A Purple Carrot Cake and Chanterelles

Note to readers: that title is not A Purple Carrot Cake WITH Chanterelles. And thank heavens, right? But seriously, before we get into the cake, I just bought some chanterelles at the farmer's market.



Can anyone tell me what to do with them? I kind of want to toss them in a casserole but I think they deserve more. I am not too familiar with mushroom-kind, though, so I'm having some block about it. Any ideas?



Anyways, fall is my favorite. Can you tell? It's almost Halloween, and it's starting to feel like the end of harvest time (and the beginning of holiday party time!).



I planted purple carrots in my garden this year. Just for funsies. I was nervous, I have a friend who planted all kinds of wacky colored produce in her garden last year. And they all grew up normal and regular-colored. Depressing.



But I thought I'd give the purplies a go anyway, and guess what! Purple. And, unlike last year, where I successfully grew one carrot only (SNAAAILS!), this year they grew in rows. And I have tons.



Of course, the fun thing about purple carrots is the color. So I'm starting with a purple carrot cake. I'm looking forward later this week to cream of purple carrot soup and baked purple carrots. Hooray!



As usual with me, the frosting is the best part (I am not trying to brag, I have just found a failproof recipe. For this cake, I substituted the champagne for maple syrup and a bit of milk). But the rest of the cake was good too, and chock full of walnuts and cinnamon, just like a I like a spicy fall cake to be.



And it's kind of Halloween-y, don't you think? It isn't daarlingly Halloween-y, like these. I'm afraid I might have to save that kind of creative innovation for when I have kids around to appreciate it. But it is unusual. Purple cake.



Yeah!



PURPLE CARROT CAKE (adapted from Mastering Finnish Cooking)

Ingredients

300g plain flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
200g soft brown sugar
4 eggs
250ml oil
1 orange, zested
1 lemon, zested
200g purple carrots, finely grated (regular carrots are fine too :))
150g walnuts, chopped

Maple Buttercream Frosting

Remember to switch out the champagne for 2 T maple and 1 T milk!

1. Heat the oven to 300. Butter and flour two cake pans. Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda together and stir in the sugar.

2. Beat the eggs with the oil and citrus zests. Stir in the carrots and fold everything into the flour mixture. Fold in the walnuts.

3. Spoon the mixture evenly into the pans and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool.

4. Make the frosting. Spread a thick layer on top of the cake, making sure the side of the icing is flat and continues upwards from the side of the cake.

Yum purple!