I imagine this article will be the first in a series. Tina recently started juicing carrots for fresh juice (this was something she used to do often), and we've been enjoying the crisp, sweet taste of carrot juice. But, it feels wasteful to dispose of all the carrot pulp left over. We don't have even a small yard and we have more pulp than my small window box of herbs can handle as compost, so Tina suggested carrot cake. I readily agreed and started pondering the problem of creating a moist carrot cake from nearly dry carrot pulp.

I started with the standard pound of carrots, except I used carrot pulp from that day's juicing. I thought I'd try this amount since the juice contains a great deal of flavor. I was hoping that by replacing the lost water weight with more pulp, I could produce a strong carrot flavor in the final cake.

Related Articles

Ahwahnee Hotel Kitchen (Yosemite, California)

Okra Stew (Fast Gumbo)

Banana Nut Bread

Lemon Bars

Eric's Chocolate Pecan Pie

I also used an 8 oz. can of crushed pineapples (packaged in its pineapple juice) and drained the juices, pressing down with a spoon to release as much juice as possible. I chose pineapples because I like the taste of pineapples and thought they would introduce a decent amount of liquid to the cake. (It turns out, pineapple has too much juice and the flavor doesn't come through very well.)

I then assembled the rest of the ingredients (from the carrot cake recipe in Baking Illustrated): 2-1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1-1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 1-1/4 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1-1/4 ground cinnamon, 1/2-tsp. nutmeg, 1/8 tsp. ground cloves, 1/4 tsp. salt, 4 large eggs, and 1-1/2 cup canola oil.

I blended the sugars with the eggs until creamy.

Then, I drizzled the canola oil in while the mixer was running. Watch the speed of the mixer or it could fling oil across your kitchen. Other vegetable oils can be used, but I wouldn't recommend using a strongly flavored oil like extra virgin olive.

Once the oil was integrated into the eggs and sugar to form a kind of drippy mayonnaise, I sifted the flour, salt & spices, baking soda and powder together and added them to the mixing bowl. I then placed the crushed pineapple and carrot pulp into the mixing bowl as well. I noticed some of my carrot pulp had clumped up, so I did my best to separate the clumps before adding them to the mixing bowl.

I mixed everything together until no more dry flour could be seen. By this time, the carrots and pineapple were thoroughly distributed.

I poured the batter into a 9x13 in. pan that I had prepared earlier by buttering the bottom and sides, affixing a piece of parchment paper to the bottom (cut to size), and buttering the parchment paper.

The cake was then baked on the center rack of a 350°F oven for 40 minutes. I rotated the cake once after 20 min. and checked to see if it was done by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake. When the cake was fully cooked, the toothpick came out clean. I let it cool completely on a cooling rack.

After the cake had been cooling for about two hours, I prepared a simple cream cheese frosting with 8 oz. cream cheese (not the whipped variety), 1-1/4 cup confectioners sugar (also called powdered sugar or icing sugar), 5 Tbs. butter, and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract. (Again, almost the same ingredients as Baking Illustrated. If you're making "normal" carrot cake, I recommend the recipe from Baking Illustrated, which I why I started with their ingredient set and proportions for this test.)

Running the four ingredients in my mixer (after cleaning the bowl) until blended, gave me a smooth, sweet but tangy frosting. I removed the cake from the pan by inverting it onto another sheet pan. I then removed the parchment paper from the bottom of the cake (which was now facing up), and then placed an inverted sheet pan over the cake (so the bottom of the pan was facing up). Flipping both pans over and removing the first one, gave me a carrot cake in good condition and right side up sitting on a sheet pan waiting to be frosted. I used an offset spatula to smear the frosting over the cake.

The final cake had a nice strong carrot flavor complimented by an excellent combination of spices. What it was missing was any distinctive taste of pineapple. When you chewed on the pineapple bits, the flavor was barely discernible and the texture was mushy. The interior of the cake was a bit too moist (while the outer pieces were just right), but not yet soggy. One taste tester described the center piece as gooey in consistency - she liked the flavors however. My feeling is that although the water had been extracted from the carrots, Tina's juicer left enough liquid to keep a carrot cake from becoming too dry. The addition of more liquid is probably necessary, but not in the quantities provided by well-drained crushed pineapples. I think next time I'll try a cup of raisins.


Carrot Pulp Cake with Crushed Pineapples (makes one moist to gooey 9x13 in. cake)

Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare 9x13 in. (23 x 33 cm) pan
4 large eggs	blend	drizzle while mixing	mix	bake 350°F 40 min.	cool	frost
1-1/2 cup (300 g) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (100 g) light brown sugar
1-1/2 cup (350 mL) canola oil
1 lb. (450 g) carrot pulp
8 oz. (225 g) can crushed pineapple	drain
2-1/2 cup (310 g) all-purpose flour	sift
1-1/4 tsp. (5.75 g) baking powder
1 tsp. (4.6 g) baking soda
1-1/4 tsp. (3 g) ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. (1.1 g) nutmeg
1/8 tsp. (0.25 g) ground cloves
1/4 tsp. (1.5 g) salt
cream cheese frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. (230 g) cream cheese	blend
5 Tbs. (70 g) butter
1/2 tsp. (2.5 mL) vanilla extract
1-1/4 cup (125 g) confectioners sugar

Copyright Michael Chu 2005

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---