healthy cake

Dear Mom,

Speaking of healthy desserts, how about some good old fashioned carrot cake?  I think this is the original healthy dessert, it features vegetables as the main ingredient!  What's more healthy than getting a good dose of beta-carotene, vitamin A and fiber?  All in cake form?  This recipe has pineapple and pecans in it too, so we will just be topping those other healthy items with some heart-healthy nut oils and immune-boosting vitamin C!  Don't forget the calcium in the cream cheese frosting.  All in all, this is a very healthy cake, so why not have two servings? 

This cake is pretty easy to put together, you could do cupcakes too if you want individual portions, just decrease the baking time to about 15-20 minutes. 

carrot cake

1-1/2 cups AP flour
1-1/3 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup sweetened, flaked coconut
1/3 cup chopped pecans
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
3 tbsp. veggie oil
2 large eggs
2 cups grated carrot
1-1/2 cups canned, crushed pineapple, drained
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350.  In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, coconut, pecans, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Whisk together oil and eggs in a separate bowl.  Add the oil and egg mixture, carrot and pineapple into the flour mixture, stir until combined.  Pour the batter into a 13" x 9" baking pan coated with cooking spray.  Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.

cream cheese frosting

2 tbsp. softened unsalted butter
1 8-oz block of cream cheese, softened
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup sweetened, shredded coconut

With an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese, vanilla and butter until well blended.  Slowly add the powdered sugar beating constantly.  Spread onto the cooled cake.  Toast the coconut.  I use my toaster oven to do this, just spread the coconut out on a small baking sheet and put it in the toaster oven, watching it very closely as it has a tendency to burn quickly.  As parts of the coconut gets browned, stir it and re-spread it out on the baking sheet.  (You could easily follow the same procedure in a regular oven.)

Sprinkle the top of the cake with the toasted coconut.

I broke my cake!

Dear Kristin,

Shoulda, woulda, coulda taken a picture of this cake before I played Godzilla and smashed the top!

I wanted to make a light and airy yet flavor-filled cake today. I was inspired by Giada DeLaurentiis's Lemon-Mint Cake with Lemon Syrup. Since I'm not really a fan of mint in desserts, I wanted to omit the mint and use another fruit. My original thought was peach, since they are in season right now. I thought I could infuse the batter with peach flavor with some cut up peaches. Since they are so delicate, though, I thought that I would need some kind of peachy infusion to really bring out a peach flavor. A trip to the grocery store yielded no peach extract or peach nectar, though, so I had to come up with Plan B - pineapple.

Basically, I just used Giada's cake batter recipe, substituting 2 Tbsp. pineapple juice for the lemon juice, and making a pineapple studded simple syrup instead of a lemon one.
The cake came out nice and light, with a crispy almost meringue-like top. It is quite sweet, so adding some tart berries as a garnish really enhances the depth of this dessert. Don't be skimpy when spooning the sauce on the cake - it absorbs a lot, and the sauce adds a needed touch of moisture.

Since the top of the cake is delicate and crispy, be careful when transferring the cake to your serving plate. I was in a hurry to consume this masterpiece and crushed said crispy top when I tried to move it from pan to plate. As you can see, the cake ended up looking something like a Lunar road map!

pineapple simple syrup

4 oz. water
4 oz. pineapple juice
1 c. sugar
1 c. fresh pineapple, cut into 1/2 " dice
tart berries for garnish (I used blackberries)
toasted coconut for garnish

Mix water and juice in a small saucepan. Add sugar, and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Continue cooking until all sugar is dissolved. Add fresh pineapple and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

Transfer mixture to heat resistant glass container, and allow to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate mixture until ready to serve.

comfy's cooking note: I think this recipe would work well with a variety of flavor variations. I might try an orange-cardamom version next time.