There’ll be peace when you are sung.
Feed your hungry soul with fun.
Don’t you fret no more.
Nearly all printed recipes for cakes and other baked goods call for too much sugar. I always halve the amount of sugar the first time I follow a recipe. The second time, I’d halve it again. For my moist carrot cake, I decided there was no need for sugar at all.
Writing about my baking frenzies reminds me of a closet chef who took pride in his chocolate chip cookies. He’d separate the batter into different sized portions and freeze the individually wrapped parcels to cut, shape, and bake when desired. They looked delicious but I found them overwhelmingly sweet.
“Could you cut down the sugar?” I asked gently. “No, it would not be the same,” he replied adamantly. Perhaps I should have prodded him with “Have you tried reducing the sugar to see if it makes any difference?” I sensed that he was not the type to receive criticism however constructive. His refusal to reduce the amount of sugar could explain his expanding girth.
Do cookies and cakes have to be so sweet? I’ve been told that sugar is bad for you. The older I get, the more I prefer healthy over sweet.
Tired of consuming baked goods that were too sweet for my growing distaste of the sweet, I decided to take the matter into my own hands.
I will make my own cakes and cookies. I will choose what goes into it. I will decide how much sugar I will put into it.
Necessity is the mother of invention. To satisfy my craving for a baked item to accompany afternoon tea (or mid morning coffee) and to lure ukulele enthusiasts to join me in rehearsals, I actively looked into adapting recipes to my liking.
During the pandemic lockdown, I spent an entire summer picking fresh fruit (raspberry, gooseberry, plum, blackberry, quince, apple, pear, sloe, and hawberry) in the English countryside. So as not to waste the fruit, I baked and froze fresh fruit cakes, crumble, and canned 99 jars of jam and syrup.
Back in Boston, I began changing the amount of sugar in banana cake, French yoghurt cake, and carrot cake.
In my quest for the perfect recipe, I chose a minimalist approach adopted from playing the ukulele. In other words, what can you do with four strings? What can you do with the minimum number of utensils (bowls)? Can I use ratios that are easy to remember instead of differing quantities? This way of thinking about recipes is akin to the way we use Roman numerals, instead of chord names, to make it easy to transpose songs into other keys.
Below is my most up-to-date recipe for a moist carrot cake. I eliminated all sugar in the cake batter except the powder sugar in the cream cheese frosting.
The order is important. Greek yoghurt, eggs, and cream cheese must be at room temperature. The butter (for the frosting) must be soft. Take out these items before doing anything else. Measure the dry ingredients first, then use the teaspoon and cup to measure the wet ingredients.
MOIST CARROT CAKE RECIPE
UTENSILS:
- a grater
- a small bowl (for dry ingredients)
- a large bowl (for wet ingredients)
- a cup
- a teaspoon
- a tablespoon or soup spoon (for frosting)
- a fork
- a wooden spoon
- a spatula
- a sharp knife
- a cutting board
- two 8-inch round cake tins (pans)
INGREDIENTS:
DRY (into small bowl)
- 3 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp crushed or ground cloves
- 2 cups all purpose flour (or 1 cup flour and 1 cup almond flour)
- 1 cup chopped pecans, walnuts, or other nuts
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup dried cranberries
WET (into big bowl)
- 3 cups firmly packed washed, peeled, grated or shredded carrots (the finer, the better)
- 3 oranges (zest of 2 for the cake and 1 for the frosting)
- 1/2 cup Greek yoghurt (room temperature)
- 1/2 cup Canola oil, sunflower oil, vegetable oil or any oil that does not have a taste or smell (avoid olive oil, sesame oil)
- 4 large eggs (beaten so it’s uniformly yellow orange color)
- Zest of two oranges (more if you like the taste)
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice (important for baking soda)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
STEPS:
Take out the yoghurt, butter, and cream cheese from the refrigerator to warm to room temperature.
Chop the nuts on a cutting board. Set aside.
Grate the carrots into the big bowl. Grate the peel of two oranges (zest) into the big bowl. Grate another orange for the frosting and set aside.
Start with the small bowl whose dry mixture will be thrown into the big bowl later. Use the teaspoon to measure baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Use the cup to measure the flour. Mix all these dry ingredients with a wooden spoon.
In the big bowl, add the eggs, Greek yoghurt, oil, and vanilla. Mix all the wet ingredients. Throw in the mixed dry ingredients from the small bowl.
Add ingredients one at a time into the big bowl, mixing after each: raisins, dried cranberries, chocolate chips, chopped nuts.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Oil the cake tins. Dust them with flour. Alternatively, line the cake tins with parchment paper (waxed paper).
The batter should be a heavy liquidy substance that moves, not a dry and stubborn lump of dough. If the latter, pour a bit of milk and oil to get to that texture and consistency. Divide the batter evenly into both cake tins.
Bake for 30 minutes or until a clean tooth pick inserted in different places comes out clean.
While the cake is baking, make the frosting.
FROSTING RECIPE
- 2 cups (or more) cream cheese at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (or more to taste) powder (confectioners) sugar
- 1/4 cup butter at room temperature
- 1 or 2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- Zest of 1 orange
Mix ingredients with a spoon in a big bowl then use an electric mixer at the highest speed to mix all ingredients. Taste for sweetness. Add more powder sugar if necessary.
Wait for the cakes to cool before taking them out of the cake tins. Flip one upside down on a plate. Wait for the cakes to cool further. Frost one side before putting the other cake on top. You now have the bottoms of both cakes facing each other and separated by frosting. You can refrigerate any extra frosting to use for another occasion.
The carrot cake tastes better the next day. I usually freeze 3/4 of the cake to keep them fresh. In fact, I cut the remaining cake into smaller portions, wrap them up individually or put them in plastic containers, and store in the freezer. I take them out of the freezer when needed.