Blue-Ribbon Carrot Cake, American Food

Here we are with the third in an at-least-four-part series on the quest for the best carrot cake.  I know I have one more cookbook with a carrot cake recipe, and I might have more.  In this third entry I think we may have found a winner--a blue-ribbon winner, in fact.

Many of you may have extra carrots from the recent leporid visit--if only I had a few deviled egg recipes to help you out.  However, if you happen to have a couple of carrots left over, this may be the recipe to try.  Around here, Easter is a complicated holiday.  I, a lapsed Catholic.  The husband, a Jew.  Both of us, committed to reading, at least, this David Sedaris essay.

According to Evan Jones (the author of the cookbook), this recipe comes to us straight from the Guadalupe County Fair in Seguin, Texas, in the late 1960s and from the files of one Viola Schlicting, who changed her German carrot-nut bread into cake and won a blue ribbon.  Well, thank you, Viola, for I would argue this is the best recipe we have going so far.  This recipe is particularly cake-y and it has a much better spice balance.  It's not really suitable for muffins, but it does indeed deserve the take-home prize from the county fair as a cake.  (I made both muffins and sheet cake...)

Finally, I am learning some important facts about carrot cakes:
1.)  If you bake using oil, they are better the next day.  If you replace the oil with yogurt, they are better on the day of.
2.)  More shredded carrots.  Yes.  You cannot have enough. 

One more recipe to go, but make this one in the mean time.  P.S.  I forgot to take pictures of the final product.  Instead I just ate the final product.

One Year Ago: Malted Chocolate Puddings

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Blue-Ribbon Carrot Cake

Adapted from  American Food

Yield:

6-8 servings

Ingredients:  

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

2 cups sifted cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger

4 eggs

3 cups grated carrots

1 cup broken walnuts

1 cup raisins

Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2.  Combine oil and sugar, mixing thoroughly.  

3.  Sift together dry ingredients, then sift half of the seasoned flour into the sugar-oil mixture and blend well.  Stir in remainder alternately with eggs, adding 1 egg at a time and blending well after each addition.  

4.  Stir in carrots, add walnuts, and blend thoroughly.  

5.  Pour into a greased 10-inch tube pan or into prepared muffin cups.  Bake for an hour and a half (cake pan) or 45 minutes (muffin cups).