Carrot and Pecan Cake

For many years I have said vegetables do not belong in desserts, which is why I have given carrot cake very few chances throughout my life. Why would someone want something healthy in something that’s intentionally unhealthy?! Well, I have to admit, I have a little more respect for the carrot cake game after making Claire’s Carrot and Pecan Cake.

I recommend taking time to prep all your ingredients before starting this recipe. I chopped all my pecans right away, then peeled and grated the carrots and ginger. This alone took about 45 minutes. By the way, this was my first time using fresh ginger and it smelled amazing.

I baked the chopped pecans for about eight minutes. I brushed the sides of my cake pans with oil, then lined the bottoms with parchment paper. I am starting to wonder when it’s necessary to oil the parchment paper once it’s placed in the pan; sometimes Claire says to do it, other times she doesn’t. If you have any answers on this, please let me know!

In one bowl, I mixed the carrots, buttermilk, fresh ginger and vanilla. After the pecans were cooled, I placed most of them in a bag and tried to break them up more. This wasn’t very necessary since I already chopped them, however I knew I didn’t want to taste any major crunch in the cake; honestly, crunchiness kind of gives me the heebie jeebies in something that’s supposed to be smooth and fluffy. I placed those pecans in a small bowl and repeated the process with the rest of the pecans, adding those to the carrot mixture afterwards.

In another bowl, I combined the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, baking soda, ground ginger and cloves. I am happy to note I officially understand the rhythm of making cakes; one bowl may have some type of flavor mixture, another will have the flour mixture, you’ll likely combine the eggs, sugar and butter in the stand mixture and then add everything else by going back and forth between the dry and wet ingredients. Now I just need to better understand how one deciphers what’s best for a specific cake recipe!

Just as I anticipated before turning the page, next I combined the eggs and granulated and brown sugar in the stand mixer until it had a ribbon texture. I then streamed in the oil as the batter continued to mix. After that, I added in part of the flour mixture, then the carrots, the flour again, the rest of the carrots and the rest of the flour. Once it was completely combined, I folded in the pecans and divided the batter among the pans. I staggered the cakes in the oven and switched them around after 20 minutes. I’ve quickly learned that my darker metal pan bakes cakes faster, so this one I try to keep farther away from the hottest area of my oven. The cakes took about 28 minutes to bake.

Typically, I try to complete an entire cake in a day, but by the time these cakes were baked it was late. Plus, when making the Classic Cream Cheese Frosting Brown Butter Variation, I realized it would take forever for the butter to solidify again. I carefully placed the cakes, which were out of the pans by this point, on to paper plates with plastic wrap and stacked them in the fridge overnight. This actually turned out to be a useful lesson, as the cakes were much easier to work with the next morning when they were cold. I have seen on social media that most cake artists use this technique to get those perfectly smooth buttercream layers as well (that, however, will be attempted at a later date).

At this point, I barely read the directions frosting Dessert Person cakes. I placed four pieces of parchment paper on the bottom of the cake tier and placed the first layer on it. I did miss Claire’s note that for once, it was not necessary to trim the tops of the cake layer since this cake was chunkier with the carrots and pecans. I did it anyway, and didn’t have any issues. I will say it is much harder than one might expect to get a three-layer cake even and sitting in the center of a cake tier. While I was frosting the sides of the cake, it seemed to shift on me a tad, even though I checked it was centered several times. By the time the entire cake was frosted, I did not have enough buttercream to do any fun designs, but I did have a carrot with some of its stem left. I washed it well and placed that bad boy right on top of the cake; this time, I went with an organic aesthetic.

I’ll admit I did not have a full piece of this cake; mostly because I was busy running around when my parents were visiting. But from what I did try, I really was surprised how much I enjoyed this cake. The carrots actually provide great moisture, and the pecans added more flavor than crunch, which made me happy. Tying that in with the ginger, cinnamon and cloves, it truly is a fantastic cake when paired with the cream cheese frosting.

I feel recipes like this one make me grow up a little more each time I try them. The child in me is always slightly scared of anything with vegetables, especially when it’s combined with desserts. While I’m always going to prefer chocolate over healthy food, I’m learning that vegetables have opportunity to be much more than just a dinner side dish.

One of Claire’s first videos on her YouTube channel was the Carrot and Pecan Cake. After making so many of her recipes, I’m not surprised she likes this cake so much:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou3zj0R0Gus