Hello, everyone! Yes, busy, busy times ahead. I went back to school at the end of last week and, well, they certainly haven't given us much time to get back into the swing of things before hitting us hard and heavy with the work. Oh well, as they say, mustn't grumble, mustn't grumble.
Back to recipes from history and, this time, I've stepped back in time to 1699 for a Stuart recipe for carrot pudding, not overly dissimilar from modern carrot cake. The main difference is the density: puddings are much denser than cake. This pudding is also very buttery, so it's definitely not for someone who hates butter (like my mother). I love carrot cake and this was a really fun cake to make; thankfully, it wasn't even that difficult!
Background
Carrot pudding dates back to the Middle Ages and possibly even before that. In Europe, sugar was incredibly rare and only the very wealthy could afford it. For the average person who had a bit of a sweet tooth, there were two alternative sweeteners to sugar: honey, and carrot. Although it's uncertain exactly where and when the pudding originated, one of the first recorded recipes appears in a 10th century Arabian cook book, The Book of Cookery preparing Salubrious Foods and Delectable Dishes extracted from Medical Books and told by Proficient Cooks and the Wise by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq. You can read more about him, his incredible book, and his recipe for carrot pudding here. The first recorded use of the term "carrot cake" appeared in Richard Dolby's 1830 book, The Cook's Dictionary and Housekeeper's Directory. You can read Dolby's book here. I will be using a recipe from 1699, from the book Acetaria: Discourse of Sallets by John Evelyn. I chose this recipe over al-Warraq's because the latter requires the boiling of honey, which I've never done before, and didn't fancy doing permanent damage to my mother's kitchen. Also, Evelyn's recipe contains nutmeg. I love nutmeg.
Today, carrot cake continues to be a staple dessert, even if its ancestor doesn't quite have the same fame that it once had. You can read more about carrot cake and carrot pudding here and here. The latter link, to the Food Timeline website, has Evelyn's recipe that I used, should you wish to have a go at it yourselves.
I'm running out of things for this already so let's just spend 5 centuries grating carrot and get on with it.
Just a warning before we begin- unbaked carrot pudding does not look pleasant. Anyone with emetophobia might not want to look at the following pictures.
I scaled down the quantity of ingredients slightly, simply because I didn't want to end up with an uncontrollable amount of mixture! I went for 200g (about two-thirds of a pound) of each ingredient, with c. 100g of grated carrot. Everything gets chucked in, as per usual.
Whisk everything up! Don't worry if there are lumps of butter. This actually helps to create a denser cake more authentic to the butter-loving Stuart recipe. In the Stuart era, it was fashionable to eat lots of fatty foods and to be overweight, because it showed that you were able to afford rich foods.
Just like you would for any other cake, pour equal amounts of the mixture into the two tins. The Stuarts would have used just one deeper tin but I can't resist a sandwich cake.
Out it comes! I found that, on 180 degrees centigrade (160 in a fan oven), forty minutes was ample time for the cake to reach a lovely golden brown colour. If it comes out sizzling, don't worry. It's just the butter. Mine did the same and (spoiler alert!) it tasted great.
Flip them out to cool onto a plate before sandwiching them together.
The second time I deviated from the recipe. I'm a sucker for buttercream (even if the rest of my family hate it- screw it, this is my cake!) and it's the ideal filling for a carrot cake. Sorry, John Evelyn!
Last but not least, just put the other cake on top, best side up!
And there we have it! The perfect carrot pudding. This actually tasted much better than I was expecting. The high density made a nice change from the light and fluffy cakes that I'm used to. I'm shocked that I managed to get the amount of nutmeg right: just enough to add a kick, but not so much that it blows your head off. It was a soft, moist cake and the carrot was beautiful. Creative licence courtesy of yours truly aside, John Evelyn, I salute you. 9/10.
I hope that you enjoyed this post and if you do decide to give this recipe a go, that you enjoy this glorious pudding as well! I really appreciate any comment, critiques, suggestions, or recommendations for what you'd like to see me try later. Now we return to history-inspired cakes. Your clue is: "When in Rome."
Until next time,
Eleanor
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