Date: 21/10/12
Background: We (Me and Stacey) are proper getting into this baking lark! We are enjoying our weekend free time by baking all sorts of yummy things! I recently brought back all my cookery books from back in Rugby, and one of these was Jamie Oliver: COOK with Jamie- My Guide To Making You A Better Cook. If you hadn’t guessed the recipe for this cake came from this book.
ALSO, with this being the last day of National Baking Week, this amazing cake is our contribution!
What: A Rather Pleasing Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing
How Much?: If I am honest it was probably a slightly more expensive cake than I am used to making because I had to buy extra ingredients to those that I normally have in my store cupboard. So I actually ended up spending about £10….
Ingredients:
- 285g/10oz unsalted butter, softened
- 285g/10oz light brown soft sugar
- 5 large free-range/organic eggs, separated
- Zest and juice of 1 orange
- 170g/6oz self-raising flour, sifted
- 1 slightly heaped tsp baking powder
- 115g/4oz ground almonds
- 115g/4oz shelled walnuts, chopped, plus a handful for serving
- 1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
- A pinch ground cloves
- A pinch ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 285g/10oz carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
- A pinch of sea salt
To decorate:
- 115g/4oz mascarpone cheese
- 225g/8oz full-fat cream cheese
- 85g icing sugar, sifted
- Zest and juice of 2 limes
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4
- Grease and line a 22cm/9inch square cake tin/round equivalent
- Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy
- Beat in the egg yolks 1 by 1, add in the orange juice and zest and st ir
- Stir in the sifted flour and baking powder
- Add the ground almonds, walnuts, spices and grated carrot and mix together well
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff
- Gently fold the stiff egg whites into the cake mix (use a metal spoon)
- Scoop the mix into a prepared cake tin and cook in a preheated oven for around 50mins until golden and risen
- Check the cake using a cocktail stick (or a skewer or in this case a long pronged fork) by spearing the centre of the cake, wait for 5secs and if it comes out clean it is cooked! If slightly sticky put back into the oven
- Leave the cake to cool in the tin for at least 10mins, then turn out onto a cake rack for at least an hour
- Mix all the icing ingredients together and spread generously on top of the cake and sprinkle with chopped walnuts
What was Good: *cries with pure happiness*. Out of all the cakes I have ever made, this delicious stupendous utterly luxurious carrot cake was beyond the best. The cake was so so moist, but the texture of the walnuts within it added a surprising crunch and beautiful flavour. I believe the moistness mainly comes from very clever addition of ground almonds, and the airiness from a combination of ingredients (baking powder, SR flour) but also clever technique (whisked egg whites folded in). There was a really nice amount of carrot within it also. At first I wasn’t sure if the delicious tangy lime mascarpone icing would be too sickly, but with the cake it was a wonderful combination and worked very well together. The flavour was very subtle from the spices, but they came, especially the nutmeg, as a scented after note. I cannot rave about this cake enough. Honestly. No Joke. Thank you Jamie Oliver you beauty!
What was Bad: NOTHING. Literally. Even though we would probably add an extra tsp of spices next time, it is not like the flavour wasn’t there! But we seriously could not think of another improvement. Expect this whole beast to be gone within a few hours!!!
Waffle-O-Meter:
(With more spice it would receive even more waffles!!!!)
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