I attempted the Flourless Carrot Cake over the weekend and, sad to say, cakewrecked it pretty badly.
Everything went well until I removed the ring mold prior to icing. At that point, the top carrot layer broke and collapsed. Thankfully, the Mt. Vesuvius variation was still amenably tasty to my forgiving diners. It was disappointing in the moment to watch my efforts melt away, but still fun to practice all of the techniques incorporated in the dish. I'm looking forward to trying again.
Looking back, I believe I made two mistakes. Sharing them here in hopes that others can avoid doing the same:
- I didn't measure the height of the layers, instead pouring the entire bag of the cooked custard each time. The vertical proportion of the layers seemed taller than the recipe demonstrated, but in my focus to get the custard into the mold before it set, I forgot to measure the height.
- I overlapped the setting time and cooking time. Rather than set for fifteen minutes, then cook for nine and pour, I started cooking the next layer after six minutes of setting. This had me pouring the next layer after fifteen minutes, not twenty-four minutes. This may not have left enough time for the layers to set.
Other observations were that the carrot puree looked appreciably darker than the video (which I presume relates to variation in carrots) and that the flavor profile was somewhat reminiscent of indian pudding. Yum.
