(a sentimental) carrot cake!!
a tale of two carrot cakes!!
I am the current “Pastry Chef in Residence” at Breeze Bar, a fun little late night wine & snack bar in Gastown. Their menu is playful and cheeky, and I try to match that energy with my weekly desserts: Espresso jelly with a salted caramel cream, Chinese Five Spice rice pudding, chocolate mousse with a dollop of pistachio-tahini whip and candied cornflakes–all fun twists on kinda classic, kinda nostalgic desserts. There’s a note in my phone with dozens of ideas, but this week, none of them struck. I was at a loss.
After two days of fruitless “inspo scrolling”, I gave in.
F*ck it, I’m making carrot cake.
Cool people eat carrot cake. It really is the superior cake. I love it with or without raisins, or nuts. Cream cheese frosting is the obvious move, but I’ll happily eat it un-iced. Everyone has their own CC ideal, but truly, all versions are good.
In pastry school, my buttercream cake project submission was, duh, carrot cake. And, as funny timing or coincidence or the universe would have it, it has been a year to almost the day that I made that cake: four layers with toasted pecan, two buttercreams (chai and orange mascarpone), a date caramel, and candied carrot rosettes.
As a very sentimental person, it doesn’t take much to make me pause and reflect, and these two carrot cakes, a year apart, have done just that. I won’t gush or whinge about the absolute ride the last year has been, but I will say that I’m grateful that there have been more reasons to gush than to whinge. To have people eating my desserts out in the real world, in real restaurants, and to have you here, reading this and maybe finding “inspo” from my recipes, makes my heart swell and my cheeks flush (major imposter syndrome over here, guys). Thank you, thank you, thank you for being here, and thank you, thank you, thank you to anyone and everyone who has ordered one of my desserts–what a joy.
Ok, maybe some gushing. <3
(a sentimental) carrot cake!!
v. 2.0: black tea buttercream and a cream cheese + white chocolate ganache
recipes follow below!
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