feast.

Kris’s carrot cake

My friend Kris is very bossy — persuasively, deceptively bossy. He can bully you into doing anything (usually, drinking), and I am just too nice to refuse. His birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and he pestered me for about 10 months about what I should make him. (Key word: should.) He settled on two cakes. I made one, but one of his choice: carrot cake. Now, carrot cake can be polarizing. People seem to have opinions about it — how finely grated are the carrots? Raisins/no raisins? If yes, what kind of raisins? Nuts/no nuts? Walnuts? Pecans? Pineapple? Coconut? You get the drift. One thing people can agree upon, however, is gobs of cream cheese frosting. Slabs, even!

This carrot cake comes from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours. The book was recently selected the number one most essential baking book by the James Beard Foundation, and I could not agree more. I have made numerous recipes from this book, and Ms. Greenspan has never lead me astray. The recipes are usually quite straightforward, they always work out, and they are always delicious — no, better. They are winners. They are crowd pleasers. This crowd, my work crowd, was certainly pleased, but as I have said before, they’re not a tough crowd. Basically anything you throw at them will be devoured before 10 a.m. But don’t let that fool you. This is a delicious and simple carrot cake, studded with plump, juicy raisins and crunchy pecans. Coarsely grated carrots and shredded coconut give this a hearty texture, but the cake remains thoroughly moist, and the sweet, creamy, coconutty frosting provides a perfect foil to the chunky, spongey cake layers.

I brought this into work and toted it straight to Kris’ desk. He asked if he should share it, and I told him it was his birthday and therefore up to him. He did, sending an all-staff e-mail around. However, he also kept the cake on his desk, as if guarding it, and thus everyone was too scared/ashamed to take a piece until after lunch. (Usually, if hidden in a kitchenette, people are less bashful about indulging in cake for breakfast.) After about 12:30, however, the cake disappeared in about an hour. I made my visit about a quarter after one. The cake was half gone, and I was pleasantly surprised when our President (Kris is her senior research associate) stopped by his desk precisely as I was cutting myself a slice. She noted how nice it was that I had made it (she brought a beautiful, delicate, chocolate mousse cake) and remarked how tasty it looked. I offered to cut her a slice, and she hesitated for a just a moment before answering, yes — but just a “small piece.” I bring in treats often, and it’s rare that our President is in the office (she’s usually on the road or in our Washington, D.C., office), so I was thrilled she took (and enjoyed) a piece of Kris’s cake. So, even if my coworkers have completely undiscerning palates, hers supersedes them all. Win!

Kris’s not so big carrot cake with coconut cream cheese frosting
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Dorie’s version is baked in three 9-inch by 2-inch round cake pans and is aptly titled Bill’s Big Carrot Cake. That sounded like an unseemly large cake to me, so I halved the recipe and baked it in two 8-inch round tins. I did, however, make a full batch of frosting and slathered it on my smaller cake with a heavy hand. I was left only a little excess frosting, and the resulting cake was perfect to feed us all.
For the cake:

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups grated carrots
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup sweetened, shredded coconut
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup unflavored vegetable oil (such as safflower or grapeseed)
• 2 large eggs

For the frosting:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 stick (8 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 pound confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or ½ teaspoon pure lemon extract
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 325F and butter and flour two 8-inch cake pans.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In a medium bowl, mix together carrots, nuts, coconut, and raisins. Set both bowls aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and oil until smooth and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Beat until smooth. Add flour mixture and stir just until flour disappears. Add carrot mixture and stir again to mix. Divide batter between the two pans and bake 40-50 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean and cake begins to pull away from the pans. Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes in pans before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the frosting: beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add sugar gradually and continue to beat until smooth. Add lemon juice and stir to mix. Add coconut and stir again to mix.

To assemble, place one cake layer on a serving platter or cardboard cake round. Generously cover with frosting, smoothing with a knife or offset spatula, and taking care to leave a 1/2-inch border. Place second cake layer on top of frosting and frost top and sides with remainder of frosting (or as much as is needed). Refrigerate at least 30 minutes to allow frosting to set before serving.

Yields: 8 to 10 servings, if not more.