Sweet Sunday: carrot cake

Carrot cake is my favourite British cake. I guess it’s got a lot to do with that yummy combination of cinnamon, all spice, orange and caramel flavours that blend and tease my taste buds. I also like the fact that it’s made with wholegrain flour because I don’t really eat anything made with the white one.

Carrot cake was my Everest for a very long time. I’ve tried numerous recipes, but nothing ever worked and totally killed my enthusiasm for a while.

However, a couple of months ago I decided to give it another go. I found this recipe that had all the original carrot cake ingredients including the wholegrain flour, brown sugar, orange peel and nuts and a better version of the icing (I don’t like butter-based icings). It worked! Not only that – it tasted lovely, too. The only problem I had was the sweetness level. I don’t do very sweet cakes (or desserts in general). To understand what sort of sweetness I find tolerable, just think of a 90% cocoa chocolate or, in fruit equivalent, mango. This is perfect sweetness for me. Anything else is too sweet.

As a result I have changed my recipe slightly to reduce the amount and quality of sugar without losing the deliciousness of the cake. I’ve also reduced the amount of oil a little – it didn’t affect the quality of the cake at all. Additionally, I played with the quantities of spices to suit my taste (I prefer more cinnamon than all spice unless it’s Christmas), didn’t include any coconut and used plain flour rather than self-raising (always do as I don’t believe in a need for raising flour). I made the icing with half-fat crème fraiche (the one I use doesn’t have any thickeners, it’s still 100% milk) because I find that the slightly lighter texture is more pleasant to taste (the original version was a bit too rich). Do remember to use organic ingredients whenever possible, especially when it comes to dairy and eggs.

Not only I chose to make it for my little birthday celebration, I also managed to photograph the actual cake before it disappeared. Smiles all around, I’d say.

CARROT CAKE

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CAKE

2 large organic eggs

125ml EV olive oil

145g raw light brown muscovado sugar or, even better, light brown muscovado sugar and organic rapadura sugar (I use 50/50)

200g organic wholegrain flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp all spice

1 tsp organic bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp organic baking powder

50g organic sultanas

200g organic carrots, peeled and coarsely grated

1 organic orange, zest only, finely grated

50g organic walnuts, chopped

FOR THE ICING

250g organic mascarpone

250g organic crème fraiche

1 tbsp rapadura sugar (you can use raw light brown sugar but mix it in longer to dissolve the grains)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 vanilla bean, seeds only

50g organic walnuts, chopped

DIRECTIONS

• Pre-heat the oven to 170C fan. Grease 2 18-20cm cake tins and line them with grease-proof paper.
• In a large bowl mix together the flour, spices, baking soda and baking powder.
• In a separate bowl mix together the oil, sugar and eggs and whisk with an electric whisk for 2-3 minutes until combined.
• Add dry ingredients to the oil and egg mixture. Then mix in the carrots, orange peel, nuts and raisins.
• Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 30 minutes (for 20cm tins) or 35 (for 18cm tins) until risen, springy to touch and a tooth pick inserted in a center comes out clean.
• Leave to cool the cakes in tins.
• Once the cake is ready to assemble, make the icing by whisking together the mascarpone, crème fraiche, vanilla, sugar and cinnamon until combined.
• Ice the cake, decorate with chopped walnuts and leave to rest in the fridge overnight.

Bon Appetite!

Photo source: personal