I decided this week to keep it simple. Since I wasn't making this cake to take anywhere, I halved the recipe and made it in a 9x9 Pyrex pan.
This is only the second carrot cake I have ever made, and I'm not sure why because with the aid of a food processor, they are simple to mix together, pour into a pan and bake, and who doesn't like carrot cake?
This recipe and the Baking Illustrated version I made previously were very similar. Rose's recipe however calls for only cinnamon while the other uses cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
I didn't bother with pulling my mixer out, I mixed everything by hand. The dry ingredients were blended, sifted, and set aside, and the wet ingredients were mixed with a spoon.
The dry ingredients and then carrots were mixed into the batter and then poured into a greased Pyrex dish.
When I went to make the Creamy Dreamy White Chocolate Frosting, I realized that I some how didn't make it home with the two bars of white chocolate I bought at the grocery store that day. However, I had a partial bar left over from the Lemon Luxury Cake. Since I halved the recipe, this partial bar was enough to get by with. I did add a little powdered sugar at the end to sweeten it up a bit since I was short on the white chocolate.
I was surprised by the strong white chocolate flavor. When I tasted the frosting fresh from the food processor, I only detected the white chocolate flavor which overpowered the cream cheese. However, once the frosting sat, the white chocolate seemed to mellow and the resulting flavor paired well with the cake.
The end result was a moist, homey cake with a lovely balance of spice and sweetness.
