Any other 90s kids out there?! If so, then I am not alone in my Looney Tunes/Space Jam obsession from back in the day. Therefore, carrots = Bugs Bunny = nostalgia = happy. Now, upgrade raw carrots which are just dandy on their own (especially with hummus) and put them in THIS cake and that, my friends, is next level. As always, gotta give credit where credit is due - this time to the one and only Cupcake Jemma! I have been watching her YouTube videos for awhile now as I have been learning all there is to know about baking when I am not doing my normal day job (as a speech language pathologist - fun fact!) She explains things very well and plus, you get to watch her create things in real time! I am a visual learner so any kind of demonstration is SO helpful when I go to bake. This recipe was a YouTube video that she posted here and it was well worth the bake! I loved loved loved how this one turned out :)
What I didn't love was the hour it took me to grate a whole bag of organic carrots from the store! I got through most of Always Be My Maybe on Netflix and STILL had more carrots to grate. Maybe I was missing something and you can probably just BUY grated carrots - but alas, this was worth it. All the blood, sweat, and tears... no, not really - more like orange-stained fingers and countertops :) The rest of the ingredients were pretty straight forward...
420g plain flour (I used all-purpose but am wondering if cake flour would have resulted in less dry cake... hmmm for next time!)
480g caster sugar
250g finely ground walnuts (really helped with adding moisture like she said!)
2.5 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
6 eggs
450ml vegetable oil
375g finely grated carrots
For the Cream Cheese Icing -
170g butter
270g cream cheese
930g icing sugar
+chopped walnuts to decorate
Everything went smoothly! I would add a side note of always lining baking pans with parchment paper - I didn't this round and gave her method a try and I had a couple cakes stick to the bottom pretty stubbornly. It might just be my go-to from here on out for that reason. Never want to forfeit any lovely cake!
My favorite part of this entire bake was making the gum paste carrots! The ones Jemma made were absolutely adorable with their little smiley faces :) I love how creative she gets! I kept mine pretty basic. I took about 1/3 cup from the Wilton container I found at Walmart and cut into 2 larger pieces and 2 smaller pieces. I put a SMIDGE of orange gel paste on the two larger and a SMIDGE of green on the smaller pieces and that was more than enough. I had to resist biting into one - just like my friend Bugs would have done, am I right?! I look forward to more fun and creative bakes like this one in the future!
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