This is a lovely cake, squidgy and wet (‘wet’ being the word I’m campaigning for to replace the hateful ‘moist’). I call ‘dog’s breakfast’, after the perfectly logical (to me) train of thought: Venetian Doge – dog – dog’s breakfast.
I stumbled upon this recipe recently and I was amazed to find I didn’t know everything yet about carrot cakes. It featured in Nigella Lawson’s Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home and she alleges it was a carrot cake version ‘made by Venetian Jews in the original ghetto’ which preceded the modern day, cream cheese frosted American beauty.
I’m very suspicious about it: google it and the only hits are Nigella’s and copycats’. Also it quite beats me why there are carrots in it: they somehow seem totally non-Venetian foodstuffs. Plus, the Carrot Museum makes no mention of Venice on the page dedicated to the cake and you’d think they’d know a thing or two.
I bet she just made it up, both the recipe and the story. And I don’t blame her at all – it’s absolutely good and gluten-free which might be a plus for some.