Biting into a soft, pillowy carrot cake offers the promise of delicate spice, creamy frosting, and just a hint of healthy with bits of carrot baked into soft cake. But if you’re making it at home, the idea of shredding all that carrot might be a bit daunting. It’s easy to understand why many cooks instinctively reach for the food processor to help move things along. Unfortunately, that may just be the biggest mistake you’re making with your cake, resulting in a treat that isn’t nearly as delicate as it could be.
There are, admittedly, some pretty impressive food processors out there, but they have a major drawback when it comes to shredding your carrot cake ingredients. They’ll chop up your carrots like nobody’s business, but the results are unlikely to be consistent. Rather than perfectly uniform shredded bits that will disperse evenly throughout the batter and cook evenly, you’re more likely to get various consistencies, including some pulpy carrot mush, that won’t cook at the same rate. The result will be different bites with different textures.
A food processor will definitely save you time, but since the carrots are, in fact, the most important part of the cake (it is in the name, after all), it is well worth your time to bust out the hand grater and give the hero of your dessert the attention it deserves. Hand grating takes time and effort, but graters are actually a cost-effective, space saving kitchen tool that works especially well with hard foods, like carrots. This method gives you total control of the size of your carrot shreds since you can select a grater with the size hole you want, unlike a food processor, which simply uses blades to slice through the carrots at high speed.
Carrot cake lets you explore your creative side
Homemade carrot cake simply doesn’t compare to store bought, even when you buy the best the market has to offer. Taking the time to uniformly shred the carrots so you achieve texture perfection is just the icing on the cake, pun definitely intended. Once you’ve achieved texture perfection with your carrots, it’s time to explore other ways to elevate your carrot cake so it takes center stage. Adding shredded zucchini is a great way to do that, as long as you follow the same strict rule of using a hand grater to create uniform pieces that will cook evenly along with your carrot. And for a helpful tip — be sure to pat it dry to remove excess moisture so your cake comes out light and fluffy and packed with flavor rather than a soggy mess.
Every cook has their special touches, like celebrity chef Ina Garten, who mixes in crystalized ginger evenly throughout her carrot cake frosting. The ginger packs a zesty punch that pairs perfectly with the cream cheese in the frosting and catches you off guard in the most pleasant way, bringing you back for seconds (or thirds, no judgment here). For extra crunch and a deep nutty flavor that perfectly complements the carrots and creamy frosting, consider mixing chopped nuts, like caramelized walnuts, into the batter along with your carrots before you begin your bake. The complementary flavors of ingredients like this (and others like shredded coconut) mixed into the batter or into the cream cheese frosting are always fun to play with because they bring an unexpected surprise in each bite, elevating your carrot cake to something uniquely you.
