Scribbles & Munch

      Farmer's markets are a great place to find non-traditional produce.  Heirloom tomatoes with their bizarre shapes and colors are a great example of a farm stand phenomenon that's now snuck it's way into all the high-end restaurants and grocery stores.  Another one?  Purple carrots.

Enjoyed by mauve rabbits everywhere.

      When I was a kid, carrots were orange.  Period.  Now, they can be white, pale yellow, peachy-orange, construction-cone orange, or blood orange-orange.  They can even be red, or an undeniable shade of grape purple!  These last ones are my favorites.  Some of them are really orange with purple skins.  Others are purple all through the outer ring, and only orange at their core.  The cross-sections are gorgeous in a salad.  And - being me - I started to wonder how that would translate to a dessert.
      What about purple carrot cake?  I asked myself.  Would it be purple?
      I suppose I could have just looked this up online, but where's the fun in that?  I have my grandmother's recipe for carrot cake, and I know it tastes delicious.  Purple carrots have slightly less sugar than orange carrots, but I don't mind a minor decrease in sweetness.  I've had cake made with beets before, and the color, texture, and taste were all great!  So, I got myself a bunch of purple carrots, waited for a relatively cool day to rev up my oven, and got baking.
      The result was...a partial success.  Flavor and texture were flawless: everything one could want in a carrot cake.  But the color turned out beige, with indigo flecks in it.  Definitely not purple.  I suppose in retrospect I could have tried puréeing the carrot so that more of the juices would get into the batter, but I suspect this still would have baked into a more grey-ish hue.  So alas, a purple cake made from purple carrots is, as yet, unknown to my table.  But that doesn't mean the recipe doesn't darn well taste great, so here it is, and I hope you enjoy!

Z.D.'s Carrot-of-any-Color Cake

Ingredients:
1 C vanilla sugar
3/4 C canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 & 1/2 Cups sifted AP flour
1 & 1/2  tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 & 1/2 Cups finely shredded carrots (about five large carrots)
1/2 Cup chopped pecans
8 oz. cream cheese, softened (for frosting)
1/2 C beer caramel sauce (for frosting)

Directions:
 - Preheat the oven to 335º F.  Grease and flour a 9 x 11" cake pan, at least 2 inches deep.
 - In the large bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the sugar, oil, and vanilla on med-high speed.  Once the mixture is well combined, beat in the eggs, one at a time, allowing at least one full minute of mixing time after each egg.
 - Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Turn down the mixer speed to low, and alternate stirring in portions of the shredded carrots and the dry mixture.  Beat until just combined.

Much prettier than the finished product, truth be told.

 - With a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, stir in the nuts until well distributed.  Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake 30 - 35 min, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Yeah, purple carrot purée might have worked better.  Next time?

 - Place cake on a rack to cool.  Meanwhile, beat together the softened cream cheese and the beer caramel sauce until it creates a smooth frosting.  Store in fridge until cake is fully cooled, then spread evenly over the top.

      Obviously this makes a lovely dessert.  Or, if you're the kind of person who likes to eat dessert for breakfast, pair this with a meaty scramble and a bowl of fresh summer berries.  And congratulate yourself on finding such a nice way to get your veggies in the morning!