Tag Archives: Nancy Silverton recipe

The Richest Tasting Carrot Cake — Ever

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Destined to be your ultimate carrot cake recipe.
Destined to be your ultimate carrot cake recipe.

This might very well be the most decadent carrot cake you’ll ever taste.

Picture moist cake with deep, lasting flavor from not just grated carrots, but roasted ones, too. Then, smothered with gobs and gobs of thick frosting made with a ton of browned butter and a load of cream cheese.

You’d expect no less from Nancy Silverton, right?

“Carrot Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting” is from her cookbook, “The Cookie That Changed My Life” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2023), of which I received a review copy.

Silverton, the baker extraordinaire who pioneered the artisan bread movement in Los Angeles, is the only chef to ever be awarded both the “Outstanding Chef” and “Outstanding Pastry Chef” awards from the James Beard Foundation. She is the co-owner of Osteria Mozza, Pizzeria Mozza, and Chi Spacca, all in Los Angeles.

She wrote the book with James Beard Award-sinning journalist, Carolynn Carreno.

The cookbook contains more than 100 recipes, all of them classics that Silverton has tweaked and refined over the years, to come up with the version she considers the most delicious and satisfying.

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Nancy Silverton’s Polenta Cake with Brutti Ma Buoni Topping

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A cake for nut lovers.

A cake for nut lovers.

 

Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don’t.

In my case, I always do. I’m the person who won’t even dive into a box of See’s candies unless it’s “nuts and chews.” For me, it’s M&M’s with nuts all the way. And I can happily munch on almonds by the handful, day or night.

This is a cake that appeals to nutty folks like me.

“Polenta Cake with Brutti Ma Buoni Topping” is from “Mozza At Home” (Knopf), of which I received a review copy. It’s the newest cookbook by Nancy Silverton, the chef who helped kick-start the modern-day artisan bread revolution. She’s also the chef/co-owner of Pizzeria Mozza, Osteria Mozza, and Chi Spacca, all in Los Angeles.

As Silverton writes in the book, this cake is the happy marriage of a classic polenta cake, and a traditional meringue and nut cookie called brutti ma buoni, which means “ugly but good.”

Crunch-a-licious.

Crunch-a-licious.

Personally, I prefer “distinctive” over “ugly” because I think that’s what this bumpy-topped cake is, owing to a profusion of almonds and hazelnuts mixed with egg white, honey, vanilla and orange flower water that’s strewn over the cake before it finishes baking.

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