Carrot Poppy-Seed Morning Cake

I promised to post this recipe to everyone that sampled it.  An interesting aside, we ate this every morning with breakfast while we were enjoying a delightful weekend at Deep Creek Lake with Wineandjoy and Tastebuddy.  The food was marvelous, and, of course, the wine selections were superb!  Those that had conventional cold cereals for breakfast commented that the cereals were sweeter than this "morning" cake.  A testimony of sorts to the high fructose corn syrup in the cereals!  This morning cake could easily be a healthy dessert with a little fresh fruit or sauce on top, or not.  Earthy, luscious, crunchy with poppy-seeds and walnuts – utterly delicious. 

The recipe is adapted from The Vegetarian Planet, a wonderful creative tome from Didi Emmons that has sustained the cooks in our family for many years.  I made only a few changes and will play around more with this recipe in the future.

3/4 pounds organic carrots, peeled and chopped (the sweeter, the better)
1 C plus unbleached white flour
1 C white whole wheat flour
1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 organic eggs
3/4 C organic cane sugar
2/3 C canola oil
2 heaping T poppy seeds
1/3 C organic buttermilk or whole milk yoghurt

Streusel topping:
1/2 C poppy seeds
2 T butter, softened, plus some for greasing tube pan
1 1/3 C walnuts
1/2 C moscovado brown sugar, lightly packed (or dark brown sugar)
3 T unbleached white flour

Preheat oven to 350.  Use butter on paper toweling to grease a Bundt pan, or tube pan.  Grind carrots in a food processor until they are close to a puree.  Set aside in a small bowl.  Place streusel ingredients in the processor bowl and blend for about 1 minute until a uniform crumble is attained.  Set aside.

Using a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and combine with the sugar, canola oil, 2 T poppy seeds and buttermilk or yoghurt.  Add this mixture to the dry ingredients, stirring until well combined. 

Pour half the batter into the prepared pan.  Distribute half of the streusel mixture on top of the batter.  Pour the rest of the batter on top and finish with the remaining streusel, lightly tapping it onto the batter with your fingers.

Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into center remains clean.  Cook cake in its pan for 30 minutes before removing it from the pan.  Serve at room temperature, even better the next few days!

Note:  In this entry I emphasized the “organic” in the ingredients – I try to use organic as much as possible, feasibly as well as financially, not only for health reasons but for the superior flavor profiles.  I seldom write it repeatedly into recipes – this was just a reminder.  It is amazing how a smaller amount of very high quality food satisfies better than a large amount of lesser ingredients.

Comments

[Elle]

This looks great-have you ever tried to bake with rice bran oil. It has so much natural vitamin E that it acts like a natural preservative. Plus, it is not genetically modified like canola.

[Sarena]

That looks so good! I have been on a pumpkin kick lately...this looks like a good way to change it up. I bought poppyseeds not too long ago and have yet to come across something I really want to make with them. I will definitely try this!