This is actually one of my favorite cake flavors. I am not a big cake eater…although I love to decorate these pastries. Carrot cake, spice cake, and gingerbread with boiled frosting are my favorites any day. These dense, moist, spicy cakes just satisfy the tongue and the tooth.

I have been reluctant to try much gluten-free baking beyond cookies since my weird chocolate cake experiments. But this recipe developed by The Culinary Institute of America had the secret…egg whites. Egg proteins really create the structure of the cake pastry as the gluten proteins take a backseat. Folding in those egg whites whipped into soft peaks made all the difference between a fluffy moist crumb and a rock hard doorstop.

This recipe is labor intensive. It required three separate ingredient bowls, draining carrot juice, separating eggs, and two 6″ cake pans to bring to life this gluten-free delight. (Can I brag about my cake pan collection sizes 6″ to 14″? But really, who normally has 6″ cake pans?) It took about an hour to make the cake batter which seems entirely too liquid to bake into anything delectable. And it took 48 minutes in my burns-hot-electric-oven to bake the cake. The recipe then calls for letting the cake cool entirely in the pan. When I took turned the cake out, it seemed as if the bottom were a bit soggy, like well, the cake cooled in the pan; condensation pooling under that delicate layer. But now I think the moisture retention was intentional and adds to the tender, if a bit spongy, texture of this very good gluten-free carrot cake.

In my opinion, this recipe could use a few more spicy additions like more cinnamon and perhaps ground cloves?? It was a bit bland. And the frosting needs a bit more of that smooth cream cheese tang and a bit less sugar. Oh that toddler desert sugar buzz before bath and bedtime, not so good.

I found Gluten-Free Baking with The Culinary Institute of America at my library. (Always a good idea to try out the recipes before buying the book.) Although the introduction to Celiac disease diagnosis in the first chapters scared my socks off (I am not medically diagnosed), I am eager to try a few more recipes from this publication. “Cheers” from the gluten-free blogger who ate carrot cake for breakfast this morning.