Quasimodogeniti Carrot Cake

History

The greatest week of all Christian celebrations, the eight-day Octave of Easter is widely celebrated around the world with lots of festive recipes and traditions. Lamb, ham, hot-cross buns, eggs, potatoes, tarts, pies, and more all make up the list of popular Easter dishes that Christians eat on Easter Sunday and throughout the ensuing week of festivities.

The recipe that we are sharing with you today has also become a widely popular Easter and spring-time dessert and is something we know your family and friends will love!

Carrot Cake

Although the origins of carrot cake are unknown, recipes for the dessert date back as far as the Middle Ages. At that time, sugar and sweeteners were much harder to come by, so carrots were often used as a substitute.

What we understand now to be the modern carrot cake likely evolved from carrot pudding, which was a pumpkin pie-like pastry popular in Europe from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, consisting of a crumb crust filled with carrot pudding and topped with icing. By the eighteenth century, we see documentation of carrot cake being baked in loaf pans and becoming a more dense dessert with various fillers incorporated into the batter (i.e. raisins, dates, walnuts, pecans, pineapple, and applesauce).

Carrot cake found its way into the canon of traditional Easter recipes around the same time, with Christians from Hungary to the United States serving this dessert at their dinner tables during the festive season.

The particular recipe that you’ll see below is a family favorite and uses a variety of packaged ingredients like yellow cake mix, instant pudding, and orange juice. It should be noted, however, that it would be easy to substitute these things out for more common ingredients—such as flour, sugar, and milk—in order to achieve a similar (and equally tasty) result.

With its long history as an Easter dish, carrot cake is an appropriate traditional dish for any day of the Paschal Octave, from Easter Sunday all the way to Quasimodogeniti. So we hope you enjoy this recipe and don’t forget to celebrate the full length of the Easter Octave with your family and friends!

Carrot Cake Recipe

Ingredients

1 box yellow cake mix

1 package vanilla instant pudding

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ cup oil

4 eggs

⅔ cup orange juice

3 cups grated carrots

½ cup raisins

½ chopped pecans (or walnuts)

1 recipe Orange Cream Cheese Frosting (see below)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two cake rounds.
2. Combine the cake mix, instant pudding, and cinnamon together using a whisk or fork, mixing well.
3. Add the oil, eggs, and orange juice to a large bowl and beat using an electric mixer.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, beating all the ingredients together for 1 minute on low speed, then 3 minutes on medium speed.
5. Add the carrots, raisins, and pecans to the batter and mix until well incorporated.
6. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and lightly tap them to remove any air bubbles.
7. Bake the cakes at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the pans comes out clean.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick butter, softened

8 oz cream cheese, softened

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

2-3 tablespoons orange juice

1 tablespoon orange rind, grated

Instructions:

1. Beat butter, cream cheese, and 1 cup confectioners’ sugar with an electric mixer until blended.
2. Add the remaining sugar and orange juice (to taste), beating until it is well blended and without lumps.
3. Add the orange rind and beat at medium speed until the icing is at spreading consistency.

Assembly

1. Allow the cakes to cool completely before frosting. Spread a thin layer of frosting over the first cake. Flip the second cake layer upside down over the first and finish frosting. Decorate with more nuts (optional).