Olive oil carrot cake

In my experience, suggesting the use of olive oil in a cake provokes two reactions: either the listener recoils in horror, or they've had cakes made with olive oil and they know how wonderful they can be. This cake is no exception, and it's invariably a hit whenever I make it. While I do use normal extra virgin olive oil in some of my cakes (later this spring I'll share my olive oil lemon rosemary cake) for this one I use a light and mild olive oil-the subtler background makes for a delicate flavor, while ensuring a soft (though sturdy) and moisture rich cake.

A caveat about this cake: grating your own carrots with a box grater (or the like) can be a pain in the neck, but it is absolutely worth it.

Grating the day away...a pound of carrots takes about 10 minutes. I know that's not a lot of time, but it is when you're grating something....

This isn't a difficult recipe, but the preliminaries (and, in fact, the baking) are a little time consuming. Don't make this one if you don't have about 90 minutes; if you want to make something quick for dessert, make some cookies.

Though you could easily omit nuts from this cake (I sometimes do) toasted pine nuts, walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts all do really well in this cake; use what you like (or what you have on hand.)  There is nothing wrong with using vanilla extract,  but if you also have some other liqueur, you can certainly substitute it. Frangelico, Amaretto or the like are very nice. 

I use a very normal cream cheese frosting-if you have a recipe that  you prefer, by all means use it. My portions here make a generous amount of frosting, but this is a big cake.

Ingredients

Cake:

2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/3 cups light and mild olive oil

3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or the like

2 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup raisins (golden are nice, but regular is also fine)

1 cup chopped hazelnuts

1 pound carrots, grated

3/4 cup diced pineapple (I normally use pineapple from a can, but I do drain the juice)

For the frosting:

1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted

Method:

1.) Prep cake pans with parchment paper, butter and a bit of flour. If you're not familiar with prepping cake pans a quick (albeit overly fussy) tutorial can be found here. 

2.) Preheat oven to 350.  Grate the carrots. Yes, the entire pound.

3.) In a mixer (or whisk by hand) mix the olive oil and sugar together for a few minutes, then add eggs and beat well, until a light yellow.  

4.) In another bowl sift flour, leavening, salt and cinnamon together. 

Sifting the day away. I think baking is positively therapeutic.

5.) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and beat slowly just until incorporated. If you over beat the batter, it will become tough.

6.) Add hazelnuts (or any nuts) and raisins. 

7.) Add the carrots and pineapple and mix well. with a spatula.

Mmmm cake!

8.) Bake for about 45-50 minutes. Depending on the day, it may take a smidge longer. The cake is done when a knife comes out clean.

Frosting:

For the frosting, I find it much easier to use room temperature cream cheese and butter.  Sift the powdered/confectioner's sugar so you don't get lumps. You can use the suggested vanilla or add a little frangelico to echo the hazelnuts, or just stick to vanilla for a nice classic taste.  

1.) Mix the cream cheese and butter together.

2.) Add vanilla or liqueur

3.) Sift the confectioner's sugar and add it slowly-only add until you find it sweet enough-taste the frosting at 1/2 a pound, 3/4 and so forth-you need not use the entire pound of confectioner's sugar.

4.) Let the cakes cool, frost them, and eat greedily!