what is wrong with this carrot cake recipe?

16 years ago

DD made this cake this weekend, except at the request of her cousin she left out the raisins.

Each layer fell in the middle, a LOT. It looked very oily too. In fact, it almost looked under-done, but a toothpick in the center came out clean and the cake was pulling away from the sides of the pan. Didn't taste bad, but boy did it look awful.

Do you think it was because she left the raisins out? Do you think it was because she mixed in on low speed only as long as was necessary to thoroughly combine the ingredients?

It is so disheartening to put that much effort into something and have it come out crummy (no pun intended).

Triple-Layer Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

4 large eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 cups finely grated peeled carrots (about 1 pound)

1/2 cup chopped pecans (about 1/2 ounce)

1/2 cup raisins

Frosting

4 cups powdered sugar

2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

For cake:

Preheat oven to 325F. Lightly grease three 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Lightly grease waxed paper. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and vegetable oil in bowl until combined. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into sugar and oil mixture. Stir in carrots, chopped pecans and raisins.

Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing equally. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean and cakes begin to pull away from sides of pans, about 45 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 15 minutes. Turn out cakes onto racks and cool completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap tightly in plastic and store at room temperature.)

For frosting:

Using electric mixer, beat all ingredients in medium bowl until smooth and creamy.

Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with another cake layer. Spread with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with remaining cake layer. Using icing spatula, spread remaining frosting in decorative swirls over sides and top of cake. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover with cake dome and refrigerate.) Serve cake cold or at room temperature.

The recipe came from Bon Appetit magazine, October 1994

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Comments (11)

lindac
16 years ago
Too much oil for one thing.
Try this one...guaranteed yummy!

Carrot cake Julie TÂs
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tsps cinnamon
1 8 oz can crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup raisins chopped with 1 Tablespoon of flour
Buttermilk glaze
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter
1 Tblsp light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup softened butter
4 oz softened cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp orange juice
1 tsp grated orange rind
Preheat oven to 350
With a mixer Beat eggs, add oil and buttermilk, sugar and vanilla. beat to combine. Stir together flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder and stir into batter. stir in pineapple, carrots and raisins.
Pour into a greased 8 by 13 pan or 2 greased round 9 inch cake pans. Bake 35 to 45 minutes until set in the middle. Remove from the oven and immediatly spread with the buttermilk glaze. Cool completely and frost with the cream cheese frosting.
Buttermilk glaze:
In a medium sauce pan ( don't use a small pan) combine all ingredients but vanilla. Bring to a boil and cook 3 minutes stirring often...it will bubble a lot. It should be a light caramel color, stir in vanilla and pour over the cake
Cream cheese frosting:
Beat cream cheese and butter until light add vanilla powd. sugar and juice and rind...beat until smooth and frost the cooled cake.
bbstx
Original Author
16 years ago
Wow, Linda, your recipe has half as much oil! No wonder DD's cake looked oily.
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Another who grates the carrots....and even at the risk of over exposure, I'll post my carrot cake again....well not really MY recipe...came from Julie Trussler's cook book. and I will repeat what the others have said....be very very sure the cake is done. I think the cake needs all the moisture form the carrots. anyhow...here's the recipe....always a keeper. Carrot cake Julie TÂs 3 eggs 3/4 cup vegetable oil 3/4 cup buttermilk 2 cups sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla 2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 3/4 teaspoon salt 2 tsps cinnamon 1 8 oz can crushed pineapple, drained 2 cups grated carrots 1/2 cup raisins chopped with 1 Tablespoon of flour Buttermilk glaze 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/4 cup buttermilk 1/4 cup butter 1 Tblsp light corn syrup 1 tsp vanilla Orange Cream Cheese Frosting 1/2 cup softened butter 4 oz softened cream cheese 1 tsp vanilla 3 cups powdered sugar 1 tsp orange juice 1 tsp grated orange rind Preheat oven to 350 With a mixer Beat eggs, add oil and buttermilk, sugar and vanilla. beat to combine. Stir together flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda and stir into batter. stir in pineapple, carrots and raisins. Pour into a greased 8 by 13 pan or 2 greased round 9 inch cake pans. Bake 35 to 45 minutes until set in the middle. Remove from the oven and immediatly spread with the buttermilk glaze. Cool completely and frost with the cream cheese frosting. Buttermilk glaze: In a medium sauce pan ( don't use a small pan) combine all ingredients but vanilla. Bring to a boil and cook 3 minutes stirring often...it will bubble a lot. It should be a light caramel color, stir in vanilla and pour over the cake Cream cheese frosting: Beat cream cheese and butter until light add vanilla powd. sugar and juice and rind...beat until smooth and frost the cooled cake.
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Hi Donna, First let me say thank you for posting this wonderful recipe. It is just wonderful, different and it grabs people that are not lovers of carrot cake or lovers of cheese cake. Normally my hubby wouldn't go out of his way to eat carrot cake, as I mentioned above, and I'm the same way with any kind of cheese cake. BUT, combine the 2 of them into one cake/cheese cake, it is a wonderful combo, wonderful taste and dispels the idea that both do not taste good. Second, I have to ask you some questions on making the cake in layers. I followed your directions to layer the different cakes and it didn't work out. So, please tell me what I did wrong. When I mixed the carrot cake part, it didn't make a lot of batter. I put the 1 1/2 cups on the bottom of the cake pan, then spooned the cheese cake batter, that was thin, on top of it. When I went to make the next layer of carrot cake batter, there wasn't anywhere near enough to cover the cheese cake batter with a second layer of carrot cake batter, so I just put it in the center and then covered again with the rest of the cheese cake batter. What did I do wrong? Should there only have been 1 cup of batter on the bottom, so that there would be enough carrot cake batter to make a second layer? On another interesting twist on the recipe. I gave the recipe to a very close friend, who passed in on to her daughter to try. She and her roommate made the cake to serve guests that where coming for dinner last night. There twist was this. Since the didn't have a 9 inch spring form pan, they did this. They doubled the cake batter and cheese cake batter recipe. then they used a 9" by 13" pan. Put all of the cake batter on the bottom, topped it off with the cheese cake batter. Then they decided that it "just looked to plain for company". So they shredded more carrots, dried them well with paper towels and then carefully sprinkled them on top of the cheese cake batter before baking. They baked it for about the same length of time as the recipe said too, about 55 minutes total. They found the shredded carrots sunk into the cheese cake batter just slightly and made a "really fancy appearance on the top of the cheese cake" "sort of dressed it up a bit, made it look better than just a cheese cake and added an interesting bit of texture, color and flavor to the cheese cake as well, blended with the carrot cake, but didn't overpower the taste of the cheese cake." Did I say these 2 young woman are only in their early 20's, just 1 year out of college, living on their own and working? Sounds like to me, they are going to turn into wonderful cooks. They asked me to say thank you to you Donna, for the wonderful recipe and to let you know how they changed things a bit and how wonderful it came out. Thanks again, and please let me know what I did wrong to end up not being able to layer the cake batters. Fran
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partst
16 years ago
Your recipe is almost an exact duplicate of one I use. The only difference is mine calls for 3 cups of flour, 4 teaspoons of cinnamon and 1 cup of chopped walnuts. No raisons, nutmeg or pecans. ItÂs been a family favorite of ours I made muffins using this recipe this weekend for my DD to take home with her. I got the recipe from my 7th grade home economics teacher.

Claudia
bbstx
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks, Claudia. I'm beginning to think that the flour/oil ratio is the problem. Also, your greater amount of cinnamon brings to mind another problem I think DD's recipe has...it is a little bland.

DD thinks the problems may be because we chose to use the convection feature on the oven. Convection always confuses me. We turned the temp down 25 degrees and baked for the time in the recipe. We used convection because we had 3 cake pans in the oven.
lindac
16 years ago
and notice that mine also contains 3/4 cup buttermilk...less carrots, but a can of crushed pineapple.
PLUS...a sugery buttery glaze! LOL!
Less oil....but lots of sugar!
lindac
16 years ago
Notice that the Bon appetite recipe has no vanilla....vanilla is very important to almost any baked goods.
I put a little in an apple pie, in the dough for cinnamon rolls, all chocolate things (but for mole sauce!) and all spice cakes and breads.
Linda C
partst
16 years ago
Linda, do you think I could sub buttermilk for half the oil? IÂve always thought it has too much oil but never tried to cut it down. Once when I was at the cabin, without the recipe, I put 2 cups of oil in it and it came out fine. The recipe call for baking in a bunt pan and I usually just make a cream cheese glaze and let it drizzle down the sides. I did save your cake gravy recipe and may try that next time.

Claudia
lindac
16 years ago
Why not just use my recipe? the difference is 3/4 cup of butter milk for 3/4 cup of oil, an extra teaspoon of cinnamon...vanilla extract, no baking powder ( even though in the directions it says add baking powder...it means soda!)
And crushed pineapple.
You can skip the glaze....but it's really good.
Frankly i don't know what the results would be to sub butter milk for 3/4 cup of the oil without other adjustments.
But I do know this recipe works...

Here is a link that might be useful: Carrot cake
beanthere_dunthat
16 years ago
Definitely too much oil for that amount of flour. The orange cream chesse frosting sounds yummy, though.

I'll vouch for Linad's carrot cake. I've made it twice. It's delicious. Next time I'm going to try freezing it (unfrosted). DH buys snack cakes on the road, and they are awful. This would be so much better (and cheaper).
Cloud Swift
16 years ago
The recipe also has much more oil than my carrot cake recipe which came from Joy of Cooking. Mine doesn't have vanilla but it has cloves, nutmeg and allspice in addition to the cinnamon.
bbstx
Original Author
16 years ago
I have forwarded Linda's T&T carrot cake recipe to DD. I hope she will pitch the Bon Appetit recipe and go with Linda's! She is just beginning to get into baking and I would like for her to have a good ratio of sucesses to failures, otherwise, she may give up.

what is wrong with this carrot cake recipe?

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lindac

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what is wrong with this carrot cake recipe?

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