Sometimes when people find out that I like to bake, they assume that I have great knife skills, can whip up fresh tomato sauce, and know how to fillet a fish. “Oh,” they say, “you’re a cook! That’s so cool.”

No. It would be very cool if I were a cook, but alas, I’m scared of the big chopping knife, I have no idea how to make tomato sauce from scratch, and I can poorly fillet a fish (just barely.) I am a baker, even though I’d love to expand my abilities.

My parents, on the other hand, they are good cooks. My father is the sort of person whose shopping cart is filled with eggs, butter, fresh produce, and milk, never frozen dinners or Hamburger Helper. The kind of person who cooks salmon and mushroom roulade without a recipe and gets asked to do dinner parties.

My mom, too, has her specialties. The limited Chinese terms my father knows are all for describing the foods she makes. Her rice is the best we’ve ever had, anywhere. Her pot stickers are so perfect that when one of my friends said she loved Dragon Wok’s dumplings, I forced her to come to dinner so she could see what she was missing. And unlike my father, the cook, and me, the baker, mother’s favorite is something unique: bread.

My mother ate like a bird as a child. She loathed meat, hated most vegetables, and didn’t care for fruit. Instead, she bought freshly baked bread on the way home from school and ate the whole loaf herself. When she moved to this country and was first introduced to my father’s family, the only thing she ate was mashed potatoes and dinner rolls. To a group of thick steak and buttered greens loving foodies, this was unimaginable, prompting my grandfather to title her the Carbohydrate Queen.

My mom eats basically everything now, but she still loves bread best. And so it was she who baked these delicious rolls with freshly grated carrots. Me, I’m scared of yeast. But my mother, she’s fearless.

On another note, thank you to Eliana of A Chica Bakes for passing the Friendship Award onto me. It’s so sweet! I have to pass it on to 8 other bloggers…

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.”

Thanks to all of these bloggers for supporting 17 and Baking, and inspiring me with their delicious creations.

- Amanda of Is This Thing On?
- Marta of Just Call Me Marta
- Alicia of Bakeaholic
- Alana of The Good Girl Gone Blog
- Darina of Gratinee
- Jenny of Raising Our Kids in America…
- Danica of Think It, Bake It
- Kristen of Dine and Dish (A special thank you for hosting the Adopt-A-Blogger event… More on this later!)

They look like pretty standard dinner rolls besides the attractive orange flecks of carrot throughout. These rolls are crusty and chewy, with a spongy crumb. They come out of the oven beautifully golden, and are perfect with soup, butter, or really anything else you’d care to pair it with.

The recipe is pretty flexible – sub the grated carrot for another vegetable (like beet), replace it with chopped herbs, or omit the carrots and use cooked onion instead. The book also recommends working cooked vegetable puree into the dough… Make it your own.

I am also submitting these rolls into YeastSpotting. Yummy!

Carrot-Flecked Diner Rolls
Adapted from The Bread Bible
Makes 12 rolls

2 tsp dry yeast
1 1/4 cups water
3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp salt
1/2 lb carrots, grated
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
Poppyseeds

Sprinkle the yeast into 1/2 cup of the water. Sit for 5 minutes, then stir to dissolve.

Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Form a well in the center and pour in the dissolved yeast. Add the grated carrots and melted butter and mix all together. Stir in the remaining water to form a moist, crumbly dough.

Knead the dough until smooth but still sticky on a lightly floured surface, about 10 minutes.

Put the dough in a clean bowl and cover with a clean towel. Let rise until it’s doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Punch down and let rest 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Shape the dough into 12 balls and arrange, just touching, into a pan. (We put 8 rolls in a 9″ cake pan and the remaining 4 in a small, square pan.) Proof until the balls double in size, about 30 minutes. Brush the tops of the rolls with the beaten egg, then sprinkle poppy seeds on top.

Bake about 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown and sound hollow when the bottom is tapped. Cool on a wire rack.

Printer Friendly Version – Mom’s Carrot-Flecked Dinner Rolls

[I'm a bit embarrassed to be posting something that I didn't make, but I didn't want to take credit for my Mom's delicious work. These days I'm trying to be responsible and start that studying... I promise I'll still post throughout May, even with tests every other day! When you're passionate about something, you make time for it. Consider mom my first guest blogger.]

This blog has gone through some changes.

New layout, new style of posts, even a new name. It’s all an attempt to get inspired again about having a food blog. I know I haven’t posted since August and honestly, it’s because I was a little frustrated. I’m about as amateur as you can get, which is okay because it’s about learning and enjoying the experience. But when you’re trying to take photos for your blog and are finding natural lighting and good quality photos impossible, you get discouraged. I don’t have photoshop, a special niche, or a cool theme. I don’t create my own recipes or possess remarkable presentation skills. I’ve never catered a party or baked for anyone besides my family and friends. So I felt like this blog, even if the photos were decent and the recipes were good, would never get noticed.

Which might be true.

But hopefully that shouldn’t matter to me. I like to bake. I love to bake. It’s the most relaxing, soothing, enjoyable hobby I’ve ever had, even if I’m not an expert. So I’m going to continue this blog and if anyone besides me benefits from it, all the more better! :) That said, it’s great to start blogging again.

Phew! Thanks for staying with me. Maybe you’re just sticking around for the recipe.

When I began to follow food blogs, one of the things that surprised me most was the absolute hate that Martha Stewart gets. I don’t care for her much as a person, but her recipes are always reliable and well worth the effort for me. My dad knows a new Martha Stewart cookbook is the best way to make me smile. I can’t help it, I trust her! This cake was no exception. Moist, flavorful, and best of all, light! The texture was great and it was the perfect sweetness. Officially the best carrot cake I’ve ever had.

Ginger Carrot Cake
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living
Makes one 2 layer 8″ or 9″ cake

3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup halved pecans, toasted (optional)*
1 lb large carrots, peeled
3 large eggs (room temperature)
1/3 cup buttermilk (nonfat can be used)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp ground cinnamon

Butter and flour two 8 or 9 inch pans and preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Chop the pecans finely and grate the carrots, about 2 1/2 cups total. You can use a food processor when you’re in a hurry, but I find grating them by hand (using the smallest holes) gives a lighter and definitely better texture.

Whisk the carrots, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, sugar, vegetable oil, and ginger in a large bowl until well combined. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold the flour mixture into the carrot mixture, taking care not to over-mix. Fold in the pecans.

Divide the batter into the two pans and bake about an hour, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cakes cool 15 minutes in their pans on a rack, then gently turn out and cool to room temperature before leveling and frosting.

* It isn’t vital to toast the pecans, but does add something: arrange the pecans in a single layer on an ungreased baking sheet and toast in a 375 degree oven until golden, about seven minutes.

Ginger-Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
Frosts a 2 layer 8″ or 9″ cake

12 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
5 tbsp butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp fresh, finely grated ginger
1 tbsp orange juice

Beat cream cheese and butter with the paddle attachment of an electric mixer until smooth, then add powdered sugar. Mix on low for 30 seconds, then add ginger and orange juice. Beat on medium speed until light, fluffy, and well combined.

Assembly: Unless your cakes are pretty flat or you’re going for a rustic look, use a serrated knife to level each cake. Spread 3/4 cup frosting between the layers and use the remaining frosting on all the sides and the top. If you wanted, you could cut each layer in half horizontally for a four layer cake, using less frosting between layers. Cake decorating is a definite weak area for me, I can never get it smooth! I used food coloring to tint the leftover frosting green and orange and used a plastic ziplock bag to pipe carrots.

Printer Friendly Version – Ginger Carrot Cake

My mom and I ate the whole thing. Yum.