Alison Roman Shares a Carrot Cake Recipe for People Who 'Don't Eat Carrot Cake'
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"It's intensely flavored and very moist. It almost has a sticky-toffee-pudding quality to it," says Roman, who features the recipe in her new dessert cookbook, Sweet Enough
If you don't like raisins or nuts, Alison Roman has the carrot cake recipe for you.
"Even if you don't eat carrot cake, I think you still might like this one," says Roman, who features the recipe in her new cookbook, Sweet Enough. "It's intensely flavored and very moist. It almost has a sticky-toffee-pudding quality to it."
As with many other recipes in her dessert-themed book, this "foolproof" cake does not require speciality equipment. "It's a pretty easy one-bowl cake that you can kind of throw together," she says.
Roman utilizes dates and turmeric to enhance her dessert. "Turmeric is a pretty mellow and makes the other flavors stand out," says the cook, who adds that the golden-colored spice also makes the cake "visually stunning."
Her decision to use dates was partially personal preference (she doesn't like raisins) but also because of the textural advantages of the ingredient: "Dates get really soft and almost jammy and sort of sticky, whereas a raisin kind of always stays weird and hard."
She encourages bakers to play with the recipe: "This cake is pretty flexible when it comes to any sort of additive flavors, and that's kind of the ethos of the whole book: to suggest a flavor or an additional ingredient but also empower the person to not have to include it at all if they don't want to."
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Alison Roman's Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Cooking spray
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. plus a pinch kosher salt, divided
½ tsp. ground turmeric, cardamom or ginger
3 large eggs, at room temperature
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
⅔ cup sour cream or Greek yogurt, at room temperature
1 lb. carrots, peeled and grated (about 3 cups)
8 oz. Medjool dates (10 to 14 whole dates), pitted and chopped
¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
¼ cup vegetable or olive oil
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup (2 oz.) powdered sugar
Chopped pistachios, for decorating
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line bottom of a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment paper; spray parchment and sides of pan with cooking spray.
2. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, 1 teaspoon of the salt and turmeric (or other desired spice) in a large bowl.
3. Whisk together eggs, brown sugar and sour cream in a separate large bowl until well-combined. Add carrots and dates; using a spatula or wooden spoon, stir and break up all the bits until evenly dispersed. Add egg mixture to flour mixture; stir just until combined. Add melted butter and oil; stir just until batter is combined.
4. Pour batter into pan, spreading into an even layer with a small offset spatula if necessary. Bake in oven until top is puffed and golden and sides pull away from pan, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack, 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan; let cool completely on a wire rack.
5. Place cream cheese, powdered sugar and remaining pinch salt in a medium bowl. Use a fork to combine everything until smooth, like softened butter. Spread frosting onto cooled cake. Sprinkle with pistachios; slice and serve.
Serves: 8 to 10
Active time: 30 minutes
Total time: 2 hours
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