Ina Garten's Secret To Perfect Carrot Cake Every Time

Warmly spiced with a moist, tender crumb and a rich cream cheese frosting, a perfect carrot cake is a beautiful thing. But if you find that yours tends to be less than perfect, there's no need to feel frustrated as it can happen to even the most experienced cooks. Ina Garten revealed in her memoir "Be Ready When The Luck Happens" that she's learned one step that is "critical to making a perfect carrot cake" — and that's to grate the carrots by hand.

There are a couple of reasons why it's best to perform this task, labor-intensive as it might be, by hand. Firstly, you need the carrots to be grated finely so that all the pieces of sweet earthy goodness are distributed evenly through the batter without sinking. Sometimes, a food processor is not able to get this small, equally sized result. Additionally, using finer pieces means they're more likely to cook thoroughly – as well as evenly — when the cake is in the oven. Given that the baking time for a homemade carrot and cranberry cake is only around half an hour, the pieces of carrot may not soften properly if they're too large.

To grate the carrots as finely as possible, use the smallest setting on your box grater. While you do need to clean the carrots and trim them, it's not strictly necessary to peel them first if you want to save yourself some time.

One thing you may not know about carrots is that they're 88% water. Grating them in a processor rather than by hand can make them even more soggy, which can cause the cake to collapse. Ina Garten encountered the problem while watching a baker make a large batch of cakes, she recalled in her memoir. But the Barefoot Contessa worked out how to fix it: "The solution was to add a little flour to the wetter carrots," she wrote.

Garten still uses this flour tip when making carrot cake. She adds a tablespoon of the pantry staple to her mixture of grated carrots, dried fruit, and chopped nuts to "keep it from sinking to the bottom of the cake" (via YouTube). Including a little "hot and sweet" crystallized ginger to the dry mix adds even more flavor. And she advises using room-temperature eggs rather than fridge-cold, as they mix better with the batter.

A creamy yet tangy frosting is a key part of carrot cake, and Garten's version has a delicious twist: She uses Italian mascarpone as well as just the usual cream cheese. Beaten together with confectioners' sugar, cream, vanilla, and minced crystallized ginger, it creates a rich and flavorful topping and filling. Finally, try Garten's serving tip to make homemade cake look better — just place the cake cut side down rather than upright when you plate it.