Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is a baked confection made with carrots. Some versions use finely grated carrots, and others use carrots puréed smoothly with eggs and oil. The batter differs among Britain and the United States, Switzerland, and Brazil. In Britain and the United States, oil goes into a dense batter that is paired with a white cream. In Switzerland, nuts and whipped egg whites are used. In Brazil, a uniformly orange batter is topped with chocolate. The crumb and texture of the cake change with how finely the carrots are broken down and the order in which the ingredients are added.

Grated carrots mixed into a vegetable-oil batter

British and American carrot cakes use a large amount of finely grated carrot. The fine fibers are scattered throughout the batter and add moisture, a texture of small bits, an orange color, and an earthy vegetable flavor. Compared with adding large diced pieces, the fineness of the grating also changes the size of the fibers you feel against your teeth and how their moisture blends into the batter.

A batter made with vegetable oil does not need the step of softening butter and creaming it with sugar. Eggs, oil, sugar, spices, and other ingredients are mixed first, then the flour is added, and finally the carrots and nuts are folded in. Liquid fat does not harden when chilled the way butter does, and together with the moisture from the carrots it gives a soft mouthfeel. The cake rises through leavening agents and eggs, but because a large quantity of carrots and nuts is mixed in, the crumb is relatively dense.

The American flour company King Arthur also has a formula in which sourdough starter that has not yet been fed is mixed with oil and sugar, and carrots, pineapple, walnuts, and coconut are added. This example also uses baking soda, combining a fermented starter with a leavening agent.

If a formula that calls for grated carrots is switched to purée, the way the fibers remain in the cake also changes. Approaches like the Brazilian one, in which the carrots are puréed together with the liquids from the start, differ from the mixing stage onward.

Spices, nuts, and a tangy white topping

Cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and similar spices add a warm aroma to the flavor of the carrots. Walnuts or pecans are chopped and mixed in, and roasting them makes their aroma stronger. Some versions use raisins, coconut, or pineapple, but adding fruit also adds sugar and moisture, so the amount is adjusted to balance the batter.

A frosting made from cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar adds a white layer and the tang of dairy to the brown cake. Because the cream softens on a warm cake, it is spread only after the cake has cooled completely. The cake also comes as a sheet cake baked flat in a rectangular pan, a layer cake made by stacking round layers, and cupcakes. Whatever the shape, the combination of carrot bits, spices, and tangy cream stays the same.

Swiss Rüeblitorte, made with nuts and egg whites

Rüeblitorte, which is associated with Aargau in Switzerland, is based mainly on grated carrots, eggs, and ground almonds or hazelnuts. The egg whites are whipped separately and folded into the batter. Instead of a thick layer of cream cheese, the cake is thinly spread with apricot jam and then covered with a sugar glaze, or it is finished with powdered sugar. Small marzipan carrots on top are also a common decoration.

An 1892 cookbook from the home economics school in Kaiseraugst preserves a recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method of preparation) that uses large amounts of carrot, sugar, and nuts with only a small amount of flour. At first the cake was baked mainly at home, and by the mid-20th century it had spread to pastry shops as well. Today it is still a familiar home-baked cake for occasions such as children’s birthdays.

Brazilian batter made in a blender, finished with chocolate

For Brazilian bolo de cenoura, one method is to blend raw carrots with oil, eggs, and sugar until smooth and then combine the mixture with the dry ingredients. Compared with the British and American versions, in which grated fibers remain, this makes a batter of uniform orange color. As this shows, Brazil also has methods that use the carrots raw, without cooking them first.

The chocolate finish also varies. In one method, powdered chocolate, sugar, butter, and water are boiled and poured over the cake. The syrup spreads over the warm cake and forms a thin, hard coating as it cools. This differs from frosting, in which dairy products are whipped and spread on a cooled cake, both in the temperature at which the surface is finished and in the way it sets.

Early carrot dishes and cakes made with purée

The 1591 edition of an English cookbook contains a dish of hollowed-out carrots stuffed with liver, breadcrumbs, sugar, and dried fruit and served with the cooking liquid. It is an early example of sweetly seasoned vegetables, but its method differs from that of today’s cake, which is made by baking a batter mixed with oil.

The 1827 English translation of Antoine Beauvilliers’s “The Art of French Cookery” includes “Carrot Cakes” made with carrots that are not raw but boiled in salted water, pressed through a sieve, and then dried to drive off their moisture. They are combined with crème pâtissière containing flour, sugar, whole eggs and egg yolks, butter, and candied orange blossoms, lightened with whipped egg whites, and baked. Both the preparation of the vegetable and the way the batter is made to rise differ from British and American versions, which mix raw grated carrots with oil.

Wartime economy cakes and postwar sales promotion

The British government’s “War Cookery Leaflet No. 4” of July 1943 includes a cake made with flour, oatmeal, fat, dried fruit, syrup, and grated carrot. The recipe reproduced by a local museum calls for 3 tablespoons of carrot and 1.5 tablespoons of sugar. It was a way of using the limited ingredients available under rationing, and it differs from today’s cake thickly spread with cream cheese in both its use of sugar and syrup and its appearance.

Ed Winstead, writing about how the cake spread in the United States, connects entrepreneur George Page’s recollection of using surplus postwar dried carrots in sweets with the late-1960s fashion for cream cheese icing and manufacturers’ promotion of recipes. This interpretation includes one person’s sales experience, but behind the spread of the cake’s present form lay not only thrift but also food distribution and the promotion of dairy sales.

Glossary