Carrot Cake

There is a magical place in Bloomington, MN. This is a place where the cakes really are a slice of heaven. This place is called Taste of Scandinavia. They have amazing breakfasts and amazing lefse besides these magnificent towers of creamy indulgence. The very first time I was introduced to the wonder that was this blissful bakery of cakes the only existed in my dreams was by my sister. She wanted one of these cakes for her birthday...I remember the first time I met this cake. It was chocolate raspberry and it forever changed my life and my view of cake. But my rendezvous didn't end there. Bailey's Irish Cream Cake, Creme De Menthe Cake, Black Forest Torte, Chocolate Symphony Torte...and the cake that inspired this quest...Carrot Cake. Oh, the carrot cake. If I were to only eat carrot cake one more time, I would order it from them!

Now this cake is nowhere near their carrot cake. Their carrot cake is full of crushed pineapple, golden raisins and walnuts. This is a simpler carrot cake that I stumbled upon on my quest to their carrot cake of nirvana. My quest does still continue for the ultimate carrot cake with all the fixings, but I think this is my go to basic carrot cake and may provide the perfect base to build off of to reach the ultimate carrot cake full of nuts and fruit. No fluff or fruffy business here though, just good solid basic carrot cake.

Alton Brown from the Food Network has never steered my wrong, so I knew his carrot cake would be worth a shot. Since baking is an exact science, everything in his recipe is measured by weight which is a must with his recipes. The end product is a moist and flavorful cake. I only made one change to this recipe. It calls for grated carrrots; however, after I grated my carrots, I pulsed them in the food processor to have a finer shred of carrot. I should also mention that the recipe calls to make this into 1 layer, but this is a super thick layer. The super thick layer is good...but if you prefer a higher frosting to cake ratio, divide the batter into 2 layers and watch your baking time. If you are going to make this as one large layer, I can't stress the importance of checking the temperature of the center of the cake. It is the only sure fire way to make sure you are cooking through without over cooking. You can also increase the spices from 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp if you like a more spiced carrot cake.

You'll have to excuse the excess of pictures. I made this for Easter and was able to use my parents camera which is leaps and bounds better than mine, so enjoy some better quality pictures.

Carrot Cake
Adapted slightly from Alton Brown
Yield 12 servings

unsalted butter or cooking spray for pan coating
12 oz. all purpose flour
12 oz. grated carrot at a medium grate (and pulse in food processor to fine shavings, if preferred)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 oz. brown sugar
6 oz. plain yogurt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. ground all spice
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
10 oz. sugar
3 large eggs
6 oz. vegetable oil
Toasted Chopped Pecans for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9 inch cake round. Line bottom with parchment paper (or butter and line 2 pans if making 2 layers).

Put carrots in mixing bowl and set aside. In food processor, process flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt for 5 seconds. Add this mixture to carrots and toss until well coated. In bowl of food processor combine sugar, brown sugar, eggs and yogurt. Drizzle in vegetable oil while food processor is running. Pour into carrot mixtures and stir until just combined.

Pour into cake pan and bake on middle rack 45 minutes then reduce heat to 325 degrees F and cook an additional 20 minutes until center of cake reaches 205-210 degrees F. Remove from oven and cook 15 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool completely. Frost and chill at least 1 hour prior to serving. Garnish with pecans.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla
2 oz. unsalted butter at room temperature
9 oz. powdered sugar, sifted.

Beat butter and cream cheese until just blended. Add vanilla and beat until combined. On low, beat in powdered sugar in 4 batches. Chill 5-10 minutes. Frost cake.

That is thick cake!

But...oh...so...good!

My First Ever Cake Roll & Some Tasty Lasagna

On Friday my husband, Mike, and I had some friends over for dinner. I decided to go with a no fail entree, lasagna. Who doesn't love lasagna? All those layers of cheesy, saucy, pasta-packed goodness. Oh, I'm drooling just thinking about it. For the sake of being healthy since Mike and I will be eating these leftovers for a few days, I opted to try to healthify this lasagna a bit. My general rule of thumb is that I make the recipe exactly as written the first time and from there I modify where I see fit. Since I've made this lasagna before, I knew I'd be safe lightening it up a bit. I used part-skim ricotta cheese and italian turkey sausage to trim down this pan of Italian deliciousness. I find in this recipe the egg in the ricotta helps hide that it is lighter. I wouldn't use anything lighter than part-skim ricotta as it could get slightly too watery and you'd lose out on the richness. As far as using turkey sausage, I've found a brand that I love. It is the only brand I've found thus far that can compete with the full fat pork sausage. I find it at Hy-Vee and it's Honeysuckle brand. They also make great Turkey Brats and Turkey Breakfast Sausage. This recipe if from the back of the Creamette No Bake Lasagna noodles. Well, it use to be. The recipe on the back of my last few packages has changed. As far as the amounts of ingredients, I sometimes need more of the cheese, ricotta, and sauce depending on the size of my pan and how many layers I get. This batch ended up being 4 layers. This is also best made the night before. As it sits in the fridge, the flavors meld together and the noodles will soften up a bit too.

Lasagna:

1 container ricotta cheese (15-16oz)
1/2 c grated parmesan cheese
2 eggs
2 jars of pasta sauce + 1/2 c water
1 lb. No Cook Lasagna Noodles
1 lb. Italian Sausage, cooked and drained
4 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the ricotta, parmesan, and eggs well. Combine the 2 jars of pasta sauce with the 1/2 c water. In the bottom of a greased lasagna pan, spread 1 cup of sauce. Top with 1 layer of noodles, then spread with some of the ricotta mixture, sprinkle with sausage. Spread more sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella. Repeat these layers until you have no more noodles left. On top of the last layer of noodles, pour remaining sauce and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella. (I often need to use about another 1/2 jar of sauce and 1 c. mozzarella, sometimes I even need a little more ricotta too.) Cover with foil. Bake for 50 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes until cheese is brown and bubbly. Let stand 15 minutes before servings, cover with foil while it sits to hold the heat in.

This made 12 huge servings.

Feast your eyes of those lovely layers!

For dessert, I attempted something I've never made before, a cake roll. Mike got me a jelly roll pan for my birthday and I've been dying to try to make one, but I've always been so scared to try. Well, I sucked it up and just told myself that if I fail at least it will taste good. Much to my suprise, making cake rolls are so much easier that I thought. Next time I'll take pictures of the process to show you how to make assemble one (because there is a pumpkin one I plan to make this fall). The only thing I would do differently the next time I make this would be to whip my whipping cream stiffer. When I rolled it up in the cake roll it was a little loose and started to come out the edges and the bottom. This recipe is from a friend who hosted the monthly Bunco game. Her's looked so good and tasted so great, it inspired me attempt making a cake roll myself. I'm so proud of it and Mike was completely impressed. He even felt the need to show it off to our guests before I cut it up to serve. So here is the cake roll recipe from Miranda:

Strawberries & Cream Cake Roll

Cake:

4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 sifted cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Powdered sugar

Filling:
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cup strawberries, cut up
powdered sugar
more strawberries (optional)
whipped cream (optional)

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and vanilla on high for 5 min. gradually add sugar, beat until dissolved. Combine flour, baking powder and salt fold gently into egg mixture just until combined. Pour into a greased and waxed paper-lined jelly roll pan. Spread batter evenly over pan. Bake at 375 for 10-12 min. or until light brown. Turn out onto a cloth that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar. Peel off paper from cake; roll up cloth and cake. Cool. For filling, whip: cream, sugar, and vanilla. Unroll cake and spread filling over it, sprinkle with strawberries. Roll up cake again and chil 2 hours before serving. sprinkle with powdered sugar, garnish with strawberries and whipped cream.