The Unexpected Veggie To Add For An Ultra Moist Carrot Cake

Despite its ubiquity, carrot cake is actually one of the more challenging bakes. It's easy to make but hard to make superbly. And one of the biggest roadblocks to a sublime carrot cake is the moistness. It's really frustrating to put that much work into a cake only to have it turn out dry and crumbly.

The carrots are partially to blame. They don't have much moisture compared to other veggies as is, but they also dry out really quickly after you shred them, creating loads of surface area for moisture to evaporate from. You could shred your carrots at the last minute and buy a special jug of buttermilk you aren't going to finish, but a recipe with hurdles is a recipe you won't use.

Fortunately, there's an easier way. Adding some high-moisture shredded zucchini to your tried-and-true carrot cake recipe can help it stay moist and tender for days. And thanks to the green vegetable's neutral flavor, it lets the sweet, earthy flavor of the carrots and mesmerizing aroma of warming spices come through as strongly as they always have.

You can substitute up to half the carrots (by volume) in your carrot cake for zucchini. Just peel and grate the zucchini on the smallest grating holes or food processor disk. You don't want the zucchini to stand out in any way or create unnecessary texture. Using the smallest grating size means the moist inner flesh disappears into the cake.

It may seem counterintuitive, but you also need to drain the zucchini using a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth, just like you would in a zucchini bread recipe. It has much more water in it than you probably think. Don't be surprised if you wonder for a moment if you accidentally got cucumbers. You (probably) didn't. So just gently squeeze out the excess, then toss the zucchini with the carrots before stirring it into the batter to ensure even distribution.

The zucchini blends consistently into the batter with the carrots, leaving you with a moist, tender crumb in a cake that tastes just how you remember it. And the finished cake should stay moist for several days without the need for a simple syrup soak or any other less desirable life-extending measures.