The Story of The Carrot Cake

For Grandma Millie 
        &  Aunt Cindy


 Raw Carrot Cake 

So, this is the picture that started it the ideas for the cake - found it on pinterest.

The original recipe & source of this image is from a blog called UrbanPoser where she blogged about RAW Carrot Cake Balls (Vegan, RAW, Paleo, GAPS)  (link)

Those of you who partook of the cake, might realize that this image looks nothing at all like the layered cake of which you ate.   You are correct.  You may rest assured that your powers of recognition and differentiation are well.

Now on to the thought process.

These are the ingredients to the LEFT as posted in the original blog.

The information to the RIGHT is what I did.

2 Large carrots, peeled (about 1/2 a pound)

As you might already realize, it is not carrot season.

The carrots at the grocer's were rather small.
Had I used only 2 carrots, 

we would not be having this conversation.

I used 2 BUNCHES of small carrots.

I weighed them on my kitchen scale, which

is where & how I weigh foods, and

probably could be removed completely

from the sentence as it would

make for a quicker read, if I assume

that the audience knows that

I don't use a garage

ton-age scale

to weigh

carrots. 

1 large tart apple, peeled and cored

Got it!  Had a large tart green granny smith!

1 1/4 cups dried shredded coconut 

I didn't have healthy coconut. I had the good stuff!

The sugar sweetened shredded baking coconut.

Normally, I don't like coconut.

It's a texture thing.

Well, and 

a flavor thing.

Okay, so I just don't like coconut.

I was willing to be brave & used it in this recipe. 

1/2 cup chopped up raisins or currants (chopping raisins can be sticky business)

I love all sorts of dried fruits, but raisins

have never been my cup of tea.  

Oh yuck, can you imagine

a cup of raisin tea.  blah!

Okay, so as I saying, raisins - don't like 'em.

Instead, I used DRIED CRANBERRIES.

I     l  o  v  e    dried cranberries.

I used closer to 3/4 cup.

As for the 'sticky business'; 

food processor chopped them just fine.

(Ha! fine, as in okay, AND as in small size)

3/4 cups finely chopped (with a few larger chunks) pecans or walnuts

I don't like walnuts or pecans.

MrMan LOVES pecans. Especially in pecan pie.

It's a texture thing.

I do like the flavors of most nuts, and 

prefer them in butters.

I have learned that toasting walnuts,

softens their texture.

I toasted 3/4 cup chopped walnuts in a large

dry fry pan over medium-high heat

until they smelled toasty.

 

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

I'm good with cinnamon.

1/2 tsp ground ginger (or fresh grated ginger to taste)

LittleMiss says that our most recent root of ginger

looks like a rabbit & she gets upset

when I break off 'limbs' to

grate.

I had to secretly grate the ginger - used a 1 tsp. 

1/4 tsp nutmeg

I'm good with nutmeg.

I'm extra good with ground cloves.

 

pinch of salt

No salt please.  The frosting will be a tad salty.

So not extra salt in this please. 

*3 Tbls RAW honey (palm sugar or agave for vegan)

I didn't have raw honey.

I just had honey.

So I just used honey.

It's Dakota honey, that is harvest 

from North & South Dakota.

*3 Tbls RAW nut butter (almond, pecan, walnut, cashew)

I do like nut butters.  I have these nuts

and could have made butters for this.

However, I had Nutella.

Nutella rules out all other butters 

in any dessert recipe, 

ever! 

Juice from half a lime

Didn't notice the call for lime juice.

Then when mixing it, I found a open bag of raisins to use up.

Yep, after all that talk about not liking raisins,

I added 3/4 cup of raisins.

So there you have the ingredients thought process.  From there she shreds, mixes, presses in to bite size, and dips in raw cocoa w/ coconut oil.

I on the other hand, went the more traditional route -  bread-pan-sized layered cake.

Quick recap of ingredients:

0.50 pound of carrots

1.00 large tart green granny smith apple

1.25 cups sweetened shredded coconut

0.75 cup dried cranberries 

0.75 cup toasted chopped walnuts

0.75 cup raisins

2.00 teaspoons cinnamon

1.00 teaspoon nutmeg

1.00 teaspoon ground cloves

1.00 teaspoon secretly freshly grated ginger

0.25 cup honey

0.50 cup Nutella hazelnut spread

Inner Frosting:

1 stick of salted butter

? 3 cups ? powdered sugar

1 tablespoon cream if too much sugar is added

dash of salt

Outer Frosting:

0.50 cup nutella

1.00 cup milk chocolate chips

I shredded the carrots & the apple using the fine shred disc in the food processor.  Then wrapped it up in a flour sack towel to hand squeeze out as much juice as I could.  I tried to get it as dry as I could with just twisting and squeezing.  I ended up with almost a full cup of juice, which I drank to power me through the rest of the recipe.  

In food processor with chopping blade, I chopped the cranberries with honey and the grated ginger.  

Mixed everything all together using my hands to make sure the shreds weren't clumped and that the nut butter was evenly distributed.

Pressed into a parchment-paper-lined-jelly-roll-pan. Topped with foil.

Set in the freezer over night, because by this time everyone else is in bed and I have run out of coffee and steam.  

Then the next day, while having wonderful conversations with Grandma Millie & hearing stories about her life I had never known before, took the frozen sheet out of the freezer & uncover.

In a large saucepan, melted a stick of butter over medium heat.  Stood there and swirled the pan slightly off the flame to allow the butter to brown, was careful not to burn.  When it smelled nutty and became a deep caramel color, removed from heat and let cool a bit.  

Without measuring, and while keeping deep within conversation, added scoops of powdered sugar to the browned butter.  I'm guessing that I used less than 3 cups.  By hand with spatula, whipped the sugar into the butter until it was a thick, but still creamy and spreadable.  Added a large dash of salt to keep it savory, since I learned during conversing that Grandma Millie doesn't like frosting because it tends to be too sweet.

I lined a bread pan with foil with quite a bit of over hang to wrap all around.

Cut 1/3 of the pressed cake, lift, then press into the foil lined bread pan.

Frosted generously, but not too generously, so that I don't over sweeten it for Grandma Millie.

Cut the second third, lifted, pressed onto the frosted cake.

Repeated with frosting.

Finally top with the last third of the cake.  

I did NOT frost the top, because that will become the bottom.

Firmly pressed together. Wrapped in foil & returned to the freezer.

Then relaxed until the roast duck was ready for dinner.

Retired for the evening.

The following day, after I announce that I'm going to step away and tidy up before heading over to Aunt Cindy's house, realized that the cake must be removed from the freezer and drizzled in chocolate.

Carefully flipped out from the bread pan onto a serving plate.

Melted a bag of milk chocolate chips in the microwave, then stir in a 1/2 cup nutella.   Heavily drizzled over to cover the cake.

Drove to Aunt Cindy's.  Met Mr. Carrot.   Ate Cake!

Of course, all of these steps could probably be completed in one day.  The placement in the freezer was to solidify it a bit for frosting. Probably only needs to about 20-30 minutes.

Pickled Beans - FOUND IT!!!!

We did extensive research on pickled beans a couple years ago.  
John endured taste-test after taste-test.  
A matrix of samples were designed 
& sent to work with him to 
finally determine which 
recipe 
would 
become 
THEE 
recipe.

The decision was made.


The ingredients acquired.



The beans pickled.




The beans devoured.






And then.....  we moved and I lost the recipe.  
Seriously?!?! 
Yep.  
I lost it.

UNTIL TODAY 

WHEN I FOUND IT, 

one year and 12 days 

since 

we've 

moved

!!!

So, here's the deal.  I refuse to lose this top-secret family-created taste-tested approved selected recipe again.   I am putting this mission in your hands to keep it for your eyes only - unless of course I ask you again what the recipe was, because I will totally forget that I blogged it.

Bring to boil

1c            h2o

1.5c        wht vngr

1.5c        cider vngr

per jar

1 t           salt

2 T          sugar

1 t           dill

1 t           peppercorn

2              dry bay leaves

2 t           garlic powder

2              dried mini red peppers

2 T          dried diced onion

1              fresh green chile

½ t          alum (if wanting crispy)

Pack w/ green beans

Fill with boil vngr mix

1st Day of Spring = Seed starting

Gardens planning for both indoors and outdoors?
Yep, I used a spreadsheet.   Like I'd use anything else?

While spending the last couple of months dreaming through seed catalogs, I catalog all that I wanted, the name, the price, the number of seeds per packet, the days to germination, guessed when I wanted to have produce and worked my way backwards to when I'd need to start the seed.

My biggest catalog order came from http://www.seedsavers.org/

  

Now that the seed packets have arrived, let the fun begin!!!

According to the spreadsheet, sorted by planting dates, I have my list of which seeds to start this week:

Broccoli, Romanesco

Pepper, Hinkelhatz (hot)

Pepper, Mini red bell (sweet)

Basil, Lettuce Leaf

Basil, Lime

Basil, Mrs Burn's Lemon

Basil, Purple Dark Opal

Bean, Sultan's Golden Cresent (snap) -[rare]

Bean, Sultan's Green Cresent (snap) -[rare]

Thyme

Tomato, Blondkopfchen (indeterminate)

Tomato, Current Sweet Pea (indeterminate)

Tomato, Ukrainian Purple (indeterminate)

Pepper, Bull Nose Bell (crisp sweet)

Dill, Bouquet

Over Easter weekend, I'll be visiting with my Grandparents and a couple of Aunts.  As I get ready to plant the seeds, I'm setting a few seeds of each type in some envelopes for gifts.  I used the cover of another seed catalog for the gift envelope.

Sprinkled the bottoms of take-out trays with cinnamon then poured in a thin layer of perlite.  Gently poured in warm water and let it all soak.

LittleMiss helped spread the seeds in the perlite.

Another layer of perlite, spritz, and covered.  

The lovely take-out trays are blending in nicely with the glass collection in window. While snapping the picture, my little assistance insisted that I include her garden too.  Thus, the can of crayons that she's growing has been added to the foreground.  In the background, you might get a glimpse of the take-out-box mini greenhouses.

Most everything that I've started so far are for containers & deck-level planting.

Next week will be most of the north hill side and the west hill side.

For the north hill we've got the three-sisters sprinkled with sunflowers and an end cap of butterfly weed.  Hoping for patches of sweetcorn to be used as trellising for sultan's crescent beans and the hillside to spill over with pumpkins.

 

For the west hill we've got all this planned, but haven't mapped it all out yet.

ooohhhh.... I'm very excited and can NOT wait for the snow to melt