I was actually distraught when this cake collapsed in the oven a few months ago. I've been making it for 20 years and it has never failed. After watching a Bon Appetit test kitchen video where the pastry chef said emulsifying the oil for a carrot cake into the sugar/egg mixture was critical (who knew?), I decided to test it again. SP been my go-to cake for special gifts and I hated the idea that moving to NC's higher altitude (one possible reason for cake collapse) may have screwed with perfection.
When I baked the FC (fiasco cake), I didn't want to search through packing boxes to find my paper copy and had donated my hard copy of Silver Palate in a moment of stupidity. So I looked online and went with the Epicurious link.
Here are their instructions:
"Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Add the oil, eggs, and vanilla. Beat well. Fold in the walnuts, coconut, carrots, and pineapple."
From EPICURIOUS! Stepchild of GOURMET MAGAZINE! They should know better!!!
After FC, I had searched various sites over the Internet to see if I'd made a mistake with the large amount of baking soda (1 TBL) but every copy out there was word for word. Apparently, if you want to have a recipe blog, you just copy, copy, copy.
This time I took the Epicurious recipe and reduced it to 1/3 because if it failed again, I didn't want to waste the full amount of ingredients (walnuts, coconut, pineapple, carrots, etc)
One comment on the epicurious site said the cake was too sweet, so I did cut down the sugar from 1 cup to 3/4 to see if I preferred it with less sugar. Also I used the original corn oil rather than a blend of grape seed and SunCoco used in FC. I beat the eggs and sugar until it tripled and then slowly drizzled in the oil. The rest of the recipe steps were typical.
I buttered and lined an 8" x 3" high cake pan and baked for 45 minutes at 350. Cake baked high and perfectly flat. No sinking, no volcanic eruptions, just the happy, tasty cake I was used to. Apparently I have been emulsifying all this time without realizing it.
I haven't iced the cake yet, but will attach a photo when I do.
To wrap up, I would urge anyone making this cake to follow these four important steps:
1. This recipe makes a LOT of batter and they expect you to use high sided pan (I think they said to use a 9" springform pan). If you bake it in two 9" standard cake pans (which are only 1" high) it will overflow. This batter makes 36 cupcakes, not the typical 24, so that is another clue to use high sided pans. I just measured my test version which is 1/3 of the original batter recipe. It rose 1.5" with a flat top. So the batter still would overflow if you used three standard 8" pans. You would need to use three 9" standard pans.
2. Butter and line the pan. It will release san angst.
3. Beat the sugar and eggs until they have tripled or quadrupled (a full recipe may increase by four).
4. Slowly add the oil.
Good luck.
When I baked the FC (fiasco cake), I didn't want to search through packing boxes to find my paper copy and had donated my hard copy of Silver Palate in a moment of stupidity. So I looked online and went with the Epicurious link.
Here are their instructions:
"Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Add the oil, eggs, and vanilla. Beat well. Fold in the walnuts, coconut, carrots, and pineapple."
From EPICURIOUS! Stepchild of GOURMET MAGAZINE! They should know better!!!
After FC, I had searched various sites over the Internet to see if I'd made a mistake with the large amount of baking soda (1 TBL) but every copy out there was word for word. Apparently, if you want to have a recipe blog, you just copy, copy, copy.
This time I took the Epicurious recipe and reduced it to 1/3 because if it failed again, I didn't want to waste the full amount of ingredients (walnuts, coconut, pineapple, carrots, etc)
One comment on the epicurious site said the cake was too sweet, so I did cut down the sugar from 1 cup to 3/4 to see if I preferred it with less sugar. Also I used the original corn oil rather than a blend of grape seed and SunCoco used in FC. I beat the eggs and sugar until it tripled and then slowly drizzled in the oil. The rest of the recipe steps were typical.
I buttered and lined an 8" x 3" high cake pan and baked for 45 minutes at 350. Cake baked high and perfectly flat. No sinking, no volcanic eruptions, just the happy, tasty cake I was used to. Apparently I have been emulsifying all this time without realizing it.
I haven't iced the cake yet, but will attach a photo when I do.
To wrap up, I would urge anyone making this cake to follow these four important steps:
1. This recipe makes a LOT of batter and they expect you to use high sided pan (I think they said to use a 9" springform pan). If you bake it in two 9" standard cake pans (which are only 1" high) it will overflow. This batter makes 36 cupcakes, not the typical 24, so that is another clue to use high sided pans. I just measured my test version which is 1/3 of the original batter recipe. It rose 1.5" with a flat top. So the batter still would overflow if you used three standard 8" pans. You would need to use three 9" standard pans.
2. Butter and line the pan. It will release san angst.
3. Beat the sugar and eggs until they have tripled or quadrupled (a full recipe may increase by four).
4. Slowly add the oil.
Good luck.
