layered carrot cake with buttercream flowers

There are a lot of times when I wonder if I’ve finally left logic and reason behind for good.   Individually dipping 200 thin mints, spending entire weekends “turning” my sourdough loaves, and frying homemade doughnuts on christmas have been recent contenders.  Though a few weekends ago as I air conditioned my car into a freezer on wheels and drove with my left hand while holding a tray of buttercream flowers in my right, I think I might have finally peaked.I am generally not what you would call a risk taker.  I triple (quadruple) check my alarm clock each night and I don’t think I’ve ever, or will ever, leave my car double parked somewhere.  However when it comes to trial running desserts, I love myself an opportunity to risk sugar tears and layer cake disappointments* around family holidays.This type of high risk sport is absolutely not an appreciated practice in my family.  I don’t think they have any concerns about the actual final result, but watching me spin into a full blown panic 48 hours before each event is not the mindful sort of vibe they’re hoping for from their young psychologist. Thankfully, it’s medium difficult to mess up things built on a foundation of butter and sugar, and cream cheese frosting has never disappointed anyone ever.  Luckily, this layer cake turned out exactly as I hoped, super moist with a sweet and spicy carrot cake flavor.  I had never made buttercream flowers before and after 15 youtube tutorials and an amazon prime purchase, I was in business.The piping ended up being easier than I imagined but took far more frosting than anticipated.  I piped the flowers in the week leading up to easter/passover weekend and then stored them in the freezer until the 45 minute drive to Hingham on the hottest day of the year thus far.The entire triple layer cake was polished off in a half hour, which I’ll take as a sign to turn a blind eye to my past mistakes and keep rolling the dice on new dessert experiments for the next family gathering.

*should I ever write my great memoir…this title is in the running

layered carrot cake with butter cream flowers

(recipe from what’s gaby cooking)

carrot cake

2 cups white sugar

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

4 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 cups finely grated peeled carrots (about 1 pound)

cream cheese frosting

2 8oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

1 1/2 lbs powdered sugar (see note)

4 teaspoons vanilla

pinch of salt

1/2 cup toasted chopped walnuts (optional)

directions

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line three 9 inch cake pans with parchment paper, buttering the sides of the pan.  I only had two pans so I just waited until the first two cakes were done, wiped out one pan and filled it with the remaining batter.

Grate your carrots either by hand or with a food processor.  In your stand mixer, beat the oil and sugar together until combined.  Mix in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each.  Sift in your remaining dry ingredients, followed by the grated carrots, and stir to combine.

Pour 1/3 of the batter into each pan and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.  The original recipe says 45 minutes but my cakes were done long before this so I’d start checking around 25 minutes but don’t be alarmed if yours take longer.  Cool the cakes in the pan for a few minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

When all three cake layers are cool, you can prepare your frosting.  I usually make the cake layers the day before and wrap them individually in plastic wrap.  On the day of as I am making the frosting, I chill each cake layer in the fridge to firm up a bit and make them easier to handle.

For the frosting, beat together the butter and cream cheese until smooth.  Slowly add in your powdered sugar until you achieve your desired consistency.  This honestly varies for me and I’m not quite sure why.  Finally, beat in the vanilla and salt.

Assemble your cake by piping or spreading a layer of cream cheese frosting on top of each layer.  Sprinkle the toasted walnuts on top of each frosting layer.

If anyone ever expresses even the slightest interest, I’ll discuss more about how to pipe the flowers but the short of it is I used a stiff buttercream and watched a lot of youtube.  If you do the same, make sure you keep the flowers as cold as possible so they don’t melt as you arrange them on the cake.

One handed driving with a tray full of edible flowers is optional and not recommended in this recipe.

Enjoy : )