Mango Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake: Carrots? Yes. Cream Cheese Icing? Yes. Mangoes? Hmm...

A mango carrot cake, you say?

Yes, that is indeed what we have! I thought that it was an interesting spin off of the traditional carrot cake and I wanted to give it a try. (Adapted from a Better Homes and Gardens (BHG) issue from earlier this year and it seems that they have a video?)

When I bake, I do my best to work from scratch, so even though this recipe called for some brand named mango juice, I went ahead and made some instead. Mangoes are rather foreign to me, so I found this to be an interesting exercise. In addition, QC prefers to purchase produce at the local farmer's market, so I went ahead and sent her on a mission to retrieve some mangoes and carrots. Should baking from scratch, reducing sugar/fat, and buying local produce feel this righteous...? Don't worry. The topics of capitalism, organic and raw food diets don't have their place on this blog. 




Although I did in fact bake this cake, it did not turn out quite as I expected. Particularly, I suspect that the mango juice should have been thinned a tad with water and sugar (the mango 'glaze' looks rather horrific, but I'm sure it tastes great). Also, the cake didn't rise quite like the one in the BHG magazine did. It's possible that I overworked the batter as I mixed in the flour mixture.


Edit (READ): After getting some feedback and doing a little bit of investigation, it seems that the cake is too dense. This may be due to a variety of factors including overworking the batter, using juice that is too dense or not having baking soda. 1) Overworking the batter: One way to help a cake remain light is to separate the yolks from the whites, beat in the yolks as normal and fold in the beaten egg whites at the very last step. 2) Dense juice: One way to make the juice lighter would be to dilute it out with more water. I was aware the the juice from the mangoes was rather thick and not brand-like, so this may have made a difference. 3) Use baking soda: baking powder is essentially baking soda with a little bit of acid to help it rise. Since the juice is acidic by nature, baking soda could have been used instead to balance the acid content.

Carrot Cake Base

2 cups flour
1 TBS baking powder (caught me off guard)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups mango juice (3 mangos)
3 cups shredded carrot (~5 carrots)

Cream Cheese Icing

8oz cream cheese
1/8 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar

Carrot Ribbons

Whole carrots (>1 for trial and error)
Bowl of ice water

Preparing the Cake Base

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in a medium bowl.
2. Beat the softened butter until creamy in a large bowl and add sugar. Mix well thoroughly before beating in one egg at a time.
3. Stir in flour mixture and 3/4c mango juice in parts. Don't over mix. Add carrots.

   

   Two of the Three Cups of Shredded Carrots...

4. Place batter into (2) greased and floured 8x1.5 inch pans.
5. Place in oven for 25-30 minutes. Be sure that you can pull out a clean toothpick.
6. Cool pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cake from pans and continue to cool.

   

   Why you so small?? (Overworking the batter, I think)

Preparing the Carrot Ribbons

1. Using a vegetable peeler or fine knife work, generate thin slices of carrot.
2. Place thin slices in a bowl of ice water for 30 minutes. Why? I don't know.
3. Remove carrot slices from water and pat dry prior to use.

   

   Carrot Slices in Ice Water

Preparing the Icing

1. Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. (I added a little bit of milk as well)
2. Beat in vanilla extract then add powdered sugar to cream in parts.
3. When cake base is cool, generously ice the top of one layer. Place the other layer on top of the iced.
4. Ice the top of the stacked layers and cover the sides.

Preparing the Mango Glaze

1. With the remaining mango juice (1/2c), heat in a small sauce pan until volume halves. (~4mins)
2. Pour glaze on iced cake and top with carrot ribbons.

Well, I know I won't be going into plastic surgery!