How to Make Purple Carrot Cake
This cake is easy, delicious, and not purple
I’d planned to made ricotta carrot cake. That’s what I thought the recipe said. I didn’t read the instructions. I read the ingredients and didn’t consider the organization because I was so excited by the idea of ricotta and carrot together in a cake I imagined to be light yet rich. Light-ish.
I had cake flour. I needed almond flour. And ricotta. And lemons. Acquiring these ingredients required multiple market trips. In between trips I consumed and replaced my carrots. I was ready. I returned to the recipe. I read it twice before realizing the ricotta was a cream meant to be served as a side to the cake. I also needed sour cream.
But I wanted the ricotta inside the cake.
Breathe. I’d make the cake anyway. Where were the lemons? Oh. Right. Gone. Used.
I opened another cookbook. Then a third cookbook. Then a fourth.
Interesting how many eggs were called for. I had eggs. That’s not what I was thinking about. One book, first published in 1982, said carrot cakes were such the rage “a few years ago” that they were a way to quality-test a restaurant. I did not know that. I did not use that recipe because it also called for lemon peel. Another recipe was half nuts. I love nuts, but that wasn’t what I…
