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Join Mrs Crocombe in her kitchen as she prepares a carrot cake the Victorian way – but would you call this a cake?
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INGREDIENTS
• 6 big carrots, the redder the better;
• A crème pâtissière made with 250ml/½ UK pint of milk, 2 egg yolks, 25g/1oz flour, 55g/2oz sugar plus a little orange flower water and a knob of butter;
• 170g/6oz caster sugar;
• 3 eggs, of which 2 separated;
• 55g/2oz melted butter, plus more for greasing the tin;
• Fine breadcrumbs;
• Optional: Candied orange peel for garnish.
METHOD (A modern recipe based on Dolby’s Cook’s Dictionary (1830), a book we know Mrs Crocombe had access to)
Peel and trim the carrots, then boil them in slightly salted water until they’re tender. Remove the cores, drain and then purée them. Put them in a big pan over a low heat and dry them out (you could also put them in a low oven). Cool.
Make a crème pâtissière using the proportions above and when done, mix in the carrot purée. Add 2 whole eggs and the yolks of 3 more, along with the melted butter and sugar. Whip the remaining 3 egg whites to stiff peak, then fold them through the mixture.
Prepare a cake tin or Charlotte mould by greasing it and lining it with fine breadcrumbs (as you would for a soufflé). Pour in your mixture, and bake for around 45 mins at 180°C / 340°F. Serve hot.
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(light music) – Ah, hello. Hasn’t it turned cold again? Today, I’m making a carrot cake, although really, it’s more of a pudding. It’s an excellent way to add
colour to an autumnal table. For this recipe, you will need: (light music continues) carrots, crème pâtissière, sugar, eggs, butter, and breadcrumbs. (light music continues) I’m going to start with my carrots. Although this cake tastes very good, the colour is also very important, so you must pick the reddest
carrots you can find. I’m going to peel them and then
boil them in a little salt. (knife taps) (knife scrapes) Carrots are a most curious vegetable. Some people don’t like them
because they’re too sweet. However, they’re really
useful in the kitchen for adding to stocks and
stews to create flavour, and as a vegetable dish, as an entremet to add much-needed colour
to the second course. There are many different
colours in carrots: white, purple, orange, red, although I think the orange and red ones have always been the most popular. Mr Vert grows them very well
in many different shades, so I can use whichever
colour suits my cooking. And now I’m going to boil them. (light music) My carrots are cooked and drained. I’m going to cut them in
half, take out the core ’cause it tends to be
woody, and then chop them and pass them through
this sieve to purée them. (knife taps) I would rather call it a carrot pudding, but then, I do make a carrot
pudding and that has pastry. (carrots squish) Now my carrots need to dry on the range. I’ll leave it for Mary Ann to look after. (light music) Now I’m going to make the cake. I’ve got some crème pâtissière here, which is like a stiff custard. It has flour in it. Mary Ann has made it, and it looks like she’s done a good job. The first time she made it,
I had to sieve out the lumps. Now I’m going to separate two eggs. (egg taps) (egg taps) And I’m going to add a
whole egg to my yolks. (egg taps) I’m gonna add the carrot to my custard, some sugar, the eggs, and now I’m going to whisk my whites. (whisk taps)
(egg whites splash) I’m now going to add my
egg whites to the mix. (whisk scrapes) Carrots are a very useful
vegetable to grow in the garden. When I was younger and times were hard, sometimes my mother would replace sugar, in the puddings, with carrots. I suppose if sugar was short, you could replace it in
cakes, like a pound cake. That would then be a carrot cake. (light music) Mary Ann has lined my dish
with butter and breadcrumbs, as you would a soufflé tin. I’m now going to pour in my mixture and then cook it for about 45 minutes. (spoon taps) (light music) And now my cake is cooked. I’m going to decorate it with some of these thinly
cut candied orange peel. And there we are, carrot cake, a lovely warming dish for
an autumnal family dinner. (light music) (light music continues)
41 Comments
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Ooh, carrots! Is it true they weren’t always orange?
Totally true. The first cultivated carrots were white, followed by purple and yellow. The orange carrot was bred in the Netherlands in the 16th century and became popular over the next 100 years or so. In Britain, this is sometimes attributed to the presence of William of Orange on the throne from 1688-1702, but orange carrots were preferred across Europe, so this seems highly unlikely.
What will happen to the peelings?
You don’t really need to peel carrots – though for a pudding like this, and at this level of society they always would have been. Vegetable peelings would either have gone to make stock (a very basic one) or, if they weren’t suitable, for pig swill.
How is this a cake?
It isn’t a cake in the modern sense. The confusion probably comes from the fact that the recipe was originally in French, and was called a gâteau, which was then (mis)translated as ‘cake’. Avid Mrs Crocombe fans will know that her gâteau de pommes [sic] is also quite a long way from anything we’d call a gâteau or a cake today. Other recipes like this are called pudding. Many have a pastry case.
How do we get from here to modern (western) carrot cake?
It’s a mixture of factors. Carrots were added into cakes and more solid puddings (such as Christmas pudding) to add sweetness and replace some sugar, and this became quite common during both World Wars. In the USA, carrot cake became popular in its own right. Oil replaced butter in the 1960s, and the cream-cheese frosting was also added. However, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the American-style carrot cake took off more globally. There is also an East Asian carrot cake, popular for breakfast in Singapore. It’s a steamed rice flour cake with shredded daikon (white radish) mixed into the batter, which is then fried and served with egg and vegetables, a choice of light soy or a darker, sweeter soy-based sauce.
Yay. More Mrs Crocombe. I've been yearning for another video 😊
As of 92 degrees ferenhitre and 52% humidity it has not gone cold again. Much to all regrets 😅
Not me eating a bowl of generic Cap'n Crunch saying, "Ah yes, a fine dessert indeed!"
microphone placement was "off" for this episode. I could hear everything clearly EXCEPT for the speech.
Absolutely love these videos
That egg crate! I’m in love!
Carrot breeds grown today rarely have woody cores, but in the 19th century that was sometimes a concern, especially with more mature carrots.
I’m always disappointed by the small batches shown in this series. The real Mrs. Crocombe was cooking for about 25-30 people (including all the staff on the estate).
Thanks a lot for another extraordinary recipe!! I love it!!
PS.: Mrs. Crocombe, could please prepare a Pavlova Cake?
I’m a simple being, i see mrs crocombe and I hit like
These videos make my day! Ty ty ty ❤
'She's providing so much shade, she thinks it's autumn.' – my mother, an Avid Avis fan
I wonder if when Avis Crocombe married Benjamin Stride in 1884 (3 years after this video's timeline, I assume?) & left Audley End, if Mary Ann got promoted to her position? It seems in this video & the seed cake tea time video, that she has gotten much better at cooking.
Love watching her videos ❤
Looks very good but I wanted to see how to slice and serve it! 😊
Imagine organizing, prepping and then making 3 meals a day (4 if tea is included) for both family, guests and staff.
Naughty, naughty Marianne for making such a lumpy custard 🥣
Literally top 5 favorite YouTube shows ever 🤩
No spies?! It needs it! Ginger! Allspice. Mace. Cinnamon. Something!
She left half of the mixture in the bowel, also she did not take it out of the basin when cooked.
Mrs. Crocombe is back!!!!
Did they not have spatulas in Victorian times,?
Would any of the historical interpreters be interested in doing a “The Wartime Way”? Where we rediscover recipes from the home front? I would love to see that.
If one ever finds a tiny Mrs Crocombe effigy doll amongst Mary Ann's personal possessions, one won't be too surprised.
The first time watch your video. Like this carrot cake recipe❤
"Hasn't it turned cold again?"
Currently under a heat wave advisory
The cake looks like a Brazil carrot cake (best cake ever). If you change the cream to flour, you have our carrot cake. The difference, is that we use chocolat to decorate
Where's the cinnamon tho😢
I have GOT to make this. <3
Everyone in the US, you were expecting something else, weren't you. I was.
Poor Mary Anne and her lumpy creme patissier 😂
Love the history lesson and demonstration of Victorian-era cooking techniques, but perhaps this turned out too runny to serve. I suggest a compilation video in which Mrs. C pours the tea on a few dishes that did not go to plan, and why. That raw-and-soggy-looking pigeon pie comes to mind
My dear Mrs. Crocombe, it is far from colder in the USA right now. It’s currently 36 degrees at nearly midnight.
That carrot cake method is not for me. Thanks.
Mrs Crocombe is certainly a highly dignified queen of breadcrumbs.👑🍞
I think, going by the ingredients and method, the texture would be mousse-like, therefore, it would be spooned, not cut.
Mercy, could we not have seen it spooned onto a plate? It's hard ti get enthusiastic about a recipe when all you see of the finished product is a baked surface garnished with candied citrus peel….🥺
I would have liked to have seen it turned out
I want that mixing bowl she's using. Looks amazing!
00:29 “Hasn’t it turned cold again?!” Nope! July 29th; Sitting in Florida, 98 degrees, 75% humidity. 🙄