This week’s Cook the Book Fridays recipe from David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen was one I’ve tasted, but not made, before. David’s carrot cake was made for one of my Cookbook Book Club meals back in 2016, by Jan, and I’m glad I’d had her experience making this to guide me.
This is a HUGE cake – the recipe says it serves 12-16 but when Jan made it, she halved the ingredients and it already served that many… I also halved the ingredients and it was more than enough for 12 people. I made it in two 8-inch square baking tins as I quite like a square carrot cake, and it worked perfectly.
I didn’t add walnuts to the cake as I was already planning on bringing it into the staff room to brighten Monday morning and I have to say I didn’t miss them. Just as I don’t much care for pineapple or raisins in a carrot cake, I’m neither here nor there with walnuts.
The frosting recipe calls for cream cheese and mascarpone but I just used my regular cream cheese filling (cream cheese, butter and icing sugar) and everyone commented on the icing being “just right” (not too sweet and not too much of it). This is an EXCELLENT carrot cake, comes together really quickly and tastes great. I’ll be making it again, for sure (only, most definitely, half the recipe!).
Get the recipe for David Lebovitz’s cheesecake on p 277 of My Paris Kitchen.
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I’m glad I saw your comment earlier about the size, because even half was way too much. I do like your idea of the square pan for this cake, I think it works even better than a layer. I loved the recipe and will try that the next time.
Nice looking cake, Mardi. You can bake one for us when you’re down under soon.
The interior of the cake looks fantastic. I was debating whether I’d bake the cake in a sheet pan. Then I decided to go big.
I’ve actually never eaten a square cake (other than one baked in a 13×9 pan — not sure what that pan is called in metric) but I love the idea of a square layer cake. Filing that idea away for another time.
It seems like there are quite a few carrot cake purists among us (no raisins, pineapple, or my case, coconut). That’s my favorite kind of carrot cake — just carrots and maybe nuts.
I have made this cake at least 10 times. It’s the only carrot cake that’s truly special. I’ve tried countless others before this one. They are cloyingly sweet full of stuff that I feel doesn’t belong ( eg. coconut, pineapple!) this has a slight spice complexity and it tastes like carrots with a perfectly balanced sweetness. The mascarpone icing tells you everything you need to know, sophisticated taste and texture. It’s going to wow your guests. Believe me. Thank you to David!! A masterpiece!!
It really is a good one!