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Recipe:  Carrot Cake
Video:  Link
Week:  0
Recipe:  1

My carrot cake!

So I decided for my first recipe, to get me started, I would stay in my comfort zone just a tiny bit.  And that would be baking.  Like I have said before, I have zero experience cooking but just an ounce more when it comes to baking.  I have made chocolate chip cookies and brownies and other simple recipes.  So I decided the best place to start would be something baked and delicious but I also was going to try something new.  The result, I decided on Titli Nihaan's recently uploaded video: carrot cake.  (It also was made an easy decision because I had all the ingredients on hand.)

I am not going to sit down and explain how to make this dish, go read the recipe and watch the video, I followed her to the tee!  I am just going to write what I experienced when I made it, post some pictures, and let you know my thoughts!  So ready, set, go watch the video and then continue reading so you can know what I am talking about.

My shredded carrots (notice how it is all over my counter!)

My first recommendation, after having completed this cake: shred the carrots at the very beginning!  This was absolutely the hardest part of the recipe to do and you cannot tell by the video.  Titli says it takes about three large carrots to produce 300g of shredded carrots and it took me about four.  Not to mention it felt like my arms were going to fall out when I was halfway through.  And, like she says, it gets EVERYWHERE!  I mean it.  And at first, I was trying to stay neat and tidy and pick up as I went along.  Do not do that either, just accept that you are going to make a mess and press on.  Eventually you will get to 300g of shredded carrots.

Now, one of the big decisions that you have to make when making this recipe that you have to make is choosing brown sugar or white sugar.  Like you all know, this is my first recipe and I have no idea what difference it would make to use one versus the other, so I decided to do what Titli did and went with brown.  I am not sure if there is a difference between the brown sugar in the US and brown sugar in Switzerland (probably is) but mine did not look as granulated as Titli's and certainly was clumpier.  My recommendation if yours sounds like mine, sift it!  It makes the entire process easier because you get the clumps out of the way right at the beginning.  Also, I do not have an electric mixer and it is hard to beat those suckers out by hand...

Eggs and brown sugar

Now the first "problem" I ran into was the color.  And I say "problem" because it turned out just fine and I suspect it was a difference between brown sugars on either side of the pond, or so to speak.  But when I mixed my brown sugar into my beaten, frothy eggs the color was much darker and more brown than the batter in Titli's video.  This remained the case until after it was baked, and then the colors seemed to be the same.  Is there a difference in taste, I have no idea!  Here is the color of my batter:

It took me about an hour and a half to make all the batter and get it into the oven (and like I said, most of this time was dedicated to shredding those dreaded carrots.  I won :D).  Titli says to set the oven to 180C but if you are in the US like me, I would set the oven to either 395F or 400F.  I personally preheated my oven to 400F and baked the cake for 45 minutes.  It came out completely cooked and maybe just a tiny bit crispy on the corners, but that is how I like my cakes.

The frosting was incredibly easy to make, but I have to say I was a bit... unmotivated to peel the orange zest after having spent so much time with the carrots.  It took considerably less time.  I used one large orange it gave plenty of flavor to the frosting.  I believe, though I am just guessing, it was probably around a tablespoon or two of orange zest.  You can see my orange (zestified!) and my orange zest below!

Orange zest!

After removing it from teh oven, I followed Titli's words exactly and let it cool in the pan for ten minutes, then flipped it out and let it cool completely before frosting.  The result was delicious and my entire family enjoyed it thoroughly!  I have to be honest that I was a bit nervous to make this because as Titli said in the beginning, a vegetable for desert?  That is right, I had never had carrot cake before.  This recipe was easy to follow and easy to do (and it buffs up your arms from all of that shredding).  Definitely try this one and it is going into my cookbook.

Special thanks to Titli Nihaan from Titli's Busy Kitchen for making this all possible!

Happy Baking!

Zielony Pie