CELEBRATE NATIONAL CARROT CAKE DAY!

"There was an Old Person of Rheims,

Who was troubled with horrible dreams;
So, to keep him awake,
they fed him with cake,
Which amused that Old Person of Rheims."

~ Edward Lear

English artist, writer; known for his 'literary nonsense' & limericks (1812-1888)

WANING GIBBOUS MOON

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CARROT CAKE

~ Over 30 year old favorite (because of all the carrots) retro carrot cake recipe, clipped and adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

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2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

4 organic eggs

1 cup oil

4 cups grated raw carrots (about 8 medium)

1/2 - 1 cup chopped pecans

Cream Cheese Frosting:

4 Tbsp. soft unsalted butter

2 3 oz. packages Philadelphia cream cheese

4 1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. maple syrup

• Preheat oven to 350º.
• Combine flour, sugar, soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
• In large bowl, beat eggs till frothy; slowly beat in oil.
• Gradually add flour mixture. Beat smooth. Mix in carrots and nuts. Pour into 3 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes or until done. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan.
• Frosting: Blend soft butter and cream cheese. Gradually add powdered sugar. Beat smooth. Stir in vanilla and maple syrup.
• Frost between layers; Continue and frost top & sides of cake.

MORNING SUNRISE

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"Vegetables are a must on a diet.

I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.”

~ Jim Davis

('Garfield')

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HISTORY of CARROT CAKE

(The Food Timeline)

Carrot cake

According to the food historians, our modern carrot cake most likely descended from Medieval carrot puddings enjoyed by people in this part of Europe. Carrots are an old world food. imported to the Americas by European settlers. In the 20th century carrot cake was re-introduced as a "healthy alternative" to traditional desserts. The first time was due to necessity; the second time was spurred by the popular [though oftimes misguided] wave of health foods. Is today's carrot cake healthy? It can be. It all depends upon the ingredients.

History notes here:

"In the Middle Ages in Europe, when sweeteners were scarce and expensive, carrots were used in sweet cakes and desserts. In Britain...carrot puddings...often appeared in recipe books in the 18th and 19th centuries. Such uses were revived in Britain during the second World War, when the Ministry of Food disseminated recipes for carrot Christmas pudding, carrot cake, and so on and survive in a small way to the present day. Indeed, carrot cakes have enjoyed a revival in Britain in the last quarter of the 20th century. They are perceived as 'healthy' cakes, a perception fortified by the use of brown sugar and wholemeal flour and the inclusion of chopped nuts, and only slightly compromised by the cream cheese and sugar icing which appears on some versions."

---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 141)

"In her New York Cookbook (1992), Molly O'Neill says that George Washington was served a carrot tea cake at Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan. The date: November 25, 1783. The occasion: British Evacuation Day. She offers an adaptation of that early recipe, which was printed in The Thirteen Colonies Cookbook (1975) by Mary Donovan, Amy Hatrack, and Frances Schull. It isn't so very different from the carrot cakes of today. Yet strangely, carrot cakes are noticeably absent from American cookbooks right through the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. Before developing a new pudding-included carrot and spice cake mix, Pillsbury researched carrot cake in depth, even staged a nation-wide contest to locate America's first-published carrot cake recipe. Their finding: A carrot cake in The Twentieth Century Bride's Cookbook published in 1929 by a Wichita, Kansas, woman's club. Running a close second was a carrot cake printed in a 1930 Chicago Daily News Cookbook...Several carrot cake contestants also sent Pillsbury a complicated, two-day affair that Peg Bracken had included in one of her magazine columns sometime in the late '60s or early '70s...Whatever its origin, carrot cake didn't enter mainstream America until the second half of this century."

---The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 435)

A survey of carrot cake (& precessor recipes) confirms these items took many forms:

• baked in pastry, like pumpkin pie
• steamed and served with sauce, like plum pudding
• baked in pans and served with icing, like cake

Tracing the evolution of Carrot Cake through recipes:

[1699]

"26. Pudding of Carrot. Pare off some of the Crust of Manchet-Bread, and grate of half as much of the rest as there is of the Root, which must also be grated: Then take half a Pint of fresh Cream or New Milk, half a Pound of fresh Butter, six new laid Eggs (taking out three of the Whites) mash and mingle them well with the Cream and Butter: Then put in the grated Bread and Carrot, with near half a Pound of Sugar; and a little Salt; some grated Nutmeg and beaten Spice; and pour all into a convenient Dish or Pan, butter'd, to keep the Ingredients from sticking and burning; set it in a quick Oven for about an Hour, and so have you a Composition for any Root-Pudding."

---Acetaria: Discourse of Sallets, John Evelyn

[1747]

"A Carrot Pudding

Take a raw Carrot, scrape it very clean, then grate it, take half a Pound of the grated Carrot, and a Pound of grateed Bread, beat up eight Eggs, leave out half the Whites, mix the Eggs with half a Pint of Cream, then stir in the Bread and Carrot, and half a Pound of fresh Butter melted, half a Pint of Sack, and three Spoonfuls of Orange-flower Water, a Nutmeg grated, sweeten to your Palate. Mix all well together; and if it is not thin enough, stir in a little new Milk or Cream. Let it be of a moderate Thickness, lay a Puff-paste all over the Dish, and pour in the Ingredients. Bake it, it will take an Hour's baking, or you may boil it; but then you must melt Butter, and put in White Wine and Sugar."

---The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1747 London reprint [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995(p.107)

[1914]

Carrot Cake, Neighborhood Cookbook, Council of Jewish Women

[1930]

"Carrot Cake

Sugar 1 1/3 cups

Seeded raisins 1 cup

Carrots (grated) 1 1/2 cups

Cloves 1 teaspoon

Water (cold) 1 1/3 cups

Butter 2 tablespoons

Cinamon 1 teaspoon

Nutmeg 1 teaspoon

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and boil very slowly for about 5 minutes. Remove from fire and allow mixture to become perfectly cold (never use while warm) and then add

Walnut meats 1 cup

Pinch of salt

Flour 2 cups

Baking soda 2 teaspoons

Mix well and put in loaf oan and bake for 1 1/4 hours in oven 350 degrees.--Mrs. William Inman"

---Chicago Daily News Cook Book, Edith G. Shuck and Dr. Herman N. Bundesen [Chicago Daily News:Chicago IL] 1930 (p. 47)

[1936]

"Carrot Torte

1 lb almonds

1 lb carrots

2 cups sugar

8 eggs, separated

Rind of one large orange

1 tablespoon orange juice

Cook the carrots, chill, and grate. Blanch the almonds and chop fine. Beat the egg yolks until light and thick. Add sugar gradually, then orange rind and juice, carrots, nuts, combining all ingredeints well, lastly fold in the stiffly beaten whites. Bake in a greased torte pan in a moderately slow oven (325 degrees F.), 45 to 50 minutes. When cool cover with sweetened Whipped Cream...Place in ice-box for several hours and serve."

---The Settlement Cook Book, Mrs. Simon Kander, Twenty-first Edition Enlarged and Revised [Settlement Cook Book Co.:Milwaukee WI] 1936 (p. 459)

[1939]

"Ohio Pudding or Steamed Carrot Pudding

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon soda

1 cup finely grated, raw potato

1 cup grated, raw carrot (3 small)

1 cup currants of seedless raisins

1 cup seeded raisins

Mix and sift sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and soda. Add remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Steam...2 hours in small molds or 3 hours in large mold. Serve with Ohio Sauce."

---Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer [Little, Brown and Company:Boston] 1939 (p.550)

[NOTE: Ohio sauce is made with cream, chopped nut meats, chopped dates and lemon extract (p.610).]

[1939]

"Carrot Cake

Temperature 300F. Time 1 hour. Serving 1 loaf, 9 inches

Part I

2 2/3 cups hot water

2 2/3 cups sugar

2 cups ground carrots

2 cups raisins

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons cloves

2 teaspoons nutmeg

Part II

3 3 tablespoons shortening

4 cups sifted cake flour

2 teaspoons soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspooon salt

2 cups chopped nuts

Method:

1. Cook Part I together for 20 minutes.

2. Remove from fire; add shortening, cool to lukewarm.

3. Add flour, soda, baking powder, and salt sifted together.

4. Add nuts.

5. Bake in a well-greased loaf pan at 300 degrees for 1 hour."

---Prudence Penny's Cookbook, Prudence Penny [Prentice-Hall:New York] 1939 (p. 217)

When did the cream cheese icing appear?

The earliest American print references we find to frosting carrot cake with cream cheese are from 1960's:

[1963]

"Cheese Frosting

Another reader recommends a cream cheese frosting for carrot cakes: "Use 4 ounces cream cheese and mix with 1/4 stick margarine. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and half a box of confectioners' sugar. Mix into smooth frosting. Mrs F.F.E. Edgewood Arsenal, Md."

---"Reader Exchange: Carrot Cake Encore," Washington Post, Times Herald, September 10, 1964 (p. D4)

[1968]

"Carrot-Pineapple Cake

Oven 350 degrees F

Sift together into large mixing bowl 1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon soda, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add 2/3 cup salad oil, 2 eggs, 1 cup finely shredded carrot, 1/2 cup crushed pineapple (with syrup), and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix till moistened; beat 2 minutes at medium speed on electric mixer. Bake in greased and lightly floured 9 X 9 X 2-inch pan in moderate oven (350 degress F) about 35 minutes or till done. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. Cool. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting (see page 86)."

---The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book [Meredith Corporation:Dew Moines IA] 1968 (p. 69)

"Cream Cheese Frosting

1 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoon butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

In small mixing bowl , combine cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. Beat at low speed on electric mixer till light. Gradually add sugar, beating till fluffy. If necessary, add milk to make of spreading consistency. Stir in chopped nuts, if desired. Frosts one 8- or 9-inch square cake."

---ibid (p. 86)

It is very likely other recipes predate this one. If you are a culinary student? Visit your school's library and study the old cookbooks. Also...old magazines/newspaper s can be excellent sources for *first instance.* Your school's librarian will help you access these.

About carrots

Carrots are an "Old World" vegetable. They adapted readily to "New World" soil. Notes here:

"Carrot. A root vegetable of the Umbelliferae family--and thus related to parsley, dill, and celery...although originally native to Afghanistan, is now found all over the world in many shapes, sizes, and colors."

---Cambridge World History of Food, Kennth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2001, Volume Two (p. 1746)

"The wild carrot, which grows in much of W. Asia and Europe, has a tiny and acrid tasting root. However, when it is cultivated in favourable conditions the roots of successive generations enlarge quickly. So the evolution of cultivars with enlarged roots is easily explained; indeed, what is puzzling is that it seems to have taken a very long time for D. Carota var sativa , as the modern cultivated carrot is know, to appear. The puzzle is all the greater because archaeologists have found traces of carrot seed at prehistoric lake dwellings in Switzerland. Also, the plant is included in a list of vegetables grown in the royal garden of Babylon in the 8th century BC. Here there is a clue: the plant is not in the list of ordinary vegetalbes but in that or aromatic herbs. It was probably being grown for its leaves or seeds, both of which have a pleasant carrot fragrance. It seems likely that this had also been the purpose of carrot cultivation in classical times, for there is little or no evidence to suggest that the Greeks and Romans enjoyed eating the roots. Many writers state that the carrot in something like its modern form was brought westwards, at least as far as the Arab Afghanistan, where the very dark red, even purple, carrots of antiquity are still grown. The introduction is variously dated at the 8th or 10th century AD, ie the period of Arab expansion in to the Middle East and C. Asia. This fits well enough with the fact that the earliest surviving clear description of the carrot dates from the first half of the 12th century, and was by an Arab writer...The first sign of truly orange carrots is in Dutch paintings of the 17th century...Cultivated carrots of the European type were brought to the New World before 1565..."

---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 140)

"Adding to the confusion of early carrot history is the wold white carrot...that is native to Europe and was subsequently naturalized in America. Now popularly known as Queen Anne's lace, the most famous for its ornamental flower, the woody root has been used interchageably with its visually similar cousin, the parsnip...The late-fourth-century Roman cookery book of Apicius lists recipes suitable for either carrots (presumably wild and cultivated) or parsnips, advice repeated nearly fifteen hundred years later in Lettice Bryan's The Kentucky Housewife (1839) that "carrots may be cooked in every respect like parsnips." English carrots were the first to be introduced into the colonies, accompanying colonists to Jamestown in 1609 and early Pilgrims to Massachusetts no later than 1629, where they grew "biger and sweeter" than anything found in Engalnd. Dutch Menonnites brought orange and scarlet carrots with them into Pennsylvania, from whence they spread through the rest of the colonies."

---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 191)

About carrots/National Geographic

The Carrot Museum (all sorts of interesting facts & trivia!)