4 Levels of Carrot Cake: Amateur to Food Scientist

[chopping]

[rustling]

[upbeat music]

Hi, I'm John, and I'm a level one chef.

I'm Daniel, and I am a level two chef.

I'm Tracy, and I've been

a pastry chef for over nine years.

This is a really simple recipe that I got from my mom.

And we make it for all different family events.

Carrot cake was always a little bit of an anomaly,

I never understood how vegetables could be

put into dessert food.

But they can be, and they're delicious.

My recipe's a little different

because instead of using ground cinnamon,

we're gonna be using a five-spice blend.

[chiming]

So first up, I'm gonna make my batter.

Obviously this is carrot cake,

so let's grate up some carrots.

Basically I am peeling the skin off the carrot first

because you see it's a little dirty.

No one really wants those dirty chunks

when they're biting into a delicious carrot cake.

Now that I've peeled my carrot,

I'm actually just gonna grate it with a simple grater.

When you are doing this you might be tempted

to buy preshredded carrots from the grocery store.

But you really wanna freshly shred them

because there's moisture this way.

Which we want, it's gonna keep our whole cake moist.

I wanna use the small holes

because they lead to small little pieces of carrot

as opposed to huge chunks of carrot in your cake.

I like using the big size of the grater

because I like nice big visual indicators

of what you're about to eat.

I like to have a chunkier grate in my carrot cake.

Just don't grate your fingers.

Because been there, it's no fun.

I'm done grating my carrots,

and now I'm gonna chop up some walnuts.

I like to give 'em a rough chop right on top.

I don't get too crazy on having them too fine.

I'm just gonna throw these nuts in

with our grated carrots.

To start we're gonna actually

grind our own five-spice blend.

So we have a whole cinnamon stick, Sichuan peppercorns,

star anise, whole cloves, and fennel seed.

I'm gonna just grind this until it becomes

a finely ground powder.

And here we have our five-spice blend.

So now I'm gonna make my batter.

I start with the dry ingredients.

And put the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.

很简单,很简单。

First up we have all purpose flour.

All purpose flour. All purpose flour.

I'm gonna put it through a sifter to get rid of any lumps.

Baking powder and baking soda.

Baking soda. Baking soda.

Salt. Salt.

And some cinnamon. And some cinnamon.

Ginger, and the secret one, nutmeg.

Nutmeg, in my opinion, adds just a nice fall flavor.

And our five-spice blend.

And very simply, I'm just gonna kinda

fold this all together with a spatula.

Again, it's all dry ingredients,

so no real science here.

Just make sure it's got a nice even mix there.

Ooh.

Now to add the wet ingredients.

So we have oil here.

I like to use oil for a carrot cake

because I think it gives even more moisture.

Granulated sugar. Sugar.

Light brown sugar.

Two different kinds of sugar might seem weird,

but the brown sugar actually gives it

a different flavor and adds to the color.

And we're gonna begin just to mix these together.

And then we're gonna add in our eggs.

Eggs. Eggs.

They make baking possible to help things rise.

We've got vanilla extract. Vanilla extract

just for some added sweetness.

We've got applesauce.

It adds some flavor, and like there's still

a little cinnamon in the applesauce.

It's like an added sugar without adding extra sugar.

So now I'm gonna mix together my dry

and wet ingredients with a hand mixer.

The biggest goal here is to make sure

that all the dry ingredients

come off the sides of the bowl,

and get really mixed in for the batter of the cake.

There's really no need for a machine

because we're not creaming anything,

so this makes it really quick.

Make sure all the egg is broken down,

no one wants a yolk in their mouth.

Gonna fold in the carrots and nuts to complete the batter.

We're gonna add our freshly

shredded carrots. Shredded carrots.

About just a minute or so of folding in

the carrots and the nuts.

So once your carrots are blended in,

you're gonna go ahead and add all of your dries.

Usually with any kind of cake that's like a creamed base

you would alternate your wet and dries

to make sure you don't get too much gluten development.

Because this is one step, thanks to it being oil based,

I can actually just continue to stir,

and once my flour's incorporated I'm good to go.

So I pour it in gradually, little bit over time.

Just so you're not completely mixing everything together.

Helps keep it consistent.

And you don't wanna overstimulate the batter, overgyrate it.

And here we have our batter.

All right, now let's bake this bad boy.

First up, gotta grease this pan.

I'm gonna separate the batter in two nine inch pans.

And coat them both with nonstick spray.

Just so they release super easily

when we go to take our cake out of the oven.

Now I'm gonna layer in my batter.

It's pretty heavy.

So try not to drop your bowl.

Nice and even.

Last little bit.

Now I'm gonna actually weigh out each layer of cake.

I want all of my cakes to be the same weight,

so they're all the same thinness,

so my cake is level throughout.

Layer number two.

And we have our third layer here.

And our final layer.

As kids we all used to lick the spatula,

but there's raw egg in here so I'm not gonna mess with that.

So we have our cake batter portioned out.

Try to even it out as much as possible

without obviously overworking it.

All right, now they're ready to go in the oven

for about 30 to 35 minutes.

Now I'm gonna bake this at 350 degrees

for an hour and 10 minutes in the oven.

They're gonna go in a 325 degree oven

for about eight to 12 minutes to bake.

My favorite part, the frosting.

Here I have already softened cream cheese.

Cream cheese. Cream cheese.

The people's cheese.

Full block of that stuff goes into the mixer.

I'm just gonna let it go in the mixer

for about five minutes.

I don't know why we use

cream cheese frosting with carrot cake.

It just pairs so nicely.

It's like the perfect accompaniment.

Occasionally they get stuck.

Just kinda scoop it off the sides.

Once we have beat our cream cheese,

we're gonna add our room temperature butter.

Butter. Butter.

And I'm just gonna lightly blend these two together.

Then I'm gonna add in

my vanilla. Vanilla extract.

Gets it nice and sweet.

And little by little I'm gonna

start adding in my confectioner's sugar.

Which is gonna make it very very sweet.

Or else it's just cream cheese.

And no one wants cream cheese on their cake.

Turn up the speed here a little bit

to get this really going.

When it's combined I'm gonna finish

by adding my chai spice and my vanilla bean.

Our chai spice is a mixture of allspice,

cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, and a little bit of ginger.

So it's a really nice balance with our cream cheese.

And for the last touch, orange zest.

So I just like to add it as a little flair.

It's a flair piece, orange for flair.

And here we have our chai-spiced cream cheese frosting.

I do like to actually lick these

because there's no egg in this.

All righty.

My frosting is done.

I'm also making a topping for my carrot cake,

which is gonna be a whipped ganache.

This chocolate is a caramelized white chocolate,

also known as a blond chocolate.

And it's made with muscovado sugar.

So it's super earthy, kinda mapley,

which is why I wanted to pair it with the carrot cake.

I'm gonna begin by boiling our cream.

And I'm adding some inverted sugar,

which is gonna help with texture and mouth feel.

As well as glucose syrup.

And now I'm gonna begin my emulsion for my ganache.

We wanna make sure that we do not add more air into it.

As you keep adding the hot cream,

the emulsification will come together.

Now this needs to sit overnight,

so it can actually crystallize.

Our cream will then cool down,

and then we'll be able to whip it

to put on top of our cake.

So I took my cake out of the oven.

Let it cool for about an hour.

Letting the cake cool is important

because if you add the frosting

while the cake's still hot it'll start melting

and won't look as pretty at the end.

So my carrot cake is two layers.

So after it's cooled we can take the bottom half

and transfer this onto a plate.

So we have our four sheeted and baked carrot cakes.

So I'm gonna start by taking my cake board

and I'm just gonna put it right on top.

And I'm gonna flip my first layer over.

And now I'm gonna begin putting the frosting

in between each layer.

Just glob it right on here.

I mean, it's dessert.

We're all cheating a little bit.

You want to make sure that the frosting is even.

And you don't wanna use too much

because you still wanna save some for the top half.

We have divided our frosting up

so that way we know we have an even amount

on each layer of cake.

I get the top and the sides frosted,

makes it look a little more uniform.

And I don't worry about it being perfect.

I think there's something nice

about the imperfections in baking.

I like to kind of run my frosting

all the way to the edge to make sure

that when I actually slice my cake

every bite has frosting.

Layer one, is done.

Layer two.

I kinda like to just make sure we press it in.

So if there's any air pockets we can

kinda make sure those flatten out.

Cream cheese frosting, traditionally,

always is on a carrot cake.

I think it complements it very well.

It keeps it thick, uniform.

Layer three.

And our final layer.

And we are leaving the top empty

so we can put our whipped ganache on top.

This now needs to go in the fridge

so the frosting can harden up.

Which is gonna make it a lot easier to slice.

And my cake is frosted.

So now just to add a pop of color.

This is something that my mother does.

Use basic rainbow nonpareils.

Maybe it's the unicorn in me, I don't know.

But it's really fun, really festive.

Kids love it.

Who doesn't love rainbow.

I'm going to top my carrot cake

with some candied carrot medallions.

I'm going to cut the carrots into nice thin slivers.

And we're going to simmer these around

with some water and sugar.

You're actually gonna soften them,

and let them absorb the sugary mixture.

So now, that these look done,

I'm going to add some sugar to these

to give 'em a nice crystalline frosty look.

And there are my candy carrot medallions.

Now we're gonna begin slicing our cake.

And I'm gonna begin by slicing my edges off.

So I'm gonna do about a two inches width.

Then I'm gonna cut about three inches each piece.

I like nice size pieces.

I like to eat my dessert so these are not

dainty little pieces, let's put it that way.

So I'm gonna take these medallions

and layer them around the cake.

With sprinkles you can just kinda chuck 'em on.

With the carrot medallions you gotta be

a little more careful.

The final step is a little bit of orange zest.

It's gonna complement the zest that's already

in the frosting, and it's gonna add

a little bit of extra flair to how the whole thing looks.

These are then gonna be served like this

so we can see all of our nice layers.

I put this whipped ganache into a pastry bag

fitted with a diagonal pastry tip

so I can make a really nice topping.

And we're gonna just run this

back and forth through the cake.

I'm gonna take a few of these cereal coated

chocolate pearls and we're gonna put these

right on top for some texture.

And this is my carrot cake.

This is my carrot cake.

And this is my carrot cake.

[upbeat music]

This looks so good.

I can not wait to try this.

Mm.

Mm. Mm.

That's great.

That came out exactly how I wanted it to.

Really good.

This is really good.

Delicious texture.

I think it's perfect.

The frosting's great, the candy medallion taste awesome.

你可以得到一些of the orange zest.

You get that delicious winter spice from the five-spice.

All of that working really well together.

It's great.

This turned out exactly how my mom used to make it.

I'm super happy with the results.

As we've seen, making carrot cake

can be extremely easy or relatively complex.

[drumming]

Flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

were a part of all chefs dry ingredients.

Flour gives structure to the cake.

Flour, good stuff.

The baking powder and baking soda

make batter airy and fluffy,

while also helping the product rise in the oven.

Perfect, look at that, oh.

John used cinnamon in his recipe.

Daniel used a mix of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.

I personally think ginger goes hand in hand with cinnamon.

And Tracy used a Chinese five-spice blend.

Cinnamon provides an almost peppery fragrance.

And adds a spiciness and familiar warm flavor to the cake.

Daniel's ginger and nutmeg also added

a bit of lemony, peppery, and nutty flavors.

Tracy's Chinese five-spice blend

is sweet, robust, aromatic, and spicy.

And elevates the flavor of any baked good.

Sugar is the basic building block

of any dough or batter mixture,

providing its essential sweetness.

The bond between sugar and water

allows sugar to lock in moisture

so cakes do not dry out too quickly.

It also caramelizes when heated, promoting browning.

Oil and eggs were a part of everyone's wet ingredients.

Oil, like sugar, is a tenderizing agent

that keeps the cake from drying out while baking.

It gives it even more moisture.

It is also used in corelation with baking soda

and baking powder as a leavening agent.

Eggs react to flour and oil,

providing structure and strength.

Of course, all of our chefs used grated fresh carrots.

Carrots contain water and add moistness

to the crumb of the cake.

They also develop a caramel-like fragrance when baked,

enhancing your texture and flavor.

[drumming]

During baking, heat is transferred from the oven

through the pan, and into the batter.

This means a baked product bakes from the side

towards the middle, and from the bottom towards the top.

John used a glass baking pan.

While Daniel used metal pans.

And Tracy used metal baking trays.

Glass takes longer to heat up and cool down.

这意味着它会花更长的时间贝克的面糊e

and there will be more carryover cooking

after it's removed from the oven.

This is why it took John more than twice as long

to bake his cake compared to the others.

All our chefs left their cakes in the pans

for a few minutes after being removed from the oven.

Let it cool down, take a little walk, do a workout.

This allowed them to finish baking from within

and become acclimated to room temperature.

This process also prevented the cakes

from sticking to the pan.

[drumming]

All three chefs used cream cheese frosting for their cakes.

The slight tang in cream cheese frosting

makes it ideal for carrot cake.

Tracy made a whipped ganache for the top of her cake,

which is a mixture of chocolate, heavy cream,

glucose syrup, and inverted sugar.

Glucose syrup makes the ganache extra glossy

while inverted sugar prevents crystallization

and adds a flavor sweeter than table sugar.

By whipping everything together,

extra air is introduced, resulting in

a thick delicious icing.

[drumming]

John finished his cake with standard sprinkles.

Giving his icing a bright colorful look

and crunchy texture.

Daniel made candied carrot coins for his topping.

By simmering carrot slices with sugar and water

their fibers soften and absorb the sugar solution.

That coupled with the natural sugars in the carrot

created the candied effect.

Tracy finished off her cake with some

Verona dulce crunchy pearls,

which are biscuit cereals coated in chocolate,

providing some crispiness and an extra level of sweetness.

Carrot cakes are moist, decadent,

and a great way to get kids to eat more veggies.