Tag: chef ramsey best recipes

Best Ever Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is one of those cakes that’s full of potential, but somehow people always seem to mess with perfection. I mean, really, who decided that adding pineapples and raisins to carrot cake was necessary? No one sits around eating pineapples and carrots together. It makes no sense. I also personally only like the pecans on the outside of the cake, but that’s not a deal breaker. Don’t even get me started on people who use buttercream instead of cream cheese icing for carrot cake. Admittedly, all of these things are extremely trivial… Sometimes I surprise even myself with the amount of useless thought I put into food.

I’m sure you’ve all noticed that I’m a huge fan of Jaclyn over at Cooking Classy because her pictures are always beautiful and everything she posts is absolutely amazing. This cake is a perfect example because, well, this cake is perfect. It is hands down the best carrot cake I have ever made or tried. The only thing I changed is the amount of cream cheese icing (I did one and a half of the recipe). The recipe itself is flawless. I wanted to savor this cake for as long as possible, but it was so good I found myself cutting a piece every time I walked by the fridge. I have zero restraint. I hope you enjoy!

Best Ever Carrot Cake
Recipe from Cooking Classy

Serving Size: 12 Servings
Ingredients

4 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup applesauce

2 cups granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3 cups lightly packed finely grated carrots*

1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows

2/3 cup chopped pecans

Cream Cheese Frosting*
12 ounces (1 1/2 8 ounce packages) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup salted butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 cups powdered sugar

*This is 1 1/2 times the original recipe. Scale it back if you like a bit less frosting.
Directions
  • Preheat
    oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 9″ round cake pans with aluminum foil,
    leaving an overhang on two side. Grease foil and dust with flour, set
    aside. (This cake can also be made in a 9×13 dish just increase baking
    time to 40 – 50 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out
    clean, I have even halved the recipe and baked it in and 8×8 dish).
  • In
    a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt,
    cinnamon and nutmeg. In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer,
    combine vegetable oil, applesauce, eggs, granulated sugar and vanilla.
    Slowly stir in dry ingredients and mix until well blended. Stir in
    grated carrots. Divide mixture evenly into 2 prepared cake pans. Bake
    cakes in preheat oven for 35-39 minutes until toothpick inserted into
    center comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool 5 minutes in
    cake dishes before removing to a wire rack to cool. Lift cakes out of
    pan with foil overhang and allow to cool on wire rack completely before
    frosting (once cool I cut about 1/4″ off the tops to even them out
    before frosting, you’ll notice the centers don’t rise as high as the
    rest). Flip cakes upside down when frosting with Cream Cheese Frosting.
    Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Store cake in airtight container.
  • *Grate carrots on small grate of a grater. This is usually 6-7 medium carrots.
  • Cream Cheese Frosting
  • In
    a large bowl, using an electric mixer, whip together cream cheese,
    butter and vanilla until fluffy. Stir in powdered sugar and mix until
    well combine.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

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The Best Steak Marinade

Step that steak up a few notches with an excellent marinade. Maybe something special for Father’s Day.

The inspiration is a very common recipe around the internet on blogs and recipe sites. The original (I think) is known as “Best Steak Marinade in Existence” on Allrecipes.com.   Only a few changes to simplify and some rounding for a smaller (Cooking For Two) amount. Plus I didn’t bother with running though a blender.

I generally buy very good beef so a marinade just seems wrong on a filet
or porterhouse. Just some salt, pepper and a little garlic please. Strip steaks have just not been our favorites over the
years but the best looking steaks at the market were the strips. I had
just read
Simple Steak Marinade by Chris at Nibble Me This and a marinade seem great but I’m not a “beer person” so Google was my friend again. If your a beer person, check out Chris’ post.

Rating:

A 5 minus. I don’t frequently marinade steak but this is good enough to start doing it a lot more. My wife felt it was the best strip steak she has had in years.

Notes:Run though a blender if you want but it doesn’t seem necessary to me. Use black pepper if you don’t have white. Add a pinch of crushed red pepper or a hot or pepper sauce if you want.

In a 1 gallon zip lock bag combine: 3 T soy sauce, 4 T olive oil, 3 T lemon juice, 2 T Worcestershire sauce, 2 t garlic powder, 1 1/2 T dry basil, 2 t dry parsley flakes and 1/2 t white pepper.

Trim your steaks of extra fat. Here are two strip steaks about 12 oz each. (I do not want to hear about not doing this to a strip steak)

Add the steaks to the bag, squeeze out the air and mush the steaks around to get them coated well. Refrigerate for 2 to 8 hours. Longer should be fine.

Remove from the marinade and discard the marinade. Grill as usual. Here I’m grilled over high heat for about 15 minutes total.

Allow to rest for 5 minutes or so before cutting.

The Best Steak Marinade
by DrDan at 101 Cooking for Two June-14-2013

Step that steak up a few notches with an excellent marinade.

Ingredients
  • 3 T soy sauce
  • 4 T olive oil
  • 3 T lemon juice
  • 2 T Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 t garlic powder
  • 1 1/2 T dry basil
  • 2 t dry parsley flakes
  • 1/2 t white pepper (or black if you don’t have it)
Instructions
1) In a 1 gallon zip lock bag combine: 3 T soy sauce, 4 T olive oil, 3 T lemon juice, 2 T Worcestershire sauce, 2 t garlic powder, 1 1/2 T dry basil, 2 t dry parsley flakes and 1/2 t white pepper.2) Trim your steaks of extra fat. Add the steaks to the bag, squeeze out the air and mush the steaks around to get them coated well. Refrigerate for 2 to 8 hours. Longer should be fine.3) Remove from the marinade and discard the marinade. Grill as usual.
Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 2 hour Total time: 2 hour 5 mins Yield: 2 servings

Updated

June 14 2013

Dan Mikesell

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