Carrot Cake Fail - Buzzy110

firemansgirl, Jul 21, 10:40am
Major disappointment, I followed your recipe to the exact directions provided. It smelt fantastic while cooking, and still does, but I haven't a hope in hell of icing it, as the entire thing is threatening to crumble. Not sure what went wrong. It definitely isn't dense like other carrot cakes I have had before, and I left the walnuts in as my daughter isn't eating any of this one, but I can't do anything with it. Any ideas on why?

rj5, Jul 21, 8:19pm
How much oil has it got in it, generally most carrot cakes have 1 cup oil, which makes them very mosit

antoniab, Jul 21, 8:36pm
Oh if you ever want to start again I have a super easy never fail recipe :)

winnie231, Jul 21, 8:44pm
firemansgirl - can you please share the recipe with us, or provide a link to it .... then we might be able to help you figure out what went wrong.

cookessentials, Jul 21, 9:12pm
Here it is...I copy and pasted it from a thread on cakes made with oil.

CARROT CAKE
¾ Cup Vegetable Oil
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Cup Flour
1½ tspns Baking Powder
1 tspn Baking Soda
1 tspn Cinnamon
¼ tspn Salt
1½ Cups Grated Carrot
½ Cup Walnuts – Chopped
Icing
50grams Butter
½ Cup Cream Cheese
½ tspn Lemon Rind
½ tspn Lemon Juice
¾ Cup Icing Sugar

Method
1 Beat Oil and Sugar for 3 minutes until sugar is dissolved
2 Add Eggs one at a time and beat well between additions
3 Sift Flour, Baking Powder, Soda, Cinnamon and Salt
4 Fold dry ingredients into mixture in bowl
5 Fold in Grated Carrot and Chopped Walnuts
6 Bake in greased and lined ring tin at 180oC for 50-60mins
7 Turn out on a wire rack and ice when cool

Icing
1 Beat together the Butter, Cream Cheese and Lemon Rind until smooth and fluffy
2 Add Lemon Juice and sift in Icing Sugar to spreading consistency

Quote

buzzy110 (68 )4:03 pm, Tue 19 Jul #3

cookessentials, Jul 21, 9:14pm
I would say it lacks enough eggs to bind it together.

mackenzie2, Jul 21, 9:14pm
Can't see any reason why it would be dry and crumbly,Did you cook it for longer than stated???

mackenzie2, Jul 21, 9:16pm
This is my recipe, and it does seem to have a lot more fluid in it, maybe that is why it failed...

BEAT 3 eggs, 3/4 cup oil and 1.5cups sugar, when light in colour add 1 tsp vanilla 3/4 cup orange juice and small tin of crushed pinnapple. In another bowl put 3 cups grated carrot, 2 cups wholemeal flour, 1 cup coconut 1.5 tsp mixed spice, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1.5 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp baking powder, .5 cup walnuts. Mix all together, bake 160 for approx 1 hr, keep checking after 50mins (oven & baking tin dependent)

cookessentials, Jul 21, 9:18pm
This is my recipe.
butter, softened for greasing
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups soft brown sugar
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cups grated carrot (approx 3 carrots)
1 cup (250ml) vegetable oil
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
2 tsp vanillaextract
1/2 cup drained crushed pineapple
Cream cheese icing:
175g cream cheese, softened
100g butter, softened
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup icing sugar, sifted

Grease and line a deep 23cm cake tin. Preheat oven to 150C fan-forced or 170C without fan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Using electric mixer, whip until light and fluffy.

Sift flour, salt and cinnamon together, and then gently fold into the egg mixture.

In a separate bowl, combine grated carrots, oil, walnuts, vanilla and pineapple. Gently fold, into the flour and egg mixture, until well combined.

Pour into prepared tin and bake in preheated oven for 55-60 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool cake in tin for 20 minutes before transferring onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add lemon juice and vanilla and continue beating until combined. Stop beaters, add icing sugar and begin mixing gradually at first, continue mixing until completely incorporated. Spread cream cheese icing over cold cake. Decorate with walnuts, if desired.

cookessentials, Jul 21, 9:20pm
What size tin was this in?? the recipe does not mention it.

firemansgirl, Jul 21, 11:33pm
As per #6 on the original step instruction. Bake in greased and lined ring tin at 180oC for 50-60mins so the tin I used had an (outer) measurement of 24cm........ it won't go to waste, it's going to be heated and eaten with custard but it definitely was a total epic fail for taking to work today.....

buzzy110, Jul 21, 11:38pm
I'm sorry it didn't turn out for you firemeansgirl as it always has worked great for me so I don't know what has gone wrong. I so wanted to provide a good recipe because I still appreciate your Island Chow mein recipe. This makes me so sad. I always made it in a ring tin like the recipe specifies.

norse_westie, Jul 21, 11:48pm
Is 1 cup of flour enough for that much liquid?

buzzy110, Jul 21, 11:59pm
I'd like to add that I make this cake for my Daughter's in-laws. They won't eat butter or dairy, but don't have a problem with sugar and flour and eat baking daily for morning and afternoon tea. When they stay, my daughter struggles to provide them with baking so I always take over one of these cakes which they all love and which lasts for days.

buzzy110, Jul 22, 12:06am
I wonder if I can make things up to you by providing you with another easy to make cake recipe that also stays moist for days and has never, ever failed for me. It doesn't have oil in it but it is just as easy to make.

CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE
175g Plain Flour
25g Cocoa
150g Castor Sugar
1 level tspn Baking Powder
1 level tspn Baking Soda
Pinch of Salt
75g Butter (room temp is better than cold)
150mls Milk
1 Tblspn Treacle

Method:
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat with electric beater till smooth and creamy.
Bake approx 1 hour at 150C
Turn onto a wire rack. Cool. Ice

Notes:
I use a square or rectangular baking tin for this rather than round.
Measure all ingredients exactly.
I always measure precisely

elliehen, Jul 22, 3:11am
My question too.My recipe - a similar one - has 1 & 1/4 cups flour.

cookessentials, Jul 22, 3:48am
Mine hs 2.5 cups..it also has 3 cups carrot

jag5, Jul 22, 4:33am
This is mine....easy as and never fail....can't be bothered with carrot cake that has a list of ingredients as long as your arm LOL

CARROT CAKE (Very Easy)

1 cup flour1 tspn BP
1 tspn BS1 tspn cinnamon
1 cup sugar2 eggs
½ cup oil2 ½ cup grated carrot

Sift flour, BP, BS and cinnamon.Stir in sugar.Beat
eggs and oil and add to dry mix with grated carrot.
Stir well.Pour into 20cm ring tin. (Greased or lined).
Stand 5 minutes.Bake 180c for 35-40 minutes.

CREAM CHEESE ICING

50gms butter150gms cream cheese softened
1 cup icing sugar ½ tspn vanilla

Process till smooth.

Decorate with above and scatter over chopped walnuts,
chopped apricots and pumpkin seeds.

firemansgirl, Jul 22, 4:35am
Awwww Buzzy110 don't worry, some days you win some, some days you lose. It will be eaten tonight.... with lashings of custard..... very glad you still like the chop suey recipe, I never get sick of eating it....

elliehen, 3 days, 3 hours
Dragged this from the other thread for you, firemansgirl, in case it disappeared down the page before you caught up with it.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=carrot+cake

Just put your search words after the equal sign with plus signs in between.