Sunday, August 31, 2008

Carrot cake




Recently, I've been on veggie juice...It has been 2 weeks in a row that I started my day with celery, bell peppers, carrots, tomatos juice (let alone, ginger and bitter melon that I had on the first day and never wanted to have them again!). Leftovers from these veggy are huge bulk of fibre, good stuff. And I think I should bake something out of it.

I have a recipe from America's Tested Kitchen. The author explained how the ingredients were altered to obtain the best texture/best-taste carrot cake. While I was reading the experiment, I felt grateful there are some people out there trying /wasting egg-and-flour to perfect the recipe...to make it foolproof. The secrets lie within some tiny tiny details that I may not have figured out by myself. It is ... as I said, baking is the art and science.

Carrot cake is down-to-earth. Many people view this as a healthy indulgence compare to other kinds of muffins/cupcakes. It is made of vegettable oil (not butter) and contains carrots with loads of beta-carotine and B-vitamins .... it makes people feel a lot less guilty. It actually is 'okay' for those who are avioding saturated fat (butter) and/or transfat. It can be made using whole wheat flour, instead of white flour) with a touch of whole grains or nuts to make it more hearty. And this is good-eat !

The procedure is straight forward. However, mixing method is indeed the secret of preventing dense bottom. As with other recipe with fruits ingredients, carrot cake tends to be soggy as water content in carrot is difficult to control. Water diffuses with storage time since they are cropped. It varies with storage atmosphere and processing method i.e. grated, chopped, finely chopped.



The recipe called for chopped carrots processed in food processor as it's convenient to mix other ingredients in and that you won't dirty too many tools. For me, I dont' have processor so I use carrot left from juice extractor which was finely grated and a bit damp. I doubted if it could be soggy. If this turned into disaster, I could call it Nuntiya's tested kitchen. Or I could just spinned them all down in the bin (and cry for the day).

I don't know if ...by describing this too much in detail would expose myself to intellectual legal suit? anyone?

I was satisfied with the result...The cake is simple. However, make it to perfection is not easy. The analogy would be for a guy who is approaching next-door girl...it won't be a guarantee of success rate, so to speak.

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