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Healthy Birthday Carrot Cake

Written on February 27, 2012 by Ms. Adams in family, recipes

This weekend was my older brother’s 29^th birthday (love you Spandola). To celebrate, my whole family met at my parents’ house for dinner and dessert.

The evening was filled with my Dad’s famous Beef and Broccoli.

And some tofu and steamed veggies for the health foodie types.

My favorite part of the meal was of course dessert (shocker). We had tons to pick from including a carrot cake I made from scratch.

Earlier in the week, I asked my Mom for the family recipe for carrot cake. Carrot cake has always been a family favorite. I remember spending many of my Mom’s birthdays grating carrots for her birthday cake.

When she sent me the recipe, I was a tad shocked by how unhealthy it was. Granted the recipe came from my mom’s grandmother, back before anyone cared about fat and butter.

Since my Mom and sister-in-law have been working out as their new year’s resolution, I thought I would provide everyone with a healthier dessert option. So that’s how the Douglas Healthy Carrot Cake came to be.

I used some basic healthy substitutes that you can use in pretty much any recipe.

Molasses and raw sugar for processed sugar.

Egg whites instead of whole eggs.

Whole wheat flour as a substitute for processed flour.

Apple sauce for oil.

Even though this recipe was made with healthier ingredients, it was incredibly moist and seriously delectable. The molasses really added some depth to the flavor profile. Hope you enjoy this blast from the past. It tastes even better when you are surrounded by the people you love the most in the world.

Healthy Douglas Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

Cake

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 cup molasses
1 cup raw sugar
1 ½ cups apple sauce
½ cup chopped nuts
3 cups grated carrots
2 eggs
2 egg whites

Frosting

1 stick butter
8 ounces light cream cheese
2 teaspoons of vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grate 3 cups of carrots (beware your fingers will be orange afterwards).

Add dry ingredients to large bowl (flour, sugar, carrots, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, nuts, salt). Mix together.

Add apple sauce and molasses. Mix together.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each one.

Add egg whites and mix thoroughly.

Divide mixture into two 9 inch round pans. Bake for 35 minutes.

While the cake is baking, you can mix the cream cheese frosting.

Add butter, cream cheese and vanilla to large bowl. Cream for 5 minutes.

Add ½ of powdered sugar. Mix for 3 minutes. Add remaining powdered sugar. Mix for another 3 minutes.

After cake has completely cooled, place small dollop of icing on cake stand and spread.

Place first layer of cake on cake stand.

Add thick layer of icing, then place second layer of cake on top.

Next, complete your crumb coat of frosting. It should be very thin, so that you encapsulate the cake while keeping the icing smooth.

Cool cake in refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

Remove cake for final layer of icing.

Enjoy. It’s especially delicious on birthday occasions. Happy birthday big bro. I couldn’t have asked for a funnier one.

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DIY Baby Shower Lemon and Blueberry Cake

Written on November 7, 2011 by Ms. Adams in diy, recipes

I’m taking a break from our wedding recaps today to show you an adorable cake and gift that I made for a baby shower at our church this weekend.

You might remember from my Halloween Trunk or Treat post that we had a pregnant church member dress up as a magic 8 ball. Well, that same church member had a baby shower this weekend.

Since I’m obssessed with crafting and baking, I decided to handmake a cake and gift for her.

Today, I’m going to share the recipe for the cake that I made and tomorrow I will show off her present.

Since the baby shower was going to be gender neutral, I wanted to make a yellow cake, which decidedly meant that it needed to be something lemon related.

After some google searching, I found this amazing Triple Lemon Blueberry recipe from Sweetapolita (making sure to check out her website for other amazing cake recipes. I want to steal her cake skills)

Triple Lemon Blueberry Cake (recipe from Sweetapolita)

DIY Baby Shower Lemon and Blueberry Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup whole milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon pure lemon extract

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened about 20 minutes out of refrigerator

1 1/2 cups white sugar

4 large eggs

Method:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare three 8″ round cake pans with parchment paper, butter and flour.

Sift dry ingredients into medium bowl. Transfer 1 tablespoon flour mixture to larger bowl.

Add fresh blueberries and toss to coat them with flour. Set remaining flour mixture and blueberries aside.

Stir whole milk, sour cream, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon zest in small bowl.

In the another bowl, cream butter and sugar, until pale yellow and very fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Beat in eggs one at a time, until well combined.

Mix in flour mixture alternately with milk mixture, starting and ending with flour mixture.

Stir until just combined. Gently fold in blueberries.

Divide batter equally among 8″ round pans.

Bake cakes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

Cool cakes in pans on racks for about 10 minutes, then invert onto racks until completely cool.

While the cake was cooling, I made Sweetapolita’s complementary Zesty Lemon Frosting. I made a batch and a half of the recipe since I wasn’t using lemon curd as my filling.

Once the cake cooled completely, I placed a small dallop of icing on my cake stand and put the first layer on top.

This helps ensure that your cake won’t move while you are decorating it.

Then I filled up a ziploc bag with some icing and piped along the edges and in the interior of the cake. I like to pipe the icing because it ensures more consistent icing layers.

I used my cake spatula to smooth out the icing. Then repeated with the second layer and topped that with the third. With my layers in place, I started my crumb coating. This is a thin coating of icing that ensures that your final layer of icing is smooth and does not have any crumbs. When you are finished, it should look something like this.

Then I placed the cake in the refrigator for about 30 minutes. This allows the frosting and cake to harden so that when you ice the final layer none of the crumbs come through.

After my final layer of icing, I was left with a pretty boring cake.

I decided to spice things up by adding a baby clothesline. I stuck two lollipop sticks on either side of the cake.

Then attached some string between them. I then used some mini clothespins to attach some scrapbooking baby stickers. I was pretty proud of the end product. It’s just so darn cute.

In fact it was so cute that no one wanted to cut into it. So I had to make the first cut. And it was incredibly delicious. The icing packs the bitterness of the lemons which is tamed by the sweetest of the blueberries. It’s the perfect tangy sweet combination.

Tune in tomorrow to see the handcraft baby shower gift that accompanied this beautiful cake.

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