Take a big, sweet bite.
Savor the moist, spicy cake with rich cream-cheese frosting. Close your eyes and relish a dessert that’s been around for centuries.
Carrot cake.
No one knows for sure when and where it originated. There are a lot of legends, stories, and happy tummies. Whether you eat it in a thatched peasant hut, elegant castle, or your favorite local restaurant, carrot cake is a culinary jewel.
Carrot cake has a lot of nicknames. There’s Mama’s Israeli Tzimmes Cake, George Washington’s Carrot Tea Cake, and Brazil’s Bulo de Cenoura. Some prefer War Cake or Passion Cake. Others even call it Divorce Cake. Whatever name you choose, it’s all basically the same: sugar, flour, eggs, oil, and carrots, with maybe a few add-ons like nuts, raisins, pineapple, and frosting.
Who came up with the recipe?
Head back to the Middle Ages. Food historians note that sugar (and other sweeteners) were so expensive and hard-to-get only the wealthy and royalty could afford the luxury. Lack of availability didn’t curb the sweet tooth. There had to be a cheaper, more accessible ingredient.
Carrots.
Huh?
According to C.C. Gourdeau in Tasting Table, “carrots were used as sweeteners in desserts as early as the tenth century by Arabic chefs.” They evolved into carrot pudding in Europe. Sometimes, Gourdeau noted, “variations of carrot pudding evolved to include baking with a crust (as pumpkin pie), steamed with a sauce, or molded in pans (as plum pudding) with icing.”
Early recipes of carrot pudding spread through trade routes in Europe. Chefs discovered that when carrots were used as sweeteners, they kept cake dense and moist.
Carrot desserts crossed the Atlantic in 1749. George Washington loved the “new” carrot cake, serving it at parties. In 1783, on British Evacuation Day, George Washington Carrot Tea Cakes were introduced to a new and growing America.
It wasn’t until much later that carrot cake’s popularity took off. During wartime, in the 1940s, England was forced to ration food. Sweet-tooths were desperate. Desi Jedeikin noted in eatme.substack, that the Ministry of Food created Doctor Carrot, “along with his friend, Potato Pete in order to promote healthy eating and the importance of growing your own food, a sacrifice to be made in order to support your country (see below).”
It worked. Using carrots as a sweetener returned to the menu.
The carrot cake we know today was improved by a familiar company from the late 1800s. Philadelphia Cream Cheese promoted a new frosting that was both tasty and practical. They claimed it replaced buttercream frosting which tended to melt.
Who knows?
By the 1960s, Jedeikin wrote, “carrot cake and cream cheese frosting were officially married and it was truly a match made in heaven.”
A marriage still going strong.
Today you can find carrot cake with or without frosting. Some people consider it a “healthy dessert” until, of course, you add the yummy cream cheese frosting.
New Orleans Elysian Events reported that carrot cake is in their top ten choices for wedding cakes. Amazon offers hundreds of books including Robin Newman and Deborah Zemke’s, The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake and Joanne Fluke’s Carrot Cake Murder. You can get a t-shirt that reads Pretend I’m a Carrot Cake, plushies, carrot cake costumes, mixes, cookies, and decorations.
Try carrot cake souffle (see below), carrot cake cookies, carrot cake cupcakes, carrot cake ice cream . . . anything goes.
If all else fails, celebrate National Carrot Cake Day in February or check out the world’s largest carrot cake, certified by Guinness World Records. Made by chefs from Saint Germain Bakery, Guilford, Canada, it weighed 4,574 pounds, used 1,014 pounds of shredded carrots, 4,300 eggs, 1,102 pounds of sugar, and 1,378 pounds of flour. The recipe also included raisins, coconut, and pineapple.
That would definitely satisfy a giant sweet tooth.
Enjoy!
