Cardamom-Pistachio Carrot Cake

When carrot cake meets carrot halwa, the milky, long-cooking, spoonably-soft confection common in South Asia, you get the eighth recipe in the Basically Guide to Better Baking. Raisins, cinnamon, and cream cheese frosting get the boot and brown-butter pistachios, cardamom, and sticky carrot glaze take center stage. For the best possible cake, make sure that your eggs are at room temperature (cold eggs can't whip up to the same volume) and take your time when streaming the butter into the whipped egg and sugar mixture—you want to create a creamy emulsion, as when making a vinaigrette. If you go too quickly, you’ll end up with a greasy batter. More questions? Ask them in our forum!