Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (NBR)

Carrot Cake

• 2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 pound carrots (6 to 7 medium), peeled
• 1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed (3 1/2 ounces) light brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups safflower, canola, or vegetable oil [I used grapeseed]
• 1 1/2 cups toasted chopped pecans or walnuts

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softeened but still cool
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) confectioners' sugar

Mise en place.

Grating carrots in my new food processor.  When I tried using my old food processor after making mortadella, it just wouldn't budge.  I had never been able to full clean that machine and the mortadella was that last straw.  I'm not going to have the same problem with my new Cuisinart machine.

Process the sugars and egg together until frothy and combined.

Gradually add in the oil.

Combine the two until there are no more streaks of butter.  Spread into a 13 by 9 pan.

The pan I know is somewhat smaller than that.  I'll eventually buy one of these I swear.

Bake until a toothpick or skewer inserted into center comes out clean.  After I cut it I realized that some areas had not baked fully.

Ingredients for the frosting.

The finished frosted cake.  Everyone thought it was delicious, and I liked how easy it was.

Sadly, I was doing a bit of overindulging that night and threw up much of this afterwards.  I hope to be back at eating carrot cake sometime in the future.  It's long been one of my favorite desserts even though I don't eat much dessert.

Panade (New York Times)

I will on occasion do dishes I come across while reading the NYT Sunday Magazine (Asado Negro, Bulgogi Sloppy Joe's, I bought Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi sort of because Mark Bittman told me to). I bookmarked Panade way back in September 2010 and came across it again a month or two ago. At the time I revisited the dish, I wasn't really in the mood for the richness it suggested, but things have changed and I still found the dish thrilling.

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2 leeks, white parts only, finely chopped (about 1½ cups)
• 6 cups whole milk
• Salt
• 4-6 slices day-old country bread, each 1 inch thick [Later I kind of assumed they must have meant some sort of artisinal white bread instead of straight-supermarket country-style, sliced white bread.]
  
• 1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound), peeled, seeded and cut into ¼-inch-thick slices
• 1 bunch black kale or Swiss chard, center stems removed [Grabbed some red kale instead at Symphony's Whole Foods.]
  
• 1 head cauliflower (about 1½ pounds), trimmed and cut into ½-inch-thick slices
• ½ pound fontina cheese, thinly sliced [Did the best I could using the widest setting on my mandoline. I wasn't about to put any more effort into this, thanks.]
  
• Heavy cream, optional.

Breaking out my Cuisinart Multi-Clad 8 Quart Stockpot. At about $210, it's a way better deal than the jaw-droppingly expensive yet cult-worthy All-Clad set which will set you back a cool $1,175.25. Less straight forward when it comes to cleaning it than normal pots and pans so I usually only break it out when I know I have to shove one in the oven.
Also starring my trusty chef's knife and my mandoline makes its first appearance on my blog.


My mountainous mise-en-place.


A layer of bread, the squash layer, and two cups of milk mixture (butter, milk, leeks, salt) pour over. The last of these smells amazing.


More bread, kale, cauliflower, and the rest of the milk mixture. Sure, the recipe doesn't call for freshly ground black pepper, but it's probably the spice I use most often. I love it, and if it seemed out of place here (Shouldn't I have some idea by now?) , I wouldn't have dared.


What it looks like in the pan. A bit moister than I thought but this can be attributed to pouring a full half-gallon of milk into the saucepan rather than noting that it called for 2 cups less. I didn't want to brown the cheese anymore.


Probably won't make this again (I'll be eating it for the next few days anyway), but it was good and rich and complex and had a nice assortment of veggies. I don't make most things more than once; it wasn't a outright failure and it smelled pretty damn good at various points.