Carrot Cake Cream Cheese Swirl Bundt Cake

The week between Christmas and New Year. The house emptied gradually. Kai, Danielle, and Tommy left Saturday morning to drive back to Albuquerque. Luna and Cole left Sunday afternoon. River and Lucia stayed through Monday because Lucia wanted to do a winter sample series — soil samples in the cold are different from soil samples in the summer, she explained, and she'd been wanting to capture the dormant-season profile. They worked for two days while Hannah and I recovered from Christmas.

Recovery is the right word. The hosting cost something. By Sunday night I was on the porch with my feet up and my eyes half-closed and Hannah was on the couch with a book she wasn't reading. We didn't talk for an hour. Then Hannah said: that was a good Christmas. I said: it was. She said: I'm tired. I said: yeah. She said: but a good tired. I said: the best kind.

Tuesday I made a pot of stock from the turkey carcass — the wild turkey carcass, which makes a darker, richer stock than store-bought, the bones full of marrow and the meat that clings to them full of flavor from the brine and the long roast. Three quarts of finished stock, jarred and frozen. The stock is the foundation of soup season — it'll be in everything from now until April.

Made a vegetable soup with the stock Wednesday. Carrots from the storage room (we'd harvested them in October and put them in damp sand in the cool basement), onions, celery from the freezer, kale from the garden which is still producing, a few of the dried beans, and a handful of barley. Cooked for two hours. Served with bean bread. Hannah ate two bowls. I ate two and a half. The half went down before I could be embarrassed about it.

Caleb came Saturday. We didn't do much. We sat on the porch with coffee. He showed me pictures of the pottery class on his phone — the things he's made. Six small bowls, two mugs, a tile. He said: I'm thinking about giving them as gifts to people. I said: which people. He said: Macy. Hannah. Lily. Terry. Maybe Sarah at NA. Maybe Art. I said: do it. He said: yeah. He said: I've been making things for forty-two years, sober for eleven of them, and I'm fifty-three years old and I just realized I never made anything to give. I said: you're making them now. He said: yeah. The tone was not regret. It was wonder. He said it with wonder.

We had the carrots — the ones we’d pulled in October and nested in damp sand in the cool basement — and after two days of soup I wanted to do something that felt a little like celebration without requiring anything complicated. Caleb was coming Saturday. He’d been sober eleven years and was just now learning to make things for other people, and I thought: I can make something too. The bundt cake came together Thursday afternoon while Hannah read on the couch and the house smelled like cinnamon and warm sugar and almost felt like the whole week had been building toward something gentle.

Prep Time: 25 minutes | Cook Time: 55 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

Cream Cheese Swirl:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Carrot Cake Batter:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup neutral oil (such as canola or vegetable)
1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt or sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups finely grated fresh carrots (about 4 medium carrots)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2–3 tablespoons milk or cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Prepare the pan. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 10- or 12-cup bundt pan very thoroughly with softened butter, then dust with flour, tapping out any excess. Set aside.
Make the cream cheese swirl. Beat the softened cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar together until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until fully combined. Set aside.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
Mix the wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until combined. Whisk in the oil, yogurt, and vanilla until smooth.
Combine and fold in carrots. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined — do not overmix. Fold in the grated carrots and nuts if using.
Layer the batter and swirl. Pour half the carrot batter into the prepared bundt pan. Spoon the cream cheese mixture evenly over the batter in a ring, keeping it away from the edges. Pour the remaining carrot batter over the top and smooth gently.
Bake. Bake for 50–58 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the thickest part comes out clean. The top should spring back lightly when pressed. Do not underbake.
Cool and unmold. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then carefully invert onto the rack. Allow to cool completely before glazing — at least 1 hour.
Make the glaze. Whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth and pourable. Drizzle over the cooled cake. Let set 10 minutes before slicing.

Nutrition (per serving)

Carrot Cake Cream Cheese Swirl Bundt Cake — Something Sweet for the Quiet Days After