Kids Bake Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Mixing batter requires concentration

By Ed Bruske

aka The Slow Cook

This week marked our last session in this year's baking segment and I wanted the kids to end on a super-delicious note. So here's a carrot cake sure to satisfy the most demanding sweet tooth. Kids like sugar too much. So remember: food like this is intended as a special treat, not something to be consumed on a daily basis.

Carrot cake has the added advantage of requiring quite a bit of vegetable prep. That may not seem like an advantage to the average home cook. But if you are trying to keep a group of children busy in the kitchen, there's nothing like peeling and grating carrots. Hand a kid a vegetable peeper and she will occupy herself for the rest of the day.

This cake calls for a whole pound of carrots. We do everything by hand. But if you do not feel so inclined, feel free to plug in your food processed to speed up some of the chopping and mixing this recipe calls for.

First, prepare a 13-by-9-inch baking pan by greasing the inside of the pan, lining the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper and greasing the parchment paper. Set aside.

Kids will peel carrots all day

To the pound of peeled and grated carrots, add 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teapsoon baking soda, 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix well.

In a separate bowl, place 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar and 4 large eggs. Mix these together with a whisk and beat well until frothy and thoroughly combined. Continue beating while drizzling in 1 1/2 cups canola oil. Beat until the oil is completely emulsified.

Pour the wet mix into the dry mix and stir until all of the ingredients are incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and place in a 350-degree oven for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. You might turn the pan from front to back halfway through the baking process.

Allow the cake to cool at least two hours before removing it from the pan. Invert it onto a cutting board or serving platter and prepare the frosting. Process 8 ounces softened but still cool cream cheese, 5 tablespoons unsalted butter softened but still cook, 1 tablespoon sour cream and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. We used the back of a wooden spoon for this, but you can also use a food processor. When the mix is smooth, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add 1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar. We used a rubber spatula to gently work the sugar into the cream cheese mix until it was completely incorporated and there were no lumps.

A dense and moist carrot cake

Use an offset spatula to first spread a thin layer of frost over the top of the cake. This will trap any crumbs so they do not show through when you spread the rest of the frosting.

What's for Lunch: Cajun Chicken

Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

Chartwells calls this "Cajun chicken" at its menu website. It's bone-in chicken that arrives seasoned, cooked and frozen. It simply needs to be reheated to serve. On the left is "bayou brown rice with beans," which means rice cooked in the school kitchen's steamer, then tossed with canned black beans and seasonings.

In the upper left is "fresh vegetable medley with carrots, broccoli and locally grown zucchini." The carrots and broccoli arrive already cut into pieces and refrigerated in plastic bags. They and the zucchini are then cooked in the steamer. The kitchen crew did a good job with this: the zucchini was still al dente, meaning not cooked to death. But there wasn't much seasoning to taste.

Unfortunately, the kids who chose the vegetable option didn't really eat it. Knowing how much adults think vegetables are the solution to the obesity epidemic, it's a shame to see them tossed into the trash. But maybe the kids learn something by seeing freshly cooked produce on their trays. Or maybe they could use a little coaching....


The menu also called for "carrot sticks." Obviously, not all of the kids chose the carrot sticks, and as you can see, what was served was actually "sanded" carrots packed in plastic with a side of Kraft Italian dressing. Also affectionately known as "baby" carrots, these carrots are nothing of the kind. They are in fact mature carrots that have been mechanically "sanded," or ground down to look like baby carrots. A California carrot farmer thought of this: just the thing to catch kids' interest, right? Sanded carrots are now a huge business.

Finally, this was the alternate lunch on Thursday, what Chartwells calls "grilled chicken Caesar salad with croutons and light Italian dressing.

Caesar salad with Italian dressing?

Anyway, the "grilled" chicken is actually diced chicken that arrives cooked and frozen. Once thawed, it's easy to toss this into a salad. But look: real Romaine lettuce, I think, not that iceberg mix. And croutons, too.

Unlike much of the fruit D.C. schools have been serving this year, the pear apparently is not local. However, it is very close to ripe and the kids really like it.