Can You Use Baby Carrots To Make A Cake?
If you want to whip up a carrot cake but you only have baby carrots on hand, you might find yourself wondering if the smaller vegetable can make for an acceptable substitute. Though they're most often used for snacking, these tiny treats aren't actually a different variety. In fact, they're made from standard carrots. When the root vegetables are fully grown and ready to harvest, baby carrots are made by cutting out smaller pieces of carrot and peeling them to shape. Since they're whittled down from the full-size vegetable, they can be swapped into any recipe that calls for carrots — including carrot cake.
The snack-size veggies can be grated down just like the regular kind. However, since they are smaller, they may require some extra grating work. Rather than consistently grating down one large carrot, you'll need to keep swapping in the smaller variety. But, if you have a food processor with a shredding disc, you can simply use the appliance to grate them down.
How baby carrots benefit bakes
Once the baby carrots have been shredded, they can be swapped into your recipe that calls for standard carrots. Of course, you'll want to make sure you're substituting an equal amount. Taste- and appearance-wise, the two are nearly identical.
One distinction is that baby carrots are packaged in bags pre-peeled. This does mean that they have a shorter shelf life than skin-on typical-sized carrots, but so long as they're still fresh, they can save you a step if the recipe calls for peeling the carrots.
Baby carrots may even be a little sweeter than the full-size variety, which could lend itself nicely to desserts like carrot cake or cupcakes. Full-size carrots have a core in the upper part of the vegetable, which can taste slightly bitter. When baby carrots are cut and shaped, this section is avoided, leaving only the sweetest, natural orange carrot flesh. When these are used for carrot cakes, that extra sweetness could help make your bakes taste even better.
Differences between baby and full-size carrots
Although baby carrots work great in a carrot cake recipe, there are some key differences to note. As carrots are cut down, they do lose a small amount of the nutritional value. According to the New York Times, baby carrots have 20% less Vitamin A and 50% less Vitamin C when compared to full-size carrots due to the loss of the outer skin.
Some bakers may be discouraged by the appearance of the baby carrots when they come out of the bag. If they dry out, they can develop a thin white coating. This appears because of the lack of outer peel, but it is completely safe to eat, according to the USDA. The carrots may be a little drier than you'd like, so they can be soaked in water to regain some of that needed moisture. It's for this reason that they're often packaged in water, so they may also be a little wet.
If you find you only have baby carrots on hand when it's time to bake a carrot cake, they can certainly be used as an acceptable swap. The smaller vegetables may have minor differences as compared to the full-size ones, but the taste and texture will yield the same results for your dessert.
Puree baby carrots for even more flavor
Although baby carrots may be an easy swap for standard carrot cake recipes, there is one other addition that could add in some extra flavor and moisture: Baby food. Scoop out a little bit of carrot baby food from the jar, then add it to your cake batter. The smooth mixture will infuse carrot flavor throughout the cake batter, rather than just little bursts from the grated carrot pieces.
If you don't have baby food in your pantry, those baby carrots can also come in handy when preparing your own carrot puree for this purpose. Once the baby carrots have been cooked and softened, they can be blended with a little bit of liquid until smooth. You can even add typical carrot cake seasonings — like cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger — to the puree to amplify the flavor even more.
Of course, since this puree will contribute a little extra liquid, you may want to adjust your other ingredients to ensure that the texture of the batter stays consistent. If your recipe calls for water or milk, you can try omitting a little bit to account for the baby carrot puree. This addition will not only make your cake extra moist, it can also add a brighter orange color to the dessert.