Carrot cake recipe with cake flour

August 8, 2023 11:30 AM

I need to make a scrumptious carrot cake. I have an opened box of cake flour, and since I bake cakes only about once a year, I'd like to use it.

The recipes that I'm finding appealing use all purpose flour.
I am looking for a carrot cake recipe that uses cake flour, and that either does not include, or will not matter if I leave out, nuts and coconut (allergens for us) and pineapple (not my taste in carrot cake).
Alternately, please let me know if it REALLY works just as well to add an extra two T of cake flour to a recipe calling for all purpose. This cake has to be delicious and pretty.

posted by ojocaliente to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

I have not made this one, but I have made the layer cake from the back of the Swan's Down box which is very reliable. This is from the same company and from reading it, I am certain you can leave out the nuts.

(Leftover cake flour can also go in pancakes.)
posted by blnkfrnk at 11:43 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yep, that's the one that the nice people from Swan's Cake Flour used to include on the box. I've made it. It's good. Lighter than usual for carrot cake, IIRC.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:43 AM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

It really works just as well to substitute cake flour with the volume adjustment. Cake flour gives you a slightly less chewy result — that’s important for delicate cakes, and leas important for a dense cake like carrot cake so the recipe doesn’t demand it, but it’s not negative for a carrot cake.
posted by LizardBreath at 11:44 AM on August 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

Geraldene Holt’s carrot cake recipe uses self raising flour.
posted by Lanark at 11:46 AM on August 8, 2023

If you wind up not using all of your cake flour, bear in mind that you can freeze flour to keep it fresh for long periods of time.
posted by vitout at 11:50 AM on August 8, 2023

Nuts, coconut & pineapple have bulk. I'd replace with dried apricot, dried cran/ cherries, granola, rice crispies, pumpkins seeds, and keep in mind that coconut & pineapple add moisture and sweetness. Some people might add raisins, but I'm tired of raisins.
posted by theora55 at 12:35 PM on August 8, 2023

Alternately, please let me know if it REALLY works just as well to add an extra two T of cake flour to a recipe calling for all purpose.

yep, it does. The biggest difference between cake flour and all-purpose flour is just gluten content - the more gluten, the chewier and denser the baked thing. Think of the texture difference between a cupcake and a baguette - the baguette is made with a flour with more gluten in it, most likely a "bread flour", and the cupcake with a cake flour with the least amount of gluten. "All purpose" flour is sort of a midway point between bread flour and cake flour, hence the name (it's a mix of both kinds of wheat so home bakers can just get that one kind of flour and have it do everything, instead of faffing around with a lot of other kinds of flour).

Cake flour also weighs a little less per cup than all-purpose flour does - that's why most conversions say to add the extra two tablespoons.

My only concern is that you're making a carrot cake, which presumably will have grated carrot in it; if you grate the carrot coarsely, that may be too heavy for the low-gluten cake flour. So I would also try to grate the carrot fine to compensate for that. But that's just a gut instinct I have, and I may be worried over nothing.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:38 PM on August 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

My list of possible replacements was meant to be mostly Or, not all of the above.
posted by theora55 at 1:20 PM on August 8, 2023

I accidentally used cake flour in Stella’s Brown Butter Carrot Cake and it was still delicious. It does also call for wheat flour. No pineapple or coconut but has pecans, which perhaps you can swap.

As for pretty, she does show you how to make carrot roses.
posted by inevitability at 5:33 PM on August 8, 2023