This recipe is the one I make when I need to make an impression. Since carrot cake seems relatively innocuous, nobody thinks you’re being a show-off. Plus, it’s so easy, you literally can’t ruin it. I’ll explain…

I once made this cake for a faux-Thanksgiving and accidentally used flour in lieu of half of the confectioner’s sugar called for in the recipe, (never mix-up your Mason jars) but even so, people ate it up. Not just to be polite, although I think it went down a little easier since so much wine had been imbibed.

Another time, I made this for a real Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws house. Needless to say, I neglected to flour the greased pan, and ended up removing the cake in chunks. Even so, it was incredible: nothing like a thick cream cheese frosting to layer into your dough and glue things right up.

What I’m saying is that this cake simply can’t be ruined, even if you commit the most egregious of cooking errors. And when you do it right, it’s mind-blowing.

I recently had a Sunday afternoon to spend with my friend Katelyn, and we decided to make this in a more diminutive form–the kind that’s easily shared and wins you lots of friends and fans. Every crumb of our cupcakes seemed suspended in air, or perhaps a lattice-work of carrot and coconut shreds. There was the occasional walnut to add texture and the slight tartness of the cream cheese did wonders for off-setting the sweetness of the caramelized batter.

The recipe below is copied almost exactly from Saveur, although I like to add 1/4 c of maple syrup to the batter and sprinkle toasted coconut on top of the finished product (usually 1/2 cup will do). When I do this as a full-sized cake, I bake 2 rounds, double the frosting and make a layer cake with walnuts along the sides and coconut on top.

Carrot Cake (Cupcakes)

Makes 24

BATTER:

Nonstick cooking spray
2 cups sugar
1 1⁄2 cups canola oil
3 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. fine salt
1  8-oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained
1  7-oz. bag shredded sweetened coconut
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large carrots, trimmed and finely shredded (about 2 cups)

ICING:

3 cups confectioners’ sugar
3⁄4 lb. cream cheese, softened
8 tbsp. salted butter, softened
1⁄2 tsp. vanilla extract

CAKE: Preheat oven to 350°.

Fill 12 cupcake tins with liners. (You’ll do this twice.)

Put sugar, oil, and eggs into a large bowl and whisk until well combined.

Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt and stir with a wooden spoon until just mixed together into a batter.

Add pineapple with juice, coconut, walnuts, vanilla, and carrots and gently fold together until combined.

Transfer batter to prepared pan, smooth top with a rubber spatula, and bake until deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean, 50–55 minutes. Set cake aside to let cool completely.

ICING: Put sugar, cream cheese, butter, and vanilla into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy, 4–5 minutes.

Generously frost each cupcake (once cooled) and sprinkle the top with toasted coconut.

This soup is nothing to mess with. It is loaded with vitamins, antioxidants, immune-enhancers and most importantly, tons of flavor. If I were a germ, I’d scoot right out of my host body and prey upon someone else. So make sure your friends have batches on hand.

This particular carrot ginger soup came to me from the pages of Candle Café Cookbook, one of my favorite vegetarian cooking resources from one of my favorite vegetarian eating resources, the Candle Café in New York. I used to live around the corner and went there whenever I felt the urged to be elixed.

Have you ever felt so energized by a meal that it literally feels as though all of the nutrition you just ate went straight into your bloodstream? That is how I feel when I eat a great, vegetarian meal. That is how I feel when I eat at Candle Café… and now, that I how I feel when I make their recipes at home.

Imagine my excitement when I found that I could buy the Candle Café cookbook and get that fix whenever I pleased? Elated, that’s how… as though some wonderful adrenal force was coursing through my veins. Some people take drugs; I take carrot soup.

I could go on and on about the recipes in that cookbook. Unlike so many restaurants, which seem to have trouble paring their industrial sized recipes down to the scale of a domestic kitchen, the folks at Candle Café make it possible for you to actually recreate their meals. Hold on, I feel a rush coming on.

I garnished this soup with another recipe (adapted slightly) from the book—a miso tahini dipping sauce with shaved carrots and ginger. It balanced the sweetness of the carrot puree with its rich, salty sesame flavor. I added a cold dollop of it onto the warm soup, and I must say, the temperature contrast was really dynamic and heightened the complementary flavors. If you don’t want to get sick, but you do want to get high… make this soup.

Velvety Carrot and Ginger Soup

From Candle Café Cookbook

Serves 4-6

1 Tbsp olive oil
3 medium onions, peeled and chopped
5 cups of vegetable broth
6 large carrots, peeled and chopped
3 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground coriander
pinch of cayenne
sea sat and freshly ground pepper, to taste

In a large, heavy bottomed stockpot, heat olive oil. Add onions and sauté for about 7 minutes, or until golden.

Add the broth, a cup of water, the carrots and 2 tbsp of ginger. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for about 20 minutes, or until carrots are tender.

Remove pot from heat and cool for about an hour (if you don’t have an hour, be sure to pure the soup in small batches to prevent heat-related blender accidents…)

Pure the soup in a food processor or blender. Add the remaining ginger, cinnamon and coriander and blend again until very smooth. Serve warm or cold with a dollop of miso tahini dipping sauce and chopped scallions or chives.

Miso Tahini Dipping Sauce

1 c sweet, white miso
1 c water
1 c grated carrot
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
3 tbsp tahini

Pure miso and water in a blender or food processor. Whisk in tahini until incorporated. Mix in carrots and ginger. Store refrigerated up to 1 week.

But what I love most about September is its people. My sister, my father, both of my grandfathers, my mother and father in law (to be), and me, too… all September babies. All of those lives coming into the world is really something to cheer about. Clearly our forefathers were having fun at Christmastime—and happened to make a long string of personal holidays nine months later.

This year I had a beautiful day, full of cupcakes, good wine and some twenty-five elementary students singing me the birthday song over a batch of recently baked zucchini muffins. It was quite blissful, especially since I’m currently anticipating a lot of wonderful changes…none the least of which is a trip down the aisle a week hence—followed promptly by a long drive down Highway 1.

But before once celebration is swallowed by another, I’d like to take a moment and pay homage to the homage recently paid to my sister Lily, who turned a year wiser this month. May she eat carrots in the form of cake for decades to come. And may I always be the one to bake them that way.

We started the tradition of carrot cake last year, when I made some cupcakes. This year, things got a little more serious with the addition of some key, New England ingredients, and an added layer to a full-grown version. Even though we abandoned the diminutive cakes, we stuck with some important elements, including toasted walnuts and classic cream cheese frosting, smoothed on top, over the sides, and in a thick layer between. It was a great way to mark a year’s worth of improved baking. Just a subtle, nutty and sweet hint of autumn’s favorite foods, folded into the batter and laced into the cake’s silky, white dress. God bless New England at the onset of fall—and hip hip hooray for all the lovers out there. The holidays are just around the corner.

Maple Walnut Carrot Cake

1.5 c chopped, toasted walnuts
2 ½ c grated carrots
½ c pure maple syrup
2 cups sugar
1.5 c vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp kosher salt

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/2 cup soft, unsalted butter
16 oz cream cheese (2 regular sized packages)
4 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
zest of 2 lemons
¼ c pure maple syrup

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For Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Blend maple syrup, sugar, oil and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Beating in eggs one at a time.

In another bowl, sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

Gently blend dry ingredients into wet ingredients.

Fold in carrots and 1 c walnuts.

Divide equally into two 9 x 2” cake pans and bake 30 minutes.

Let stand on wire rack to cool completely.

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For Frosting

With a hand or stand mixer, blend butter, cream cheese, vanilla extract, lemon juice and maple syrup until creamy.

Add confectioners sugar and mix to incorporate.

When cakes are cool, place one top down (so that the flat side faces up) on a platter.

Generously top with frosting—the layer must be thick enough to stand up once another layer of cake is placed on top. Sprinkle with half of remaining walnuts.

Place second cake on top of the first, also with the top down.

Spread remaining frosting over the top and sides of cake.

Garnish with leftover walnuts.

I found myself once again headed home with a bunch of beautiful, twisted, dirty, orange carrots, wondering what I could do to give them the platform they deserved. With so much visual character, they deserved to be featured on their own, instead of being chopped and softened into something else. Once again, it boiled down to beans. This purée can be quick or involved: it’s delicious from a couple of cans, or with a long soak of dried Cannellinis. Either way, you’ll add a few aromatics, do some blending, and find yourself with a supremely satisfying snack.

I will also say this: although I’ve grown out of ascribing myself with titles and am wary of announcing any dietary restrictions, I do eat a predominantly vegetarian diet. I’ll have a piece of meat from time to time, as long as I have a pretty good idea of where it came from and how it lived. Soaking some beans (or even opening a can—the best come from Eden Organics) requires a lot less research, however. And, in my opinion, a bowl of beans is as satisfying as any burger. Really. You think I’m crazy, but when is the last time you ate a whole bowl of home-made beans?

More likely than not, the idea of a bowl of beans recalls a little ditty not sung to the tune of “Wild Thing.” Bart Simpson loves to sing it, and so do most finicky child eaters I know. In fact, I’ve heard nervous adult eaters repeat it, too. It makes me temporarily sad for the beans until I remember that it’s all based on ignorance. Poor, deprived folk who don’t understand that such a simple dilemma can be easily resolved.

Yes, beans are magical—musical even, depending on your rendition—but they do not have to produce after-effects that would drive away a blind date or a bed mate. Yes you CAN serve beans to your significant other and not worry about being fumigated (or worse fumigating) from under the covers. Just make sure to rinse the beans thoroughly. As thoroughly as possible. Whether you’ve soaked them for hours or just emptied a can, it is possible to change their gastronomical effects by washing off the oligosaccharides responsible for the infamous toot. Anyhow, I dare you to ignore the medical validity of such a big word for bean sugar.

Enough about that. Back to these white beans, so soft and savory; so perfectly flecked with garlic and rosemary, themselves such excellent accompaniments to the carrot. In winter I love roasted carrots with olive oil, salt and rosemary sprigs, though after trying the combination of carrots and white bean dip, I may never again serve the roasted roots alone. This purée is great on salads as well—I plopped a bit onto some balsamic roasted tomatoes with Arugula and pine nuts and was, once again, deeply satisfied…with not even a hint of tummy-rumbling.

White Bean Purée With Rosemary and Garlic

serves 8

(This is the quick version, although you can also use an equivalent amount of soaked beans)

2 15 oz cans Cannellini beans (reserve 1/2 c liquid)

2 large garlic cloves, diced

2-3 rosemary sprigs, stripped and diced plus 1 tsp for garnish

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 c olive oil, plus extra for garish

S & P

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Purée beans in a food processor or blender, adding lemon juice and olive oil.

Add garlic, salt and pepper and taste.

If dip is too thick, add some reserved bean juice.

Stir in rosemary and garnish with 1 tsp rosemary and olive oil.

Serve with your favorite summer vegetable, crackers or pita chips

(the “Urban Farmer”)

We ate at home on Saturday night and had to supplement our local veggie selection with some store-bought peppers from Mexico, and some bacon from a far away hog farm. Otherwise, the venison we grilled was killed here in Texas (by a sharp-shooting guest), the carrots were from the self-proclaimed urban farmer pictured above –who also happens to be the purveyor of the strawberries I love so well–and the Portobellos, tomatoes and lettuce for the salad all came from Mid-town.

It was a grand evening, if slightly barbaric for the leftover sausages and venison shanks that are making my fridge smell like the ice box in “Little House on the Prairie.”

Learn more about how to dress your table with sustainable eats from findingDulcinea’s Web Guide to Socially Responsible Food. It’s chock full of good resources, no matter where you reside, or what food rules you wish to abide. By.