Tag Archives: frog commissary

Carrot Cake (The Best EVER)

30 Jul

Carrot Cake from heaven I cant tell you how much I love this cake. It looks like a huge effort but if you break it down into its component parts, and you start at least two days in advance, it’s a doddle.

The recipe for this cake comes from the Frog Commissary Cookbook – probably my favourite cookbook of all times. My first version was so battered, I could barely read the recipes anymore, but it didn’t matter – I had cooked the food so often, I kind of knew what needed to go in and where. Steven Poses totally innovated the Philadelphia food scene, and this cookbook really highlights easy, casual, scrumptious American cooking.

This carrot cake is something that once you make, every single person who has tasted it will ask you when you are making it again. You will become known for this cake, and you will be begged for the recipe. It will become your signature, and people will talk of you and the carrot cake together, in the same hushed awed tones. Its really that good!

As a breakfast after cooking a feast, it is a sublime cooks treat. It’s a pain to make in one go because there are so many steps, but easy enough if you cook the caramel stuffing and assemble the cream cheese frosting a day or two before hand. The cake can be baked the night before, and everything put together on the day. Seriously, this recipe will become something which will bring you fame, and depending on who you serve it to, may be even love! Heh.

We have the opportunity here to look at how our shopping choices affect the taste of our food. Its carrot cake. PLEASE buy organic carrots for this. It will make a world of difference. Get the slightly more expensive French butter if you can for the frosting – but you can use the cheaper butter for the caramel stuffing. If you are watching your budget, these things are important. Because the frosting is butter, cream cheese and vanilla, whipped together and uncooked, the actual flavour of the butter is very important. Because you cook the butter into the sugar for the caramel stuffing, the flavour gets muted and changes, and thus does not have so much responsibility.

I have made changes to the original recipe.  I hate nuts in dessert. I don’t know why, I just do. I love nuts but don’t mix them with chocolate or cake or brownies for me. They interfere with the original taste, and don’t do anything to add to it.

In this carrot cake, especially, I don’t like anything to interfere with its smooth unctuousness. There is something so luscious about how this cake feels in the mouth that nuts just interfere with the sensual experience for me.

I have taken out the pecans in the cake and the caramel stuffing – add in if you like nuts. Ugh.

I have also added mixed-spice as I like the low musky note it adds, and I have upped the cinnamon as I don’t think you can ever have enough cinnamon!

Serves 16 – 20

This cake is most easily made if you start it at least one day ahead, preferably two, since the caramel filling, for one thing, is best left to chill overnight, and the cake needs at least a day or so to firm up. The different components can be made even up to several days in advance and stored separately until you are ready to assemble the cake (as early as the night before you will serve it).

Caramel Stuffing

(This is the “stuffing” of the carrot cake – between the two layers of cake).

  • 1 1/2 cups sugar (I use a mix of white sugar, vanilla sugar and organic brown sugar – 1/2 a cup each)
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream (I use the pouring cream you can buy in the long life milk cartons)
  • 6 ounces (3/4 cup) butter (I use salted – but you can use unsalted)
  • 2-3 teaspoons vanilla extract (or more – depending on your taste)
  • 1 tsp to 1 tbsp Maldon or Fleur de sel to sprinkle over the stuffing
  • OPTIONAL: 1 1/4 cups chopped pecans (I dont use nuts in this cake because I dont like cake with nuts, but feel free to add them if you like. You can use walnuts, or even dried coconut if you like).

In a very heavy saucepan, blend well the sugar(s), flour and salt.

Gradually stir in the cream. Make sure they are blended – the dry ingredients will slowly absorb the cream. Leave this for a few minutes to let the sugar really melt into the cream.

Chop up the butter and add to the saucepan.

Put the saucepan on low heat and stir as the butter melts. You will see the butter getting absorbed into the creamy mixture as it melts.

Once the butter is absorbed, stir in 1 teaspoon of the vanilla.

Simmer the mixture for 20 – 30 minutes (up to an hour depending on the heat), stirring occasionally. It will start to pop and sizzle. Make sure you stir so the bottom and sides of the pan get scraped down.

Once the caramel is golden brown to nut brown in colour (again, depending on your taste), and the mixture is thick, take off the heat and cool to lukewarm.

Add the remaining vanilla (I usually add at least another teaspoon because of how weak the vanilla is in Malaysia), and the nuts or coconut if you are using them (don’t!).

Let cool completely and refrigerate, preferably overnight. If its too thick to spread when you are ready to assemble the components, let it warm a little to spreading consistency. Just before spreading, sprinkle the Maldon or Fleur de sel over the caramel.

Any extra is SUPERB with vanilla ice cream as a topping.

Carrot Cake

  • 1 1/4 cups corn or other clear light vegetable oil
  • 2 cups sugar (I use a mixture of white and organic brown)
  • 2 cups flour
  • 3 -4  teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons mixed spice
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 eggs
  • 4 cups grated carrots (about 1/2 kilo bag) – if you dont have enough carrots, you can add a few apples
  • 1 cup raisins
  • OPTIONAL 1 cup chopped pecans (see above re nuts in cake).

Preheat the oven to 175 C

Line the base of two 10 inch cake pans with baking paper, and grease well with butter

In a large bowl whisk together the corn oil and the sugars until the oil is absorbed into the sugar. Leave to let the mixture meld for a while.

Meanwhile, mix the flour, cinnamon, mixed spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a separate bowl.  Sift half of the dry ingredients over the sugar-oil mixture and blend.

Alternately sift in the rest of the dry ingredients while adding the eggs (lightly beaten), one by one.

Combine all well, and leave to sit for a bit while you grate the carrots.

Add the carrots, the raisins and (if you are using them) the pecans.

Pour mixture into prepared pans and bake for about 25 – 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Cool upright in the pan on a cooling rack. Unmold the cake before you refrigerate it if you are not using the cake that day. Wrap it well in plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel.

I think this is best made at least 1 – 2 days in advance. Too fresh a cake makes it very difficult to cut – I used a very fresh cake at my last party, and after the first few slices, the cake was unfolding herself like a blowsy lady who had too much to drink at a party!

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 1/2 stick to 1 stick of butter (salted) – I usually use less butter than cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1-8 ounce package of cream cheese at room temperature
  • 200 – 500 g of powdered sugar (I usually use less, and add more to taste)
  • 1 – 3 teaspoons of vanilla

Using electric beaters, cream the butter well.

Add the cream cheese and beat until well blended.

Sift in the sugar and the vanilla.

Depending on the consistency of the frosting, leave in fridge for a few minutes (if too soft) or add a little sour cream or milk (if too stiff).

Assembly

Centre the cake on your serving plate.

Depending on your taste, use a serrated knife to cut the cake into 2 – 3 layers.

Spread the caramel filling between the layers of cake. You may have to use a spoon and just drop the thick caramel onto the layers.

Spread the frosting over the top and sides.

Refrigerate to let the cake hold itself together.

Serve cake at room temperature.

Variations

  • The assembled cake freezes very well
  • You can substitute apples or zucchini for the carrots
  • Batter can also be baked as cupcakes, loaves, sheet cakes

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Favourite Things

6 Jul

These are some of my favourite things…

Most cooks I know have obsessions –  a particular brand of balsamico or olive oil, certain types of knives, particular tools that they adore, cookbooks. I must admit, I have them all. Cooking enables me to enjoy spoiling myself with things that are “useful” … and buy ingredients which I can share with others and make into delicious dishes.

I love going to grocery stores in new countries I visit – and hardware stores, in the cooking section – and see what gadgets or tools or special ingredients that are local to that place. They are the best things to bring home, because they ensure I have a sensual reminder of the place and space I have visited. Small pleasures, but they are the most important.

I have some things which have never left me, and which go along with me in my travels. I have lugged cookbooks on two week trips to friends, and have packed my favourite knife in my carry on luggage.

I thought that every now and then I would share a few of my favourite things with you because these special items are part of what defines my cooking philosophy.

My favourite cookbook of all time. The Frog Commissary Cookbook by Steven Poses, Anne Clark and Becky Roller, has inspired me for over 20 years. I first got it when I was in university, and its simple, clear writing style, and easy to follow recipes inspired me to cook with passion and creativity. Steven Poses had one of the first modern restaurants in Philadelphia, the Frog Commissary, and is a contemporary of Alice Waters from Chez Panisse on the West Coast. His food is not quite as local/natural as hers is, but it is delicious, divine, delectable.

Though I never got to go to the Frog Commissary, I have had this book since university days. Steven Poses now runs Frog Commissary Catering in Philadelphia, and has cooked for more than 15 million guests. When I first read this cookbook, I fell in love with its unique clever take on food.  Their ideas were so varied, their influences so wide ranging, and their ability to combine different ingredients into a magical special meal made me an instant fan. But it was the absolute specificity of the recipes, and the fact that you could try one and know it would come out perfectly, that had me for life.

I think I have gone through about six or seven copies of this book. I use each copy until it falls apart. For a while there, it was out of print, and I used to buy them wherever I found them (on ebay, 2nd hand bookstores) and hoard them like precious gold. My favourite recipes are either adapted from or inspired by the recipes in this book, and I never ever tire of reading their ideas and inspiration. The food here is very international, vegetarian friendly, and inspired.

I collect cookbooks and always have a couple at my bedside table to page through at night. However, if I had to pick just one cookbook to dream from, be inspired from, and cook from – this would be it.

I collect chef’s knives. I love the different types of knives and different brands – I read about the different approaches to shaping and creating a knife with respect to the art form that this truly is. When I finally had the money and the desire to start collecting my own knives, there was only one knife I wanted – a Sabatier. These knives are handmade in Thiers, France from a single piece of high carbon stainless steel. The blade and handle are a single piece of steel, so there is no risk of a blade divorcing a handle mid chop! The knives are hand forged, and have an unbelievable balance in the hand, and a wonderful almost instinctive slice. Their sharpness stays for ages, and they feel both delicate and strong in the hand. I love these knives, and this one, my 4 star elephant Sabatier is my absolute favourite. Its a bit larger than a paring knife, but not as huge as a big chef’s knife. Its large enough to tackle big jobs, sharp and sturdy enough to mince an onion in a few seconds, and comfortable enough in my hand so that I never ever feel tired when using it.

I have a lot of knives in my kitchen, but this is the only one I will not allow anyone else to use. Its “my” knife, and when I hold it in my hand, I feel confident in what I am doing – which of course is half the battle won!

I have two of these 4 star knives, and I use them every single day. I love them so much, there are no words. I found them on ebay, where you can get amazing deals for old Sabatier knives. Do your research first, though. You must know what you are getting, and where its from. There are a lot of fakes out there!

And finally, my favourite graters. I have tried all sorts – box graters, those crappy ones they sell at Ikea, grater attachments for food processors, etc etc etc. But nothing, nothing, nothing compares to Microplane. These graters were developed as plane tools for the woodworking industry. It was a woman, cooking in her own home, who nicked her husband’s new woodworking tool, who gave these tools their place in inspired herstory. Once you have tried a Microplane grater, you will not use anything else again, ever. Everything, from carrots to cheese to peel, grates smoothly, evenly, and easily. There is almost no effort needed to get stunning results. These three graters are the only thing I ever use for cheese, for grating vegetables, for mincing garlic and ginger, and for getting the peel off lemons and limes. I use them all the time, and though you do have to be careful with fingers (they are sooooooooooooo sharp!) these are indispensable.

So these are three tools which make me happy, and help me to be a better cook. Hope they give you ideas about what you are using in your own kitchen. If you have special tools, I would love to hear from you!

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