Everyone has flavors they love and Ina Garten’s no different. The Barefoot Contessa host’s Carrot Cake With Ginger Mascarpone Frosting includes two of her favorites. Hint: One of them is a Barefoot Contessa classic Garten makes at home.
Ina Garten likes to ‘turn up the volume’ on her flavors
Ina Garten | Brad Barket/Getty Images for The New Yorker
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The Barefoot Contessa has a lot of catchphrases. “Isn’t that fabulous?,” “How easy is that?,” and “Store-bought is fine,” are some of her most popular. But those aren’t her only ones. Watch enough episodes of Garten’s cooking show and notice she also has a habit of saying, “Turn up the volume.” The 73-year-old likes to “turn up the volume” on her flavors.
Garten’s known for creating simple recipes but she always wants them to be packed with flavor. She often uses coffee to make chocolate taste more intense in desserts. The Barefoot Contessa also roasts chicken with the skin on for better-tasting chicken salad.
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Garten adds two of her favorite flavors to make for what she’d call a “fabulous” carrot cake. On Barefoot Contessa: Cook Like a Pro Season 10 Episode 5: “Birthday Boat Party,” she made an elevated version of the classic recipe.
Preparing the batter for her Carrot Cake With Ginger Mascarpone Frosting, the cookbook author let fans in on some of her favorite flavors. While adding the wet and dry ingredients together, Garten referred to cinnamon and vanilla as “two of my favorite flavors,” according to a video on The Food Network’s YouTube channel.
Garten doesn’t just like any old vanilla extract. She bakes with “good” vanilla. What does that mean? In Barefoot Contessa-speak it means vanilla of the highest quality. Garten’s recommended vanilla brand is Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon pure vanilla extract. She also makes homemade vanilla extract, something she’s been doing for nearly 40 years.
