There’s something about a carrot cake that makes it irresistible. Maybe it’s this wonderful combination of spices, creamy icing and warm colour. Or maybe, like this recipe, it’s quite easy to make. It could also be the lovely smell that fills the house when baking. Or simply because it’s freakin’ delicious! It’s a straight forward recipe and you can try and experiment with different spices (like ground cloves or cardamom). The ‘dairy-free’ tag obviously doesn’t apply for the icing, but the cake itself is as I use oil instead of butter. At the end of the recipe you’ll an option if you’re allergic to carrots.
Ingredients
Difficulty
- 450 gr carrots
- 300 gr self-raising flour
- 300 gr sugar
- 250 ml sunflower oil
- 4 eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1,5 teaspoon cinnamon
- 50 gr crystallized ginger
- 100 gr pecan nuts
- 100 gr raisins
- 300 gr cream
- 300 gr mascarpone
- 2 tablespoons icing sugar
- Grated peel and juice of one orange
Directions
- Preheat the oven at 190°C. Peel and grate the carrots, finely chop the ginger, roughly crush the pecan nuts, grate the peel and squeeze the orange.
- Combine the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, baking powder and salt together (If needed pass through a sieve).
- Whisk the sugar and oil. Whisk in the eggs one at a time.
- Gradually add the flour to the mixture.
- Add the grated carrots, pecan nuts, raisins, chopped ginger and mix well.
- Oil or butter a round baking tray and pour in the batter. Bake in the oven for about an hour. If you insert a tooth pick and it comes out clean then your cake is done.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
- Whip the mascarpone and icing sugar until smooth.
- Add the cream, orange juice and orange peel and whip until the mixture begins to stiffen.
- Once the cake is completely cooled, cut it in half. Spread two thirds of the cream on the bottom half, cover with the top half and spread the rest of the cream.
- Make a cup of tea, cut a generous slice and enjoy!
Allergic to carrots? You can substitute them with equal amount of zucchini!
Make it ‘zestier’ Replace the orange juice and peel with juice of half a lime and peel of a whole one.
