Gluten-Free Carrot Sheet Cake
By America's Test KitchenPublished on May 23, 2019
Time
1¼ hours. plus 2 hours cooling
Yield
Serves 15
Ingredients
Before You Begin
If you don’t own a food processor, shred the carrots on a box grater and use an electric mixer to combine the eggs, sugars, and oil. Once frosted, serve the cake within a few hours.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13 by 9-inch baking pan, line bottom with parchment paper, and grease parchment. Whisk flour blend, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and cloves together in large bowl.
- In food processor fitted with large shredding disk, shred carrots; transfer carrots to bowl (you should have about 3 cups). Wipe out food processor bowl and fit with metal blade. Process granulated sugar, brown sugar, and eggs until frothy and thoroughly combined, about 20 seconds. With processor running, add oil in steady stream. Process until egg mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 20 seconds.
- Transfer egg mixture to large bowl. Using rubber spatula, stir in shredded carrots, flour blend mixture, and nuts, if using, until thoroughly incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking.
- Let cake cool completely in pan on wire rack, about 2 hours. Run knife around edge of cake to loosen. Remove cake from pan, discard parchment, and transfer to platter. (Cake can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 1 day.)
- Spread frosting evenly over top, and sides if desired, using small icing spatula. Serve.
Time
1¼ hours. plus 2 hours coolingYield
Serves 15Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Why This Recipe Works
As usual with our gluten-free recipes, we needed to go down on oil to account for our flour blend’s inability to absorb fat in this carrot sheet cake. After many rounds of testing, we landed on 3/4 cup of vegetable oil—half as much as we use in the test kitchen’s favorite carrot cake recipe with wheat flour. With so little fat, the cake was a bit dry. We solved this problem by using more brown sugar (and less granulated sugar). We not only liked the molasses flavor provided by the brown sugar but also the extra moisture it added. We found that the simplest mixing method was the food processor. We used the processor fitted with the shredding disk to prepare the carrots, then swapped out the blade to combine the eggs, sugars, and oil. The whirring blade of the food processor ensured that the oil and eggs were well emulsified, which helped keep the oil from making the cake heavy or dense.
Before You Begin
If you don’t own a food processor, shred the carrots on a box grater and use an electric mixer to combine the eggs, sugars, and oil. Once frosted, serve the cake within a few hours.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13 by 9-inch baking pan, line bottom with parchment paper, and grease parchment. Whisk flour blend, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and cloves together in large bowl.
- In food processor fitted with large shredding disk, shred carrots; transfer carrots to bowl (you should have about 3 cups). Wipe out food processor bowl and fit with metal blade. Process granulated sugar, brown sugar, and eggs until frothy and thoroughly combined, about 20 seconds. With processor running, add oil in steady stream. Process until egg mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 20 seconds.
- Transfer egg mixture to large bowl. Using rubber spatula, stir in shredded carrots, flour blend mixture, and nuts, if using, until thoroughly incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking.
- Let cake cool completely in pan on wire rack, about 2 hours. Run knife around edge of cake to loosen. Remove cake from pan, discard parchment, and transfer to platter. (Cake can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 1 day.)
- Spread frosting evenly over top, and sides if desired, using small icing spatula. Serve.
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