I was having an “off” cooking day yesterday. A recipe from one of my favorite cooks, Eric Kim, just wasn’t turning out for me. Hate that.
So, I had a Marie Antoinette moment. I let myself eat cake for comfort.
As it turned out, my new cake recipe was excellent and my mood lifted
Point of Digression: As a former high school history teacher, I’m feel obligated to tell you that Marie Antoinette probably didn’t say “Let them eat cake.” The regime of Louis XVI was strikingly unpopular. Marie Antoinette was a foreigner with expensive tastes (reportedly indulging in 300 new gowns a year while people starved in the streets) who was denounced broadly as “Madame Deficit.” That famous line worked for the opposition to rally the crowds against the regime. While the indictment of the government for corruption and malfeasance was warranted, the use of the quotation to inflame public sentiment was fake news. End of history lesson.
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Every Sunday (well, almost every Sunday) my friend and I shop the Long Beach Farmers Market. One of the vendors has a special line of out-of-the ordinary produce. From brilliant orange-red carrots to a many-colored array of colorful radicchio (I’ve pictured one of the radicchio heads below. How beautiful is that?) to quirky cone-shaped cabbages, Joyce and I shop his stall with unbridled enthusiasm. I used his brilliant-hued carrots to make this cake (and home-grown oranges from Joyce’s yard).
This Carrot-Orange Olive Oil Cake recipe is from The New York Times’ superb cooking page. Here is the link: Carrot-Orange Olive Oil Cake.
Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.
Carrot-Orange Olive Oil Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 C. all-purpose flour
- 1 T. baking powder
- 1 t. ground cardamom
- 1 t. kosher salt
- 1/4 t. baking soda
- 5 medium carrots (peeled and roughly chopped)
- 1 C. extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 C. granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 orange (zested and juiced)
- Powdered sugar (for dusting)
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Position rack in the center of the oven. Grease a springform pan and line it with parchment.
- Step 2 Using a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, cardamom, salt and baking soda together. Make a well in the center of the four mixture. Set aside.
- Step 3 Using your blender, blend carrots, olive oil, granulated sugar, eggs, orange zest and orange juice. You want a smooth mixture. Pour this mixture into the flour mixture. Use a whisk to mix the liqud into the flour mixture thoroughly.
- Step 4 Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Bake in 375 degree F. oven for 35-45 minutes. (It was about 38 minutes in my oven.) Test the center of the cake with a toothpick. The toothpick should come out clean. At 35 minutes my center was the tiniest bit wet. At 38 minutes it was perfect.
- Step 5 Remove the cake from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar and serve. (Cooks Note: This cake is also wonderful with a scoop of your best quality vanilla ice cream.)
