Cardamom-Pistacio Carrot Cake

Yesterday I made the Cardamom-Pistacio Carrot Cake recipe from Bon Appétit.  You can find the recipe here.  If you’ve never baked a cake from scratch before, I wouldn’t start with this one.  But, if you have a bit of experience and a free afternoon, you should be fine.  This was how it went for me.

First, I measure and weigh all my ingredients.  I find that weighing gives me a much more accurate amount to use.  In this case, it was particularly important for two of the ingredients.  First, the recipe calls for 3 medium carrots.  In the body of the recipe it states 2 1/2 cups or 250 grams of shredded carrots.  Medium in a carrot is subjective.  I bought a bunch of carrots at the store that I thought were medium in size.  I needed the whole bunch, which was five carrots, to equal 250 grams.  Obviously, my medium is someone else’s small.  Secondly, I didn’t have raw pistachios on hand and in this era of isolation I was not about to drive around to numerous markets looking for some.  Instead, I substituted walnuts because I love walnuts in carrot cake and I had a lot of them on hand.  Walnuts are a different shape and density than pistachios so I definitely needed to weigh them.  It took more than the one cup called for in the recipe.  I measure and weigh all my ingredients before I get started. I have, in the past, gotten half way through a recipe and realized I don’t have something.  Or gotten to the end and realized I forgot to put in one of the ingredients.  Measuring before starting eliminates those errors and it feels like the baking goes faster.  But maybe that’s just me.

I put egg shells and coffee grounds in the compost bin.  Carrot peelings and other scraps go to the chickens.

The first step was to melt the butter, add the nuts, and let the butter and nuts brown.  Then I drained the nuts, reserving the brown butter.

Next, I beat together the eggs, sugars, and seasonings with a hand held electric mixer on high for about three minutes.  The batter got very thick and increased in volume.  It was beautiful.  It reminded me of the way eggs react when you whip them for crème brûlée or custard.

The next step was a bit tricky.  If you have ever made mayonnaise or an aïoli sauce, you will recognize the technique.  I set the glass measuring cup that held the drained brown butter to the left of my bowl and held the mixer in my right.  I decreased the mixer speed to medium and drizzled in about a teaspoon of butter while the mixer was running.  When I couldn’t see the butter anymore, I added a wee bit more.  I continued doing this, with the mixer running constantly, until all the butter was incorporated.  The batter was now thick and silky; really beautiful.  I felt like singing.

Last, I used a rubber spatula to carefully fold in the flour and then the carrots and nuts.  I didn’t want to lose any of the volume or any of the silkiness I had worked so carefully to create.  I poured the batter into my prepared pan, gave it a spin, and put it in the oven.  The cake rose, and browned and when I took it out of the oven I wanted to sing again.

After the cake had cooled, I prepared the glaze.  The recipe calls for carrot juice but there hadn’t been any of that at the store when I shopped a few days ago.  Instead, I bought a bottle of carrot orange Naked Juice.  It worked fine.  The glaze was easy — put the juice, cream, sugar, and salt in a pot and turn the heat to high.  And don’t touch it; just watch.  The tricky part was getting it to the right thickness without letting it brown.  At the end, I second guessed myself and probably took it off a minute too early but it was still thick enough to work; just not as thick as the glaze in the recipe photo.

The finished product was delicious.  The glaze is super sweet so a little bit goes a long way.  I don’t like super sweet things so that was my opinion anyway.  Brett, who has a super sweet tooth, thought it was perfect.  I would make it again.