We had the in-laws over for lunch to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday. She and my father-in-law both love my homemade carrot cake. Apparently they have been known to hide leftover pieces of it from one another. So the dessert choice for the day was clear-carrot cake.
That was fine by me because I too love homemade carrot cake. There is nothing like biting into a moist, dense, golden piece of carrot cake and as your teeth slice thru the tender pieces of carrot, they discover the crunch of a pecan and a succulent golden raisin. Follow that up with the silkiness of cream cheese icing and you’ve got a real winner!
As I was grating carrots for the cake I started wondering who created the first carrot cake because I would really love to thank them. I thought it probably hailed back to a time when some other ingredient was in short supply and it was a handy substitute. Or perhaps a carrot farmer had a bumper crop of carrots and to avoid spoilage they were added to a cake. Or had it been an accidental creation? I’m not sure how one would accidently grate and slip 3 cups of carrots into a cake unknowingly, but many everyday foods are the result of a major kitchen blunder.
After some research online, I’m still curious as I didn’t find a huge amount of information on the history. According to Wikipedia though, it has likely been around since the medieval period when carrots were easier to come by than sugar. Wikipedia also says it first appeared in American restaurants in the 1960’s and that Food Network listed it as #5 of the top 5 fad foods of the 1970’s. Hmmm, should we call something this delicious 40 years later, a fad? Call it what you will, I’m just going to call it delicious!
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