited about them.  I can’t wait to eat tomatoes that I grew all by myself.  It’s the first year that I’m really trying to garden.  I had a little garden last year but I didn’t really keep up with it.  This year I’m serious.  I’ll keep you posted.

-Anne Calista

A friend recently asked me what I thought the best cake for springtime would be, and I had no idea.  That got me thinking, and I thought about cakes for days afterwards.  Nothing is really in season this time of year in New England, and the winter holidays claim all of the rich, heavy desserts.  Chocolate was out, so was pumpkin.  Vanilla?  Too nondescript, that could be for any occasion.  Then it dawned on me: carrot cake. Of course!

Ok, carrots are not technically in season right now.  Like I said, nothing is in season in NH in April.  But carrot cake is fresh, spicy, and something different from the rich chocolate desserts of Valentine’s Day and Christmas.  Plus, I had some carrots left over from our last CSA pickup a few weeks ago.  And for some reason, carrot cake and Easter just go together in my head.  Maybe that’s just the result of being brainwashed into associating Easter with a magical rabbit.  Who knows?

My Mom’s birthday is also in April, and sometimes coincides with Easter.  She loves carrot cake.  There.  That’s a better reason for it to be the perfect dessert for spring.

If you ask me, carrot cake is the only cake that is appropriate to pair with cream cheese frosting.  It just does not compare to buttercream, and yet it somehow accompanies this warm, spicy cake just perfectly.  You can’t have carrot cake without cream cheese frosting.

I also like carrot cake with plenty of ground or chopped walnuts in it, and sometimes golden raisins as well.  But let’s not put too many health foods in there, shall we?  This cake is already chock full of vegetables.

Springtime Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from the Joy of Cooking

Serves 8-12

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups unbleached flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup canola oil

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups peeled and grated carrots

1 cup finally chopped or ground walnuts

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

Prepare two 9″ x 2″ round cake pans by greasing and flouring, or lining with parchment paper.

Preheat oven to 350.

First, prepare your carrots. Wash, chop ends off, peel, and grate.  I used my food processor to grate carrots for the first time and it was like a new dawn was breaking.  I’m so glad I know how to do that now. If you don’t have a food processor, get ready to work your arms.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda & powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl.

Whisk together  the oil and eggs using a hand mixer or just a whisk.

Add egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Fold in the carrots, walnuts and applesauce and mix well.

Pour batter into the cake pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Depending on your oven, this might mean about 5 more minutes of baking time.

Allow cakes to cool completely in pans before removing them.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ok, here’s the deal.  I don’t know if I’ve ever made real cream cheese frosting.  This is what I do: I take two 8-ounce blocks of cream cheese and 1/2 cup of sugar and whip it together with my hand mixer until it’s light and fluffy.  That’s it.  Maybe sometimes I add in a teaspoon of vanilla.

  Then I call it frosting and put it on a cake.

-Anne Calista