Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake: The icing inversion effect

Abstract: Cupcake dogma states that icing must rest above the cake portion of a cupcake in such a proportion to be pleasing to the pallet. By challenging the placement of icing, a muffin-cupcake hybrid can be produced. The inversion of icing allows for ease of transportation of a muffin, while keeping the decadence of frosting.

Introduction:
The addition of fruit or sweet vegetables into cake batters is a very old form of providing a sweet flavour in desserts. During Medieval times, carrots or beets, both rich in sugar, would be used as natural sweeteners during a time when sugar was regarded as a rare commodity. Once sugar was readily available to the average consumer, cakes utilizing carrot were less common until they made a resurgence during WWII. The rationing of food such as tinned carrots forced the home chef to become more creative resulting in the rise in popularity of the humble carrot cake.

Today, carrot cakes can be readily identified based on decoration. The cake, iced in white, is decorated with piped carrots which are ridden by small baby carrot jockeys. These baby jockies tend to sport mohawks and ride in the nude. Such decoration are often considered "tacky" and "weird" by the general population and are part of a decoration movement know as Cake Wrecks. Cake Wrecks refer to a decorated cake, professionally made and paid for, which is unquestionably poorly decorated.

Figure 1: Carrot cake decoration. Typical "Wrecky" decorations of carrot cake are demonstrated. Nude babies with styled mohawks (A) ride carrot steeds (B) on a bed of cream cheese frosting (C).

The traditional icing used to both ice and create the frosted carrot steeds of the baby jockies is a cream cheese frosting. Cream cheese itself is a mild, unripened cheese with a tangy flavour and high fat content. Although seeming to be a simple cheese, the production of cream cheese must be highly regulated to ensure a uniform product. In the milk used to begin the process, negatively charged proteins surround fat molecules creating small inclusions, or micelles, which are hydrophillic. When the bacteria responsible for fermentation are added, the pH begins to drop and the proteins shift from negatively charged to a neutral charge. With a shift in charge, the fat micelles also become hydrophobic, causing coagulation. If the process is not halted here, the charge of the proteins shift to positive and the coagulated mixture returns to a liquid state.

Normally, a carrot cake will benefit from the tangy cream cheese icing which is artfully used to cover the cake. Inside, the cake crumb is slightly denser than other cakes with a coarser crumb, and slightly colored by the carrot. However transportation of a whole cake or cupcake as a lunch product from the home can be difficult. The icing design is likely to be compromised during travel, and become smeared onto the carrying container, ultimately resulting in a loss of icing and a shift in the icing to cake ratio. Without the icing, a carrot cake lacks the luxury and resembles a bread, such as banana bread, rather than a true dessert.

By inverting the icing and placing it inside the cake, the issue of transportability and storage of carrot cake is resolved, while maintaining the ability to enjoy cream cheese frosting as well. With icing internalized, there is also no possibility of a Wreck-y carrot jocky being employed. In addition, the authors added a crumble to the surface which adds both texture and the psychological need for a cake to be topped by sweet embellishments.

Materials and Methods
Batter
A dry mix of ingredients is combined which is compromised of 2 1/4 cups flour, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp allspice, and 3/4 tsp salt. Separately, the wet ingredients are also combined by mixing 2 large eggs, 3/4 cups water, and 1/3 cup oil. Wet and dry ingredients are whisked together until just combined. Now the final ingredients of 1 cup grated carrot and 1 cup rolled oats are folded in.

Icing
A brick of cream cheese is briefly melted in a microwave for approximately 40sec to loosen the texture. 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or paste are stirred in to sweeten and flavour the icing.

Crumble
To form a crumble, 2 tbsp butter or margerine are melted and mixed with 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/4 cup brown sugar, a dash of cinnamon, and enough flour to create a crumbly mixture. Additional oats, sugar, or spices may be added to taste.

Discussion:
To form the cupcakes, batter was scooped into cupcake liners to fill them halfway. At this point, the icing is inverted by added a large dollop on top of the batter. Cupcake liners were then filled to the 3/4 full mark with additional batter which covered all icing. Crumble was applied to the top. The cupcakes were baked in a 400°F oven for 20min.

The ensuing cupcakes were not without merrit, although room for improvement was evident. To begin, the addition of oats caused the batter to be slightly too dry. The authors originally added oats because of the textural improvement they often lend to cookies and crumbles. In future attempts, oats would be left out of the batter. The crumble added a delicate crunch to the cupcakes and helped psychologically categorize the cupcakes into cupcakes rather than muffins. The use of vanilla paste aided in the icing's visual appeal with the speckled effect lent from vanilla seeds (See Figure 2B). Most importantly, the inverted icing allowed for ease of storage at 8°C and eliminated the time consuming step of frosting and decorating the cupcakes. From another view point, this also meant that the visual attraction of frosting was not available although in the authors opinion it was an acceptable loss.

The authors attempted the baking process in two ways. The first was to bake the muffins in a standard cupcake liner placed in a muffin tin. The second was to bake the cupcakes in silicone robot molds. The robo-molds were slightly larger and square in shape. Most notable in the differences, apart from cooking times, were the air expansion in the icing inversion. In paper liners, there was an influx of air from the baking reaction that became trapped in the icing inversion. The air pocket created a small cavernous space within the icing (See Figure 2B). In the robo-molds, the influx of air was dissipated by an unknown reaction (Data not shown). The absence of an icing cavern allowed for a more dense, moist cupcake. The silicone in the robo-molds also allowed for clean and easy release from the molds whereas the paper liners in the muffin tin could be difficult to remove.

Figure 2: Cupcake assembly and baked results. (A) Assembly of the icing inversion is shown. Progression is demonstrated from left to right in ascending order. First a layer of batter is topped with a dollop of icing. This layer is then covered, before a sprinkling of crumble is applied. (B) The final cupcake using paper liner is dissected. Arrows indicate vanilla bean seeds. The build up of air is indicated by the icing cavern. (C) Robo-molds are shown before filling. (D) The final cupcakes using robo-molds are shown.

Overall, with the removal of oats, the authors believe icing inversion in carrot cupcakes is a feasible replacement for carrot cake that can be consumed on the go. The dense crumb combines nicely with the sweetened cream cheese icing and contrasts well with the crisp crumble. The resulting cupcake may be described as "yummy" or "really quite tasty."

Acknowledgements:
The authors thank KingArthurFlour.com for the base recipe upon which this recipe was based. By extension we thank Pinterest for providing the link to the cupcake inspiration at King Arthur Flour. We also thank Amelia Walker for her generous contribution of robo-molds.