Carrot Jam #Fail – But a Brilliant Carrot Cake

When you are reading through this food blog – or any other – don’t be fooled into thinking that we’ve got it all sorted in the kitchen.  Behind those gorgeously styled photo’s (well, gorgeously styled on other’s blogs, mostly thrown together on mine) are hours of chopping, slopping, slicing, mixing, spilling, cooking, arranging, cleaning up – and the occasional failure.  Such was the case for me (yet again) on the weekend.

While trawling the interwebz (instead of doing the washing/ironing/housework) I happened upon an inspiringly lovely image and recipe for carrot jam.  I’ve seen this in Middle Eastern grocery stores and often wondered about the flavours it might hold, but never taken the plunge.  Having been away from the kitchen for a week my cooking mojo was sparking and I had already made a batch of plum jam.   Not wanting to waste the elderly and now slightly bendy carrots in the optimistically named crisper, and with some clean jars still lying around, I was pretty sure this jam was in my immediate future.

The recipe I had found was spiced with cardamom, which I love but, never one to resist a tweak, I added lots of ginger and a cinnamon stick.  I followed the recipe to the letter and stirred diligently for over 40 minutes, but sadly never achieved the glistening, sticky consistency I had been promised.  Perhaps it was because I had grated the carrots in my Thermomix, thus slightly pulverising them, rather than using a grater – I just don’t know.  However, I was left with a saucepan full of very sweet, very fragrant, still slightly crunchy carrots that I had no intention of wasting.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by this, but there are quite limited uses for sweet carrots.  I knew the persnickety teens would probably turn their noses up at a carrot pudding and while the idea of a carrot baklava was very appealing, what  I was really looking for was a quick fix.  Once again casting my eye around the pantry and fridge for things that needed to be used up I found a tub of walnuts and a packet of cream cheese.  Carrot cake always inspires instant filial devotion in this house so there it was – a no brainer.

Most carrot cake recipes are probably basically the same, but this old standby has always pleased my lot.  I didn’t need to add sugar (the “jam” had 2 cups of sugar in it) and  reduced the amount of oil, but added another spoon of spices – I do like to taste them, after all!  This was unreservedly the best carrot cake I have ever made, although I couldn’t recommend my recent path as the most energy or time efficient way to get to the end result – however this simple recipe is  also very reliable just as it is.

 

1. 

   Pat Machin
   01/02/2013

   I’m glad you found such a delicious use for them – and got brownie points from the family as well.

2. 

   Kate
   02/02/2013

   Sad to hear about the carrot jam not jamming – maybe some commercial jam setter from the supermarket may have been needed as I doubt there is much pectin in carrots. Great save though !!

3. 

   Judy
   02/02/2013

   Nice cake Amanda and good to see your carrot jam was not wasted. There’s a carrot jam recipe on the forum which Bron posted – did you see that?

4. 

   Amanda McInerney
   02/02/2013

   Kate – it actually had a whole lemon in it and I used jam setting sugar (my favourite cheat), so it had no excuses really!
   Judy – I’ll hunt that down, thanks.

5. 

   Ann
   02/02/2013

   How ingenious of you to ‘repurpose’ your carrot concoction. The cake does indeed look fabulous. Perhaps you’ve discovered by accident that by cooking the carrots first, it makes for an even better result.

6. 

   K-bobo @ Gormandize with A-dizzle & K-bobo
   02/02/2013

   Sad to hear your jam was a sham! But good thinking using it up in carrot cake. Maybe the fact that the carrots were slightly soft to begin with was a factor?

   I made a delicious carrot and rosewater jam once, and it was a great success! The recipe is up on my blog if you ever want to try it again 😉

7. 

   Hotly Spiced
   02/02/2013

   Good on you for persevering. I have failures like that too where I follow the recipe and then it all goes pear-shaped and I’ve no idea why. But what a miracle you performed in turning a disaster into something wonderful – great turnaround! xx

8. 

   JJ - 84thand3rd
   02/02/2013

   So I had to giggle at your jam mishap but love the cake! I as well had a huge fail this weekend which is being rescued with all sorts of new evil plans… You know what they say about necessity and invention ;D

9. 

   Tandy
   03/02/2013

   What a great result for a failed jam. I love that you blogged about this. I’ve had failures in the kitchen as well 🙂

10. 

    Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
    03/02/2013

    What a shame that it didn’t work, I think grating them using a grater might help but I’d imagine that they’d still go quite mushy?

11. 

    The Food Sage
    04/02/2013

    Well saved! I love a good recipe disaster story … it reminds me that i’m normal! Carrot cake is a particular favourite of mine and this one looks lovely! Love your work, Amanda!

12. 

    Peter G | Souvlaki For The Soul
    05/02/2013

    Shame about the carrot jam! But the carrot cake looks scrumptious!

13. 

    Celia
    07/02/2013

    What a save! I love that you’ve created the best carrot cake you’ve ever eaten in the process! 🙂 xx