On a Friday in January, I had the great pleasure and privilege of consuming The Best Carrot Cake In The Entire World. It was a good start to 2015, to say the least.
The cake was inconceivably moist. It wasn’t too sweet, and it was full of texture. Never have I ever.
Ming Lim, the general manager of Billy’s Bakery in Chelsea, New York, told me the cake’s near-impossible, perfectly dense crumb comes from the big chunks of pineapple, raisins* and carrots that are plopped into the batter. Pecans are also added to the mix, and placed atop the icing, too. You can spot each important ingredient in the cross-section above. I visited the small shop over the weekend to get to the bottom of the cake I still can’t stop talking about.
Lim wouldn’t offer much information that could help me replicate the cake at home. “It’s a secret,” he laughed. Some things are better left sacred, I’ll have to rationalize. Neither the cake nor cupcake version contain any preservatives — the batter is made up of good old-fashioned butter and sugar — which explains the confection’s limited shelf life. By the bakery’s standards, the cupcakes tend to last anywhere from one to three days. He didn’t mention the shelf life of the cake, but I can’t imagine it lasting long. Lim says Billy’s prides itself on freshness, so once an unsold cupcake becomes even slightly hardened, it’s either tossed in the trash or sold at half price.
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Get the Carrot Cake Trifle recipe from Brown Eyed Baker
Get the Carrot Cake Gooey Bars recipe from Life, Love & Sugar
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