Our dinners happened indoors which made for cozier company.
We had arranged to have 2 dinner parties close together so I need to make something for dessert for both events. A while back, I read a post over at Joy The Baker explaining that 4 – 6″ cake pans could be used in place of 2 – 8″ or 9″ cake pans and recipes. Great tip here…. Thank you Joy!
I decided to make a couple of carrot cakes. I had seen this cake on the Martha Stewart’s tv shoe several years ago when it was called John Barricelli’s Carrot Cake ( June 2020, no longer on-line) . It has since been renamed just Carrot Ginger Layer Cake (June 2020, this recipe no longer on line the current one uses butter – change for oil) I adapted the recipe a little. The original recipe included candied carrot for decoration. For these cakes I decided just the cake was enough. Thanks John! My hubby requests this cake frequently. I have to agree it is one of the best cake of any kind.
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake |
For these 2 – 4 Layer cakes I used:
1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 Cups Cake Flour
1 1/4 Tablespoons Buttermilk Powder
1 1/2 Cups Pecans – Toasted
1 Pound of Carrots – Peeled and Shredded
3 Eggs
1/3 Cup Water
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 Cups of Whey Low Sugar Subustitute or Swerve Sweetner
1 1/2 Cups Vegetable Oil
1 Tablespoon Freshly Grated Ginger
2 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon of Salt
1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
For the frosting for 1 cake:
6 Tablespoons Softened Butter – 3/4 of a stick
12 Ounces of Softened Cream Cheese – Full Fat
3 Cups Icing Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons of Grated Orange Zest
1 Tablespoon of Freshly Grated Ginger
Pinch of Salt
I served 1 cake to 6 people and there were leftovers sent home with some of the guests.
I stored the other 2 cooled layers in the freezer for next dinner party a few days later.
More after the jump……..
This is a big flavoured cake with a lot of steps so here goes:
I started by heating the oven to 375 then spray oiling and flouring 4 – 6 inch cake pans then setting them aside.
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – The Pans |
I then placed the pecans on a baking sheet and placed them in the pre-warmed oven for 7 or 8 minutes (your mileage may vary).
While the pecans were in the oven I grated 2 tablespoons of ginger reserving 1 tablespoon for the icing later.
I then took the pecans out of the oven to cool then I lightly chopped them.
I reduced the oven temperature to 300.
I peeled the carrots and removed the tips and stems and cut them into 4″ or 5″ lengths for the food processor. I shred the carrots using the smallest holes available.
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – Assembling the ingredients |
In the bowl of my mixer I put the carrots, eggs, water, vanilla, Whey Low sugar substitute, vegetable oil, and ginger in a bowl and briefly mixed them together on low speed.
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – All of the wet ingredients including Whey low |
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – And the mix |
In another bowl I sifted the flours, the buttermilk powder, the baking powder, the baking soda, the salt, and cinnamon. I then added this flour mixture to the carrot mixture and briefly mixed the whole mixture on low again. Just until the flour was almost mixed in.
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – The Dry Ingredients |
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – the Dry ingredients Combined |
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – Adding the Dry to the Wet |
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – Just barely Mixed |
Off the mixer I hand mixed the batter until everything was fully incorporated. I then folded in the pecans.
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – Final hand mixing |
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – Folding in the Pecans |
I split the batter between the 4 pans, tapped the air bubbles out, and baked the cakes checking them at 45 minutes. My cakes took the full hour (60 minutes).
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – In the Oven |
When the cakes were finished in the oven I moved the 4 pans to a cooling rack for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes I tapped out the cakes onto the cooling racks. They took about 90 minutes to cool completely.
When the cakes had cooled I wrapped 2 for the freezer for a later date. I split the remaining 2 cakes in half to assemble the layer cake.
While the cakes were cooling I started in on the frosting.
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – Frosting Ingredients |
I beat the butter in the mixer for a couple of minutes until light and fluffy. I added the cream cheese and beat the mixture for a couple of more minutes. I added the icing sugar, orange zest, ginger, and salt to the butter mixture, then I let the machine do its work for 5 minutes on medium speed.
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – Whipping the butter |
To frost the cake, I took the first layer and put it on a regular dinner plate. I then added 1/4 of the frosting and made a nice layer. I repeated with the next 3 layers.
Now the challenge, I had to chill the cake until the frosting was firm while trying to keep it from sliding apart. In the past I have used skewers. Unfortunately my skewers were tossed in the move so I searched through my drawers for something to stabilize the cake in the fridge. I came up with a turkey lifter. It worked perfectly.
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| Carrot Ginger Layer Cake – The Turkey Lifter Scene |
During the cake’s time in the fridge one of my guests opened the fridge and started laughing. He saw the turkey lifter at work.
After 2 hours the cake had solidified enough to continue the frosting. After the rest of the frosting was applied I put the cake back into the fridge for a final chilling.
Man I love this cake.
Baker’s Notes:
- When using 4 – 6 ” cake pans the cooking time could be slow
- You can easily use a sugar substitute here – I use Whey Low
- Low fat cream cheese just doesn’t work. It ends up sliding off of the cake before you serve it
- Low fat cream cheese can be used in the filling if you want to go that route – just not the outside coating
- Bake all 4 pans at once. Baking 2 pans then 2 pans will result in the second 2 cakes being more dense due to the buttermilk’s power having been used up while the batter rested
- June 2020 – this recipe is no longer on the site listed
