Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and toasted pecans

It's such a classic cake.As soon as I saw it being made in one of the episodes of America's test Kitchen I knew I had to try my hands on this.I like to bake....it's my stress buster.I don't mind the BIG clean up that follows...the cake batter drops on the counter,frosting in the nooks of the whipper....nothing can spoil the joy of the cake rising and the smell of baking.
If I find a good cake recipe I wait for Daddy D's birthday to try it out....but this year I decided to "Lean In" :-) Inspired by Sheryl Sandberg's story of her mother who celebrated her 70th birthday by organizing her own Bar Mitzvah. She did not have one like her brothers when she was little, because it's traditionally an occasion for men.
Leaning in I baked a cake for myself on my birthday.....A first!!!The Joy of Baking to celebrate life.My Life....and I am not apologetic about it.

This is going to be a real fast post because the cake recipe and the process is very scientifically explained in the site of America's Test Kitchen.You just have to search for their carrot cake recipe.I would have loved to follow their frosting recipe too but it had Powdered buttermilk as one of the ingredients and I could not find this at my local grocers.So,I took the frosting recipe from Martha Stewart's baking site....It's yummy.
For toasting the pecans that go on the side of this cake,bake the pecans in a greased pan for 5 mins at 200 F pre heated oven.
This is what my cake looks like.I made a 2 layer cake.If you don't have an offset spatula for spreading the cake batter or the frosting, a "haata"( the big spoon with which rice is served) works fine.Use the backside of the "haata" for spreading.

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