The most moist, delicious, citrus and orange forward carrot cake with orange curd and cream cheese frosting
I have eaten enough carrot cake throughout my life to comfortably say it’s never been anything I’ve ever been in love with. It’s cake, so I eat it, but the texture is so different from anything cake-like in my vocabulary that I struggle to quantify it. I can imagine the unsuspecting look on my young face the first time someone gave me a piece as a child, and I began to consume it. Bite, chew, full-stop! What is in my mouth right now, and why did someone say this was cake?!
I’ve since cruised into adulthood happily never looking back at carrot cake, until recently. An acquaintance of mine was raving about a restaurant in my neighborhood and the exquisite carrot cake they had on the menu. I can imagine the unusual look on my face once I heard the words “exquisite & carrot cake” used in the same sentence. I’ll admit, I tried it, and it wasn’t terrible. This set me on a journey to better understand this unusual confectionary enigma.
Why carrots, why cake, and who thought it was a wonderful idea to put these two items together?
To answer this question, we must go all the way back to Europe in the Middle Ages. Carrots along with other items like raisins & dates, were used in place of sugars. Sugars & sweeteners were outrageously expensive or simply unavailable in parts of the world. There have been numerous different styles and recipes throughout the years (centuries, actually) but apparently popularity of this confection really came into its own in the 1940’s during World War II. In the UK, rations were in short supply and carrots were being promoted by the government for consumption. So carrots, along with the need for critical calorie intake, resulted in this popular cake.
Seeing as how this has European origins, I thought it was necessary to start reviewing European recipes when it came to embarking on this endeavor. I’ve derived this recipe from a Mary Berry recipe for Spiced & Iced Carrot Cake. I decided to use crystalized ginger in place of raisins, mainly due to the fact that I personally don’t like raisins in baked goods—alternatively however, since sugar is readily available and reasonably inexpensive, extra sweeteners are simply unnecessary. Not to mention with all of the orange in this recipe, how can you go wrong with adding ginger.
This recipe has many parts, so planning is key:
Orange Curd
Icing
Citrus drizzle syrup
Cakes
The orange curd and icing can even be prepared in advance and stored in the refrigerator. The icing is easiest to work with at room temp, so give yourself enough time for it to thaw before you try to use it.
Gluten-Free Iced and Spiced Carrot Cake
Serving Size: 16
Prep time: 1 Hour
Total Time: 2+ Hours
Ingredients:
For the Orange Curd:
3 large navel oranges
2 large eggs, at room temperature
Juice of ½ lemon
75g superfine/caster sugar
75g butter
For the Drizzle syrup:
Juice of 1 large navel orange
Juice of 1 lemon
50g superfine/caster sugar
For the icing:
135g butter, at room temperature
200g cream cheese, at room temperature
115g confectioner/powder sugar
4 Tbsp of the chilled orange curd
For the cake:
4 large eggs, at room temperature
175g neutral flavored oil
115g light muscovado sugar (light brown sugar)
115g dark muscovado sugar (dark brown sugar)
281g of my gluten-free flour blend
2 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
375g of coarsely grated carrots (6-7 medium carrots)
75g crushed pecans (praline pecans if you have them)
75g desiccated coconut
35g crystal ginger, diced
