Vaughn's Secrets to Making the Perfect Carrot Cake | Cooking the Comments | NYT Cooking

Hello everyone, or should I say what's up, doctor? Hello everyone, my name is vau and welcome to cook. The

comments

. I love a dense, moist

cake

. I love a cream cheese frosting. Enter

carrot

cake

, so the recipe I'm going to cook. Today it's Dory Green Spans Carrot Cake. I've been doing a lot of research on

carrot

cakes on the internet and I think it's widely considered the gold standard carrot cake that I'm going to cook during the recipe once as written by Dory Greenspan and then I'll check out the

comments

. I'm going to analyze the section and see what they're adding, what they're taking away, how they're modifying it, and me.

I'm going to develop and test my ultimate Carr Kake. This is a carrot cake that, like I said, is considered a gold standard carrot cake, but it has some ingredients that I know people like a little bit. a bit like take it or leave it with it has coconut it has raisins it has chopped walnuts or pecans peas we do this every time in the comments section I think people have their opinions on those things, but everything else is pretty standard it's a cake based of oil, has some spices and obviously has a lot of grated carrots.

It's a 9-inch cake and there are three rounds, so I have my kind of non-stick cake pans here. but even though they are non-stick, I will still spread them with butter and flour according to the recipe because, you know, just giving myself a little extra security. See you later, I can't eat carrot cake without carrots. so I'm going to shred some carrots here. I'm a bit lazy and I think if I was doing this at home I wouldn't peel the carrots because I'm on international television at the moment. I feel like it's necessary, if you have a food processor, you can attach the great accessory that has holes this size, but if you want to be a hero, use a box grater.

I'm going to do one of these and be as good as I can be. We have the exchange here, okay, I'm done, everyone say hello to Viv, my lifeguard. The next thing I'm going to do is take sips of my dry ingredients so I have my flour here and then. I have my baking powder, baking soda, Co salt and a little bit of ground cinnamon dispersed evenly so that when we are ready to add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, it will be nice and evenly mixed in addition to the carrots. I have coconut raisins and these are nuts.

If you put really dry dried fruit in the cake batter, you know, depending on how much you have in there, it might even draw some of that moisture out of the cake, so I'm just going to add. a little bit of boiling water over that, so while those raisins are thickening, I'm going to go ahead and measure out my carrots, then I've got some coconut and then some chopped nuts in there and then I'm going to go. Go ahead and drain my raisins and even just letting them sit there for a couple of minutes, you can see that they've already started to plump up a little bit more, so I'm just going to add them in there to make sure that everything is pretty well incorporated now at this stage and then I'll continue with my wood ingredients, add my sugar, a cup of neutral oil.

The nice thing about an oil based cake is that they tend to be, I think, a bit. Wetter butter is solid at room temperature. Canola oil. Safflower grape seeds. Those will be liquid at room temperature. I don't know the full science behind this, but if something is liquid at room temperature, it will create a wetter thing overall. I know love makes sense to me, that's Adele Adele and I baking together now that the oil and sugar are starting to combine a little. I'm going to add my eggs one at a time and then mix well after each edit when When adding especially four eggs to something, you want to make sure you don't overwhelm the fat that's in here because that's when you can start to see some splitting, so Now you see that this is like a homogeneous, smooth and pleasant mixture. here and that's why you put the eggs in one at a time and now I'm going to add the dry ingredients and mix until they disappear.

It's a good visual indicator, just blend it in until it disappears. When you are working in sand. mixer, you want to make sure you go all the way down because I can even see down there that I have some of my wet ingredients not incorporated with the dry ingredients, so I'm finishing the mixture Hand there, okay, I'm just going to mix them again until they're gone,

perfect

, so everything seems nice and even. Incorporated here, so I'm going to add equal amounts into each of my three prepared pans there because it's like less liquid. cake batter I'm going to work it all the way to the edges here just to make sure it's in a nice, even layer.

Now let's get to the oven like you can't have carrot cake without cream cheese frosting it really adds some necessary Tang so this is an 8 oz block of cream cheese. Each temperature starts by combining it with a stick of butter and you really want to make sure it's nice and well mixed because you don't want to have any lumps at this stage, they're both about the same temperature which will help with this. Scrape down the sides and then continue mixing. I think it really needs to make it smooth and creamy and start to look a little lighter. of color before I continue to add the icing sugar because again it's almost like you're emulsifying the two fats together so I'm going to continue beating it okay I'll probably add maybe like a quarter first just to get started.

I'm going to end it here, so now I'm going to add just a little bit of lemon juice, it's not zest, it's just the juice, and I think that acidity helps bring out the tartness of the cream cheese and really cuts through the sweetness. I think we're done. , I think once the cakes are done, we're going to frost this baby, decorate it a little bit and be done, so I'm going to let them cool in the pan for probably about 5 to 10 minutes and then run a knife along the edge and then invert them on my cooling racks, take this, invert it and pre

perfect

, there we're going to hit three times, so I have my three layers here, so I'll start by inverting. my cake plate there and it's pretty centered, perfect, just divide this frosting into three scraps of this because we're not going to cross the outside just by looking at it and cutting it, you can see it's very wet.

I'm going to give it a the taste is very good, it's sweet, quite a sweet cake, which, again, I don't hate, it has a nice spice to it. I don't think the spice is overpowering, it just helps bring out that carrot, which I like, I kind of crave the nuts. They were toasted inside and I want the cream cheese to have a little more flavor. All in all, this recipe is fabulous, like I said. I think it's like one of those gold standard recipes. It's a great frame of reference. I can't stop eating it, so obviously I don't like it.

I'd like to see what commentators say about it. Lots of really great comments again. This recipe has almost 7,000 five-star reviews, but that doesn't mean people don't have any opinions on it, says Made has written The cake for the first time was fluffy, but I really wanted a slightly denser cake, so I added a quarter cup of pineapple and/or 2 cup of diced sweet ginger, that sounds great. Seeing some different spices, people are adding some like nutmeg, all the spices, it seems like the frosting has different zests, which I definitely think I want to try. I see a lot of pineapple additions and I think that's something that's almost classic. like the church potluck type Vibe carrot cake, oh, cut back on the baking soda.

A little bit, that's one thing I did. I tried a little bit of the chemical agent in that cake, so it's something to keep in mind when I'm developing my own Sonia. She says that she soaked the raisins in rum, many people seem to be reducing the sugar to one and a half cups instead of two cups. Brown sugar is an interesting addition. Elaine uses brown sugar. I'm looking at some white chocolate frosting. Seeing people substituting different oils like coconut oil could be interesting if you prefer that coconut vibe. Well, Rebecca changed a lot, let's review.

I didn't feel the need to make the cream cheese frosting. I turned them into cupcakes. I replaced half the cinnamon with cardom. Beautiful alteration. I also used butter instead of oil and I use sweetened coconut, so I reduced the sugar to a cup and a quarter and then added a half cup of pineapple. She made like seven different changes. I love seeing that. kind of common sense I think I want to try adding pineapple. I want to try a version without coconut or raisins just to see what they give me. I want to try a version with less sugar and I want to try a version with brown sugar.

I think I want to try a version with coconut oil and then I'm going to try different types of frosting. I think I'm going to try a brown butter version of the cream cheese frosting, maybe adding some sour cream that I've seen. white chocolate in the frosting, which is a great comment here and then adding some different zests or flavorings to the overall frosting and

making

it maybe a little bit less sweet and more because you can never have too much frosting, right? I think in the interest of not having as many three layer cakes in the set, continuing with my tests as half recipes for now is going to be fine, although it is half the recipe and is baked in three, I still think I'm going to do it . in one layer and maybe bake it a little longer.

I'll be able to tell when it's ready, so the first version I'm going to make will be the easiest change, which is just removing the coconut and raisins. because that was a great comment that a lot of people said, really what I'm interested in seeing is how does this taste without the coconut because you know the coconut not only adds texture, but it adds sweetness, it adds a little bit of coconut flavor, but I might be adding moisture in there, yes, I want to see how it acts. I'm going to mix my dry ingredients here and then mix just the chopped nuts with the carrots and I think this is essentially the simplest Carr Kake. so everything else in this recipe is exactly the same, it's assembly time, but I started the assembly.

I'm still going to bake this at 325° and check it at about 40 45 minutes. I anticipate it will take a little longer, but I'm still going to use those salsa cubes I used the first time, so the second version I'm going to make is the crushed pineapple version. I'm going to have to check this out, but pineapple is actually used very often as something that can make things much more tender, like a meat tenderizer. In some ways, my hypothesis is that it makes the cake not only have this kind of extra moisture, but it also makes it a little more tender.

They are commenting that they were adding half a cup of crushed pineapple into their liquid, so I'm just going to add 1/4 cup here and then continue with the rest of my recipe as written Q assembly of brown sugar. in cakes you could make it a little denser you could also make it a little more moist because brown sugar has a little more moisture, we'll see how it works, although in baking sugar is a wet ingredient, so depending on the proportion and depending on As for the amount, it could change how things behave, so I definitely want to do a test with less sugar just to see how the baking reacts.

Other than that, everything else is the same, let's jump, this is like an unrefined virgin coconut oil, it has less smoke. period, but a more coconut flavor, you know, I could perfume it with a little more coconut flavor, we'll see, but that's the only other change I made in this test. I'm going to continue with the recipe as written with my The dry ingredients then I mix my oil with my sugar, add the eggs and then the pieces are done a lot today and that's just the cake. Just by looking at them, you can definitely tell some differences, like everyone baked it at almost exactly the same time as me.

I wanted them to see the mixes without mixes. He looks a little blonde. It's definitely leaning inside. The pineapple wood is a little slanted on the inside but it's definitely a lot darker which is really interesting. I mean, it definitely has more. sugar in there, so that's probably why the coconut oil one was honestly really good, I mean it baked the flattest out of all of them, the brown sugar one definitely took on a little more color than the rest, but I like it , I mean. It still feels very springy and fluffy and then the less sugar I expected this one to really like, it was very different, it's not much blonder than the one without Mixon and it actually seemed like it was a little more evenly baked originally.

Thinking at the end of the first day maybe I would have the cake try the frosting test and I would like a little mix and match. I think I'm going to make these still warm. The end of the day is approaching. I think we should call it how we feel about it. Why don't we come back in the morning and I make some frosting? It will be very easy and then we can do a little taste test at breakfast. Let's go home, we'll come back. I'm very interested in trying them and seeing how they play with each other, but first I think I'm going to set them aside and make some buttercream so I can set myself up with a little bit of cake flavor, you know, I think I'm going to try some frostings. different this morning.

I'm going to make a brown butter cream cheese frosting. I'm going to make asour cream and cream cheese frosting. I saw a lot of comments about white chocolate, so I'm going to make a white chocolate cream cheese frosting and then make it like a regular one with a little citrus zest. In it I'm going to start by browning some butter because I want to give it a little time to cool and then I'll move on to the rest of the stuff stirring the browned butter in the ice bath, but I'm going to remove it. every once in a while because you know it's starting to solidify around the sides and you can already see it's almost back to its solid butter shape so I think one of the things I noticed yesterday with the frosting was that it was a little bit sweet to me so I have like the bag of powdered sugar here and I'm going to add a little bit in here okay give it away you know it's good I'm definitely going to add a pinch of salt and maybe a little bit more sugar just for structure of everything, but I'm very happy with it, that's it, I think I'm going to make a couple more variations of the frosting, as indicated in the assembly I'm going to start with. just creaming the butter and cream cheese and then I'll divide half for the citrus glaze and the other half for the tart.

The last buttercream I'm going to try is a white chocolate cream cheese. I'm going to use the white chocolate as a sugar element as well, this is a lot, we were doing some calculations, we took the two a little bit, um, there will be 24 different variations, besides that, I just want to try the cakes alone, so 30 I guess I'm going to start with the original, like I said. I know what it tastes like, but I have to refresh my memory a little, an ideal carrot cake very similar to the platonic one. Okay, this one has less sugar, so it's the exact same recipe as the original but with less sugar, that's really good.

I mean, it's very interesting to see between these two, this is the original recipe and this one has less sugar and the color is quite different. Honestly, I'm going to try the pineapple next because I think. that was one of the big similar notes that I saw a lot of people saying that the pineapple is nice, it's not too pineapple, it's very moist, a lot of people were saying that it makes it a lot moister, a lot more tender. I don't notice a big difference, this will be the M version of brown sugar, it's good because I'm getting a little bit deeper flavor, more molasses SE, okay, so this is the one with coconut oil when I was mixing the dough.

I can really smell the coconut oil. I can smell it here. It's interesting that I find one much sweeter than the original, but it's good, the texture is really lovely. Now I'm going to try the unmixed one. I miss the raisins I don't miss the coconut there I said it I like the bite that the raisins give I like the little bit of similar texture so I already tried my cake now I'm going to try different versions of the cake combined with different versions of the frosting that I made well, butter Intrigued brunette I think I'm going to try the brown butter with brown sugar after I try the cake.

I'm leaning towards brown sugar. I'm leaning towards less sugar. That's good. I wasn't getting that much. from the carrot cake I got a lot of brown butter which isn't a bad thing, maybe I'll try the brown butter with pineapple just to see because the pineapple had a pretty distinctive flavor too, oh man I like brown butter and pineapple that's really interesting, we noted that we like brown butter and pineapple, we're good now I'm going to do Citrus. I think the Citrus buttercream is something I was quite excited about, maybe I'll do the lime. zest with the coconut oil M the lime is very delicious there this is the lime with the pineapple I am on a beach I am on a beach I really like lime zest I think that existentially it is

making

this something that is not me I don't know the White chocolate.

I'm going to try the white chocolate with the lower sugar version. White chocolate is definitely the note I'm getting and I'm not getting as much cream cheese note as I would like next. I'm going to try this sour cream frosting, it tastes great, it smells delicious, but I think I'd like it to have a little more structure, maybe I'll try this one with the original and see how it turns out when combined with the cake. I don't know if I like it as much, but maybe I'll try it with less sugar and less. The sweetness of the cake helps reinforce the kind of tart notes that are in the frosting, which I like.

I think it is something essential. final thoughts after tasting I like brown sugar I like pineapple I'm interested in pineapple and I like less sugar I think these three are my favorite cakes in terms of frostings I tried the sour cream with the original version and the version with less sugar I definitely think it held up better to a less sweet cake that I liked, but I'm interested to see what everyone else thinks. What do you think? What is your favorite? OMG I love, love brown sugar. one brown sugar and sour cream surprisingly sour cream I really liked the brown butter frosting and I really like brown sugar cake um but I'm also a big girly non Mixon oh I know you know what I'm saying about that we can't be friends, yes.

We agree that sour cream with brown sugar is top-notch sour cream. Brown sugar is there too. Yes that's fine. I think the general consensus is that brown sugar is brown sugar sour cream. I'm still on the fence between pineapple and pineapple, so maybe we'll do two of those tests to see, but I love this taste test. I have learned a lot. I learned. Do you know what kind of things I like to look for in a carrot cake? I like spices in my self-made carrot cake. I like that it's pretty dense but not heavy. I like the cream cheese frosting, you know, it's pretty standard.

I don't want it to be too sweet. I love raisins. I'm still on the fence about pineapple, so I wrote down what I think is a good starter recipe. would be for me and then I have a version number two where I add half a cup of pineapple. I'm going to add raisins that have been ground ginger soaked in rum and freshly grated ginger in terms of glaze, we seem to like the acid. cream frosting pretty much across the board here and you might add a little lemon zest to it. I guess I have a great carrot smell.

We did a lot. The first one I made is a brown sugar version and I went down half a cup. I also added some raisins soaked in rum to the sugar and to give it a little more strength I added ground ginger and freshly grated ginger. I also eliminated coconut completely. I didn't think I needed it and then for this one it's the Exactly the same thing, but I added some crushed pineapple and then the glaze. I ended up making the sour cream variation instead of lime zest. I made lemon zest. These were baked at about the same time.

They are both two-layer cakes instead of three-layer cakes. I put sour cream on this frosting and as you can see the density and weight of this cake, it definitely weighs it down because it was a very delicate light frosting. I would make this frosting again for another application. It was so delicious, maybe like a Victoria. some kind of sponge cake, but this cake is too dense for that, so I think when I actually develop the recipe that you can see below, I'll just do cream cheese and butter instead of adding the sour cream in there, so we have two versions of carrot cake with rum and raisins one with pineapple another without I'm going to try the one without first wow, it's really good it has a bit of a closed texture which means it's not as tender as maybe I would like it to be now I'm going to try the pineapple one, which I'm really excited about, I mean George, I think we found it, it's really good.

I would even maybe consider increasing it like I did with two teaspoons of fresh ginger. Maybe I would increase it to a full tablespoon because I really like the ginger in there, but the pineapple is so good. I think the alcohol-like flavor of rum raisin comes out a little more in this one. For some reason, the last two days were actually a lot of fun. I really love it, like drinking something. Really pivotal, this carrot cake has stood the test of time to take something like that and then be able to mold it and adapt it based on your feedback based on the things that I felt about being able to try different things.

That's the beauty of a recipe, a recipe is a living, breathing thing, it's not meant to be so set in stone and I think this is something that's an experiment that really speaks to that, but yeah, you can find Dory's recipe on my recipe and many other wonderful carrot cake recipes ribs recipes hamburger recipes even in the New York Times well oh I didn't see you there so I spent the last two weeks developing carrot cake at home. I found myself in such a good place here in the studio. but I really like to take my recipes home to make sure they work in a home kitchen and B I just try to get the best possible version of them so I don't end up changing too much with the cake. dough itself.

I upped the spices so you could really taste them and upped the rum raisin factor. I also made a mix of brown and white sugar instead of just brown sugar because the brown sugar was a little heavy, the frosting is that girl. I made about four different versions of the frosting and honestly, they were all delicious. It was a little loose on me. I needed it to be a little more structural for the weight of the carrot cake layers, so I turned to the Reddit threads. You know, I did a little research on this and I found this wonderful YouTuber, thanks to Sugar Aly and she came up with this really cool solution of almost emulsifying the cream cheese into the butter and sugar mixture.

I think it really, really works. Well, I took it to the office, people loved it and overall I'm very happy with the result. I love carrot cake. I think Dory's recipe is perfect. I think this recipe I created is a really fun riff on it. recipe I hope everyone makes it, it's delicious, you can leave out the alcohol if you want, but hey, why would it be Friday and this video on the Internet could be any day?