A carrot cake marathon

I made 3 carrot cakes in 3 weeks. So much effort went into baking all these cakes I suppose it deserves a maiden-post status on this blog! 

Actually I'm still not sure I have really gotten it 'right'- but I think I had enough of carrot cake for a while ;) 

The first one was my maiden attempt at making carrot cake - a belated cake for D's birthday... and it took me 6+ HOURS. Pretty crazy. Part of the reason it took so long was because I was trying to adapt the recipe for a 3-layer instead of a 2-layer cake.. and there was quite a bit of cautious experimentation in terms of baking time and temperatures. Thankfully it turned out tasting decent; though the cake design was somewhat strange and cake creaming somewhat imperfect. The tiny bit of remaining batter was also turned into 2 simple cupcakes. 

The second time was to practise for my first "cake order" from an ex-colleague (the 3rd time I'd bake it) - one layer became a one-layer carrot cake while the other two became practice layers for my cake decorating class. So the second time churned out carrot cakes IIa and IIb!

The third time - everything went quite well except that my cream cheese frosting was a little too runny when I was trying to cream the cake... Also turned some of the batter into cupcakes as complimentary treats. 

So in total my 3 carrot cake bakes yielded 4 cakes and 2 small batches of cupcakes :P And though I picked up some fancier cake decor skills, I realised that my favourite cake design was still the minimalist one with thyme herbs and a plain top. 

You can find the recipe at the end of my flood of photos :P

Carrot cake I - with a rabbit topper for D

 Carrot cake cupcakes I

Below are some photos of the baking process the first time round - I think grating carrots is my least favourite step. The muffin-top cake was also annoying for a multi-layer cake; but this video helped for my subsequent attempts (I know it looks a bit dubious, but the advice works). 

(I also religiously followed the recipe and added grated orange zest into the mascarpone + cream cheese filling/frosting. The zest gives a refreshing taste and nice twist to the frosting)

 Carrot Cake IIa

 Carrot Cake IIa - redesigned for slicing haha

A slice of Carrot Cake IIa

Carrot Cake IIb decorated with my Day 1 basic cake decorating skills

Carrot Cake III

(in the centre is my amateur attempt to nestle a cinnamon stick amidst a bed of white chocolate shavings)

Carrot Cake III - side view

A handcrafted box for Carrot Cake III

(I was relatively happy with my creation and the cake label inspired by Sticker Lady. In case you can't read the text properly, it cheekily says "Eat All The Time Also Can")

Carrot Cake III - cupcakes

And of course, the carrot cake recipe! I got it from Daily Delicious, an avid Thai baker cum food blogger. She adapted hers slightly from Nigel Slater's. It's pretty close to the original one; and the main diff seems to be replacement of light muscavado sugar and sunflower oil in the Slater recipe to brown sugar and vegetable oil respectively. If you're conscious about calories, you can cut the sugar by 20g or so without much compromise to the taste :) Enjoy!