A Carrot Cake with Personality (and Crunch! and Style!)

Tra-la-la, it's The Fall Cookbook Cake Parade: a new cake from a new cookbook every single day. Are your costumes cake pans ready?

Today: "Loaf" might sound humble—but you've never seen Everything I Want to Eat author Jessica Koslow's version.

Jessica Koslow’s Carrot-Ginger Black Sesame Bread

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The modest loaf! Loaf. It doesn't sound dainty—or particularly interesting. It does sound like something you might want to lean heavily against, like sofa.

But loaf hardly applies to this little cake. It's the opposite of clunky, the other end of the spectrum from dense or dry or heavy. Instead, it's all moist and tender, tender as though the crumbs were threaded together by carrots, and just barely gingery. The top is pavé with a good two tablespoons of black sesame seeds: "The more sesame seeds you can put on top of this loaf, the better," writes Jessica Koslow, author of Everything I Want to Cook and mastermind behind the Los Angeles restaurant Sqirl:

"It can get crumbly, but it’s good for you because you get to eat all the crumbs. Also, I’d be playing tricks on you if I didn’t tell you that this treat is the perfect color combination for Halloween."

Just don't wait until Halloween to make it, okay? (It would make a great breakfast cake, if you need a place to start.)

Jessica Koslow’s Carrot-Ginger Black Sesame Bread

View Recipe

Ingredients

1/2	cup (120ml) vegetable oil, plus more for the pan
2	cups (250g) all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
1 1/2	teaspoons baking powder
2	teaspoons ground cinnamon
2/3	cup (135g) granulated sugar
2/3	cup (145g) packed brown sugar
1/2	cup (120ml) unsweetened applesauce
1/3	cup (80ml) almond milk
1	2-inch (5-cm) piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
1	teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4	teaspoon fine sea salt
2	large carrots (7 ounces/200g total), coarsely grated
2	tablespoons black sesame seeds, plus more as needed

1/2	cup (120ml) vegetable oil, plus more for the pan
2	cups (250g) all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
1 1/2	teaspoons baking powder
2	teaspoons ground cinnamon
2/3	cup (135g) granulated sugar
2/3	cup (145g) packed brown sugar
1/2	cup (120ml) unsweetened applesauce

1/3	cup (80ml) almond milk
1	2-inch (5-cm) piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
1	teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4	teaspoon fine sea salt
2	large carrots (7 ounces/200g total), coarsely grated
2	tablespoons black sesame seeds, plus more as needed

Reprinted with permission from Everything I Want to Eat.